Blake Snell doesn’t mess around. Scott Boras doesn’t mess around. The Los Angeles Dodgers are not messing around.

As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s comforting to know that the Los Angeles Angels aren’t the only team signing free agents. The five-year, $182 million deal Snell reached with the Dodgers on Tuesday night ranks as the first really big move of the offseason. The deal is pending a physical agreement, and once it is official, its impact will reverberate across the sport.

Let’s start with the World Series champion Dodgers, because everything in baseball these days seems to start with the Dodgers. Their 2025 rotation figures include some combination of Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, as well as a free agent they will almost certainly sign, Clayton Kershaw, and another free agent for whom they are considered the front runner, Roki Sasaki.

None of these pitchers are even close to being a workhorse. But between Snell, the pitchers returning from injuries and possibly Kershaw and Sasaki, the Dodgers are bringing in almost an entirely new set of starters while only subtracting Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty. Of course, given the way they burn pitchers, the Dodgers could still fall short in October.

Ohtani, May and Gonsolin are coming off major elbow surgery. Kershaw is coming off surgery on his left toe and left knee and a season in which he made just seven starts. Yamamoto missed nearly three months due to a strained right rotator cuff. Glasnow did not pitch after August 11 due to elbow tendonitis. And Sasaki, if the Dodgers sign him, will be treated with care; he’s only 23, and his career-high in innings pitched in Japan is 129 1/3.

So the addition of a pitcher like Snell was practically a necessity. And while the Dodgers will remain in the mix for free-agent outfielder Juan Soto, if only to jack up the price for the other bidders, signing him was a gamble from the start. The return of Teoscar Hernández looms as a more realistic possibility. Then the Dodgers can bring back Kiké Hernández, upgrade the bullpen and call it a day.

Snell never threw more than 180 2/3 innings in a season. But by agreeing to terms so quickly, he will at least give himself a better chance at success than last year’s offseason, when he didn’t finalize his deal with the San Francisco Giants until March 19. This time, according to a source briefed on his discussions, Snell’s intention was to “sign as early as possible.”

Smart move. Snell’s abbreviated spring training disrupted him early in the 2024 season and he made two trips to the injured list. But after heating up again in the second half and producing a 1.23 ERA in his last 14 starts, he opted out of his two-year, $62 million contract with the Giants. Now he will essentially end up with the kind of deal he wanted all along.

Add Snell’s $32 million salary last season to his Dodgers guarantee, and he’s looking at $214 million over six years, although some of the new money is deferred. His $36.4 million average salary with the Dodgers would be the fifth highest for a non-Shohei Ohtani pitcher, just ahead of Gerrit Cole. And while Snell has spoken to the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and other clubs, he is from the Seattle area. He preferred to stay on the west coast.

So Snell is winning, and so far in the offseason, his agent Boras is winning too. Last winter’s Boras Four consisted of Snell and three other free agents who signed on February 25 or later and accepted shorter contracts with high average salaries. Two of the four, Snell and third baseman Matt Chapman, have since signed better deals. Chapman agreed to a six-year, $151 million extension with the Giants in early September, bringing his total payout in the two deals to seven years, $171 million.

A third member of the Boras Four, Cody Bellinger, exercised his $27.5 million player option with the Chicago Cubs, and will either remain with the team with a $25 million player option or a $5 million buyout received in 2026. Fourth, left-hander Jordan Montgomery left Boras for Wasserman and exercised his player option with the Arizona Diamondbacks for $22.5 million.

Boras attributed the delays to his signings last offseason to market conditions; a number of teams were concerned about a possible decline in their local TV revenues. These concerns persist at many clubs, but most big-market teams are willing to spend a lot of money. Boras’ free agent class is also bigger and better than a year ago. It behooves him to take players off the board and keep the line moving.

On Monday, Boras reached an agreement with the Angels on a three-year, $63 million contract for free-agent left-hander Yusei Kikuchi. On Tuesday, he closed a deal for Snell that exceeded his four-year forecast of $110 million The Athletics Tim Britton in both height and average annual value. Still to come are Boras: Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso, as well as Sean Manaea and Ha-Seong Kim.

No more hassle. The winter meetings seem to be a Boras Fest, starting with Soto. The Dodgers delivered the first attack on the big market on Tuesday evening. It won’t be the last, not with the Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, among others, set to go.

(Top photo of Blake Snell, left, and his agent Scott Boras: Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)