Brandon McCarthy reportedly is close to signing with Dodgers

And the next hour, the Dodgers signed Brandon McCarthy.

If you weren’t already dizzy by the Dodgers’ series of moves Wednesday – all still unofficial – they have apparently pulled out yet another with the signing of Brandon McCarthy.

Several sites have reported the Dodgers are close to signing McCarthy to a four-year deal. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports the deal was for a whopping $48 million.

Which is both strange and not, fitting almost perfectly with the rest of the day’s moves that included the reported trade of starting pitcher Dan Haren to the Marlins.

McCarthy is a right-handed starter who went 10-15 last season with a 4.05 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. Four years is a long contract for a 31-year-old pitcher, particularly for a front office seemingly intent on generating a more youthful team. That’s the strange part.

But McCarthy spent two seasons with the A’s when new Dodgers General Manager Farhan Zaidi was Oakland’s assistant general manager. According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Athletics beat writer Susan Slusser, the two could often be heard discussing sabermetrics. Guess they bonded. That’s the not strange part.

Last season after McCarthy was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Yankees, he rebounded from a horrid start (3-10, 5.01 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) to go 7-5 with a 2.89 ERA and 1.15 WHIP.

Lifetime he is 52-65 with 4.09 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. He looks a lot like starter for the end of the rotation, which at the moment is apparently Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, McCarthy and Andrew Heaney. The night, however, is young.