After a deal between Japanese born pitcher Hasashi Iwakuma and the Los Angeles Dodgers hit a snag, the right handers former team swooped in and signed the 34-year-old.
Iwakuma had agreed to a three-year deal with the Dodgers worth $45 million nearly two weeks ago after rejecting the Seattl Mariners $15.8 million qualifying offer in October. However a failed physical led to the Dodgers backing out of the deal and opened the door for the Mariners to re-sign one of their rotation stalwarts.
When the Dodgers signed Iwakuma, the Mariners in turn signed Wade Miley. That signing and now the one of Iwakuma has suddenly crowded the teams rotation.
Felix Hernandez, Miley, Taijuan Walker, Nathan Karns, James Paxton and Iwakuma will all scramble for five rotation spots while Vidal Nuno appears headed back to the bullpen. The team also has Mike Montgomery.
“We said from the start that Kuma was a priority for us,” new Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said via MLB. “Obviously, the developments from the last few days allowed us to get back in the game. It’s a credit to our ownership; to Howard Lincoln, to Kevin Mather, to our entire ownership group that we were able to get aggressive and find a way to bring Kuma back to the Mariners. We’re all thrilled. This is a big move for us. We feel like this really puts a finishing touch on what we think has been a very productive offseason.”
The financials of Iwakuma’s deal are not publicly known but what is known is that the includes vesting options for the 2017 and 2018 season.
Since news of the failed physical of Iwakuma broke yesterday the Dodgers have already been linked to Mike Leake and Scott Kazmir.
