As they look to defend their National League West crown, the San Francisco Giants made the first big splash in the post-lockout free-agent frenzy. ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Friday that left-handed starter Carlos Rodon has agreed to a two-year, $44 million deal with the Giants that includes an opt-out clause after 2022.

Rodon was one of the big surprises of 2021 and joined Clayton Kershaw as the best starting pitchers available coming out of the lockout. He had pitched just 7⅔ innings in 2020 while coming off Tommy John surgery, and the White Sox non-tendered him -- only to re-sign him on a one-year deal.

Healthy for the first time since 2018, Rodon made some mechanical adjustments and had the best season of his career, going 13-5 with a 2.37 ERA in 132⅔ innings, pitching a no-hitter and posting the best strikeout rate in the American League among pitchers with at least 100 innings. He had always battled his control prior to 2021, but he cut his career walk rate from 3.9 per nine innings to 2.5 and his already nasty slider was more unhittable than ever, as batters hit .107 with no home runs against it.