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

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

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

And for the Dodgers, it’s another big 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 MLB combined.

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

He joins the Giants’ arch-rival in Southern California and, on paper, a rotation that’s well-stocked for 2025. Currently, the Dodgers have Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow, as well as Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Bobby Miller and Kershaw – should he re-sign with the club as expected – as options to round out the group. The Dodgers are also among the top contenders to sign star Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki, who is expected to be deployed this winter.

Snell was the National League Cy Young Award winner with the San Diego Padres in 2023 — five years after he won the American League honor with the Tampa Bay Rays — but his market never materialized to his liking. Concerns over inconsistent strikeouts caused his offers to fall short of the six-year, $162 million contract previously received by another power lefty, Carlos Rodon.

Instead, he was traded to the Giants in late March, missed most of spring training and struggled greatly at the start of the 2024 season. After six starts, Snell posted a 9.51 ERA and landed on the injured list for the second time with a groin strain. When he returned, Snell played like one of the game’s best pitchers, finishing 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA and 145 strikeouts (and just 44 walks) in 104 innings over 20 starts, so his decision to opt out was a given.

In 14 starts from early July to late September, the 31-year-old left-hander 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. On eight other occasions he went at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs.

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

Snell took the league by storm with the Rays in 2018, leading the majors with 21 wins and leading the AL with a 1.89 ERA. He performed solidly over the next four years, consistently missing shots at an elite level, but his ERA rose 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 last two seasons with at least 250 innings and a lower ERA than Snell is Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers.

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