One week ago, the Major League Baseball world was shocked when star pitcher Zack Greinke signed a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Perhaps even more shocking was just how close the D-backs apparently came to missing out on the three-time All-Star and 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner.
"Without getting too detailed, we were minutes away from going to a different team. It was that close," Greinke said Friday during his introduction to the media at Chase Field.
See also: Five things you may not know about Zack Greinke.
Throughout the winner, two of the D-backs' rivals in the National League West -- the San Francisco Giants and Greinke's former team, the Los Angeles Dodgers -- were widely speculated to be the most likely teams to sign Greinke.
But on Dec. 4, news came down that the D-backs signed the 32-year-old right-hander to a six-year, $206 million deal -- the largest average annual value in MLB history.
"A lot of teams were a possibility, but then at one point we were just talking to two teams," Greinke said. "When only two teams are talking to you, you don't really think about other things.
"As soon as (my agent Casey Close) told me the Diamondbacks called, that got me excited, and it just went from there."
Even though time was of the essence, Greinke said that the decision to sign with the D-backs wasn't a difficult one: He is plenty familiar with the team and the city after spending a great deal of time in the Valley during spring training.
"It happened pretty fast, but it was a team I had a lot of experience with, that I knew really well, so it wasn't like I needed a bunch of extra time to get to know people or get to know the city," he said.
