The Los Angeles Dodgers’ offseason has hardly gone as planned, with Zack Greinke stunning the baseball world to join the Arizona Diamondbacks, and a trade for Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman being put on pause after a report surfaced of his involvement in an alleged domestic violence incident.
While some of it may have been due to their own doing, the Dodgers also failed to sign Johhny Cueto and Jeff Samardzjia, who both joined the San Francisco Giants.
Los Angeles did appear to address their starting pitching need in some regard by reaching a three-year, $45 million agreement with Hisashi Iwakuma.
The deal was first reported on Dec. 6, but has yet to be made official by the club. An explanation for that is Iwakuma failed his physical, as Kazuto Yamazaki translated from the Jiji Press:
Jiji Press reporting the Dodgers backing out from Iwakuma after failed physical. https://t.co/JJ3MMEmWxI
— Kazuto Yamazaki (@Kazuto_Yamazaki) December 17, 2015
It’s plausible the Dodgers and Iwakuma could reach an agreement to different contract terms in light of the report, or the two parties could simply go their separate ways altogether. According to Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times, the former appears the more likely of the scenarios:
"Inaccurate" to say #Dodgers are out on Iwakuma, I'm told. Perhaps they're reworking the contract?
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) December 17, 2015
Signing Iwakuma would require the Dodgers to forfeit their first-round pick in the 2016 draft as the Japanese native was presented and declined the qualifying offer from the Seattle Mariners.
Iwakuma was 9-5 with a 3.54 ERA, 107 ERA+, 3.74 FIP and 1.06 WHIP last season. He spent six weeks on the disabled list due to a strained lat muscle suffered April 25. Over his four-year career, Iwakuma is 47-25 with a 3.17 ERA, 117 ERA+. 3.62 FIP and 1.06 WHIP.
