Tanner Scott to sign with Dodgers: Los Angeles superteam adds elite reliever on $72 million deal, per report



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High-leverage lefty reliever Tanner Scott has agreed to terms with the Dodgers on a four-year, $72 million free-agent contract, reports MLB.com. The team has not yet confirmed the signing.

Scott is the latest move in a star-studded Dodgers offseason. Most notably, they landed Japanese ace righty Roki Sasaki, who will only cost them a $6.5 million signing bonus given his age (23) and the rules regarding international players. The Dodgers also signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, outfielder Michael Conforto, and Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim. They also re-signed Teoscar Hernández and Blake Treinen, and extended NLCS MVP Tommy Edman long-term.

The Dodgers tend to stay flexible with their bullpen rather than lock someone into the closer’s role — 14 different pitchers got a save for Los Angeles last year, including four pitchers with at least five saves each — so it remains to be seen how Scott will be deployed. For now, manager Dave Roberts’ bullpen looks something like this:

Pitchers on the outside of the rotation looking in (Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Justin Wrobleski, etc.) could also enter the bullpen mix. The Dodgers are baseball’s best team, though they have a very hard time keeping pitchers healthy. They have more MLB-caliber pitchers than roster spots at the moment, and they’ll need most of them. Injuries come with the territory for Los Angeles.

This past season, the right-hander Scott boasted a 1.75 ERA in 72 combined innings for the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres, who acquired him leading up to the trade deadline. Over that span, Scott struck out 84 batters and issued 32 unintentional walks. He also picked up 22 saves and notched his first All-Star selection. Scott isn’t far removed from a 2023 season that saw him top 100 strikeouts – a quite meaningful feat for a contemporary reliever. Scott this past season averaged 97 mph with his fastball, which put him in the 91st percentile among major-league hurlers. 

Earlier in the offseason, CBS Sports ranked Scott as the No. 27 available free agent in the current class. Here’s part of our write-up: 

Scott’s last two seasons have been something to behold. In 150 innings, he’s notched a 2.04 ERA and has struck out more than 31% of the batters he’s faced. Not bad for someone who came into his age-28 season equipped with a 4.61 ERA. Scott has two big-time offerings: a 97 mph rising heater and a devastating slider that generated nearly 40% whiffs in 2024. He has battled his command throughout his career, but otherwise he’s a compelling candidate to be known as the best and nastiest anonymous reliever in the game.

For his career, the 30-year-old Scott has an ERA+ of 125. Over the last two seasons, however, that ERA+ figure is 224. The Dodgers have a history of improving pitchers (Kopech last year is a notable example) and are no doubt hoping that the more recent, upgraded version of Scott prevails moving forward.

FanGraphs estimates the Dodgers’ competitive balance tax payroll at $370 million after the Scott signing. That is well ahead of the second-place New York Mets ($297 million) though not wildly out of line with the $351 million payroll Los Angeles ran in 2024.





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