Former San Francisco Giants starter Blake Snell is joining the reigning world champion Los Angeles Dodgers on a five-year deal worth $182 million, which he tipped off on his Instagram late Tuesday night. The massive deal comes after Snell spent a rollercoaster ride of a season in San Francisco on a contract with a unique clause that has the Giants paying Snell millions to play them now.

When Snell signed with the Giants in mid-March, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Snell’s full $17 million signing bonus would be deferred until January 2026. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst, but have separate newsrooms.) $15 million in salary in 2024, but he’s still slated to get the full signing bonus next winter — meaning the southpaw would get a salary from the Giants AFTER his first full season with the Dodgers.

Several MLB insiders are still reporting the details of Snell’s Dodgers contract, but according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times, Snell will receive a $52 million signing bonus from the Dodgers and defer $60 million of his salary. It’s entirely possible that the Giants will pay Snell more money than the Dodgers in 2026.

It’s a fitting closing note for the 2023 NL Cy Young winner’s short and difficult stint in the orange and black. The first few months went as bad as you can imagine, with Snell either out of the rotation (due to being injured, first with an adductor strain and then a groin injury) or being knocked to the mound while throwing shade at the Giants.

But when Snell returned to the Majors in July while sporting a 9.51 ERA in just 23.2 innings through his first six starts, he showed he was the superstar everyone was hoping for. In his last 14 starts, Snell went 5-0 with a 1.23 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 80.1 innings and even threw his first career no-hitter on August 2 in Cincinnati.

The Giants and then-president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi did not dump Snell at the trade deadline despite interest in baseball, with Zaidi saying afterward that he thought the team had the “best rotation in baseball.” While Snell did his part, the rest of the team did not as the Giants once again fell into a pit of mediocrity.

With Zaidi fired and Buster Posey taking over, the Giants will have to deal with the aftermath of the Snell deal – including the loss of their third-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and a significant portion of their international bonus pool money – as they face Snell up to four times a year on the mound.

But hey, at least Madison Bumgarner is thinking about returning to the Giants organization?