Left-hander Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a five-year, $182 million contract pending a physical, sources told ESPN on Tuesday evening.

For the Dodgers, Snell gives the World Series champions a front-line starter for their title defense next season after surviving October by relying heavily on their bullpen with only three healthy starters. For Snell, the pact represents a much quicker and satisfying conclusion to his second stint as a free agent.

The $182 million contract is the third largest for a left-handed pitcher in Major League history based on total value, behind only David Price’s with the Boston Red Sox in 2015 ($217 million) and Clayton Kershaw’s with the Dodgers in 2014 ($215 million). .

And for the Dodgers, it’s another huge deal for a free agent. They have now handed out five contracts worth at least $100 million since the start of the 2023-24 offseason – the same number as the rest of the MLB combined.

Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, opted out of the final season of his two-year, $62 million deal with the San Francisco Giants on Nov. 1 to become a free agent for the second straight season.

He joins the Giants’ archrival in Southern California and a rotation that, on paper, is scheduled for 2025. As it stands now, the Dodgers boast Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow plus Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Bobby Miller and Kershaw – should he re-sign for the club as expected – as options to complete the group. The Dodgers are also among the top contenders to sign Japanese star right-hander Roki Sasaki, who is expected to be drafted this winter.

Snell was a 2023 National League Cy Young Award winner with the San Diego Padres — five years after winning American League honors with the Tampa Bay Rays — but his market never came his way. Concerns about inconsistent strike behavior caused his offers to fall short of the six-year, $162 million contract previously obtained by another left-wing power, Carlos Rodon.

Instead, he joined the Giants in late March, missed most of spring training and struggled mightily at the start of the 2024 season. Six starts in, Snell had a 9.51 ERA and went to the injured list with a groin injury. When he returned, Snell performed as one of the game’s top pitchers, finishing 5–3 with a 3.12 ERA and 145 strikeouts (and only 44 walks) in 104 innings over 20 starts, prompting his decision to opt out was a no-brainer.

In 14 starts from early July to late September, the 31-year-old southpaw posted a 1.23 ERA with 114 strikeouts and 30 walks in 80⅓ innings. On August 2, he threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. In eight other instances, he went at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs.

He was sidelined by a left adductor strain between April 19 and May 22 and by a left groin strain between June 2 and July 9.

Snell took the league by storm with the Rays in 2018, leading the majors with 21 wins and trailing the AL with a 1.89 ERA. He was solid over the next four years, continually missing bats at the elite level, but his ERA jumped to 3.85 during that span.

Overall, he is 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA in nine MLB seasons.

The only pitcher in the Majors over the past two seasons with at least 250 innings and a lower ERA than Snell is Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers.

ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.