Brandon McCarthy, Dodgers 'close' to 4-year, $48 million deal, per report

SAN DIEGO -- The Dodgers have reportedly maxed out their frequent shopper card at the winter meetings on Wednesday, closing in on yet another transaction. The team is close to a four-year contract with starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and confirmed by Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

The deal is worth a reported $48 million, per Rosenthal.

McCarthy had a sneakily good season in 2014, the first fully healthy campaign of his career. The right-hander was 10-15 with a 4.05 ERA between the Diamondbacks and Yankees. His peripherals were much better, with 175 strikeouts and only 35 walks in 200 innings. McCarthy ranked 35th among 88 qualified starters in MLB with a 3.55 FIP and ninth with a 2.87 xFIP.

Four years is a long time for the 31-year-old McCarthy, who has averaged 24 starts and 154 innings in the last four seasons. In addition to suffering a skull fracture from a line drive off his head that knocked him out of the final 26 games of 2012, it's McCarthy's right shoulder that has been the brunt of the problem.

McCarthy was on the disabled list six times in five years from 2009-2013 for shoulder, missing an average of 58 games per year. But he was fully healthy in 2014, and productive, and that got him a four-year deal.

Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi was in the Athletics front office during McCarthy's two seasons in Oakland, in 2011-2012, and it sounds like the two were close.

Neat seeing Brandon McCarthy signing with the Dodgers; he and Farhan Zaidi talked metrics a lot with #Athletics.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) December 11, 2014

At the moment, McCarthy slots in at the fourth spot in the Dodgers starting rotation, behind Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-jin Ryu. But again, it is only December 10, and the Dodgers likely have much more up their sleeve.