Scott’s $72 million, 4-year contract finalized by Dodgers, who spent $452 million on 8 players

Reliever Tanner Scott’s $72 million, four-year contract was finalized Thursday by the Los Angeles Dodgers, raising the World Series champions’ offseason spending to $452 million on eight players.

The left-hander was a first-time All-Star last year, going 9-6 with a 1.75 ERA and 22 saves in 24 chances for Miami and San Diego, which acquired Scott on July 30. He struck out 84 and walked 36 in 72 innings.

“It’s going to be a really exciting year. There’s a great group of guys,” Scott said during his introduction at Dodger Stadium. “They keep adding people and it’s awesome to see and I’m ready to be a part of it. Whenever the (bullpen) phone rings, I’m ready to go. I just want to win.”

The 30-year-old is 31-24 with a 3.56 ERA and 55 saves for Baltimore (2017-21), Miami (2022-24) and San Diego.

“He’s someone that we have watched and admired from afar over the years and have tried to acquire multiple times, even last year as well and we failed to do so,” general manager Brandon Gomes said, “and unfortunately, we got to see it far too up close and personal in the DS and we are glad to be on this side of it today.”

After winning their second title in five years, the Dodgers kept utilityman Tommy Edman with a $74 million, five-year contract, outfielder Teoscar Hernández with a $66 million three-year deal and right-hander Blake Treinen for $22 million over two years.

Los Angeles has added Scott, left-hander Blake Snell ($182 million for five years), outfielder Michael Conforto ($17 million for one season) and second baseman Hyeseong Kim ($12.5 million for three years), and also agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Roki Sasaki for a $6.5 million signing bonus.

“Going into this offseason it was ‘Let’s do everything we can on the front end,’” said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. “’Let’s be as aggressive as we can and be in a position where we don’t have to go to market in July.’”

During the 2023-24 offseason, Los Angeles committed more than $1.3 billion to five players: two-way star Shohei Ohtani ($700 million for 10 years), right-handers Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million for 12 years) and Tyler Glasnow ($136,562,500 for five years), Hernández ($23.5 million for one year) and catcher Will Smith ($140 million for 10 years).

In addition, the Dodgers owed release fees to Japanese clubs of $50,625,000 for Yamamoto and $1,625,000 for Sasaki.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB