David Price Signs ENORMOUS Deal To Make Him The Highest-Paid Pitcher In Baseball History
ByJoey Heldon December 3, 2015inArticles›Sports News
David Price went from the Detroit Tigers to the Toronto Blue Jays at the trading deadline last season. His stay with the Blue Jays turned out to be short lived, as he’s moving on to another ball club after entering free agency.
The lucky winners of the David Price bidding wars? The Boston Red Sox. And they acquired the 30-year-old ace with a seven-year, $217 million contract. That’s $31 million per year, the most for any pitcher in Major League Baseball history. It also matches Miguel Cabrera’s contract value he signed with the Tigers for most of any player in the bigs.
This comes after Max Scherzer signed a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Nationals last summer, and the Dodgers extended Clayton Kershaw’s contract for another seven years and $215 million. In short, it’s becoming incredibly lucrative to be a pitcher in the major leagues.
That’s not to say Price isn’t worth it. He was 18-5 for the Tigers and Blue Jays last season, leading the AL with a 2.45 ERA. His 6.0 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) was second in the American League. And sure, he struggled in the postseason, going 1-2 while his ERA ballooned to 6.17. But he joins a Red Sox pitching staff that most certainly can use the help.
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Last season, Boston starters won fewer than half of their games, had an ERA nearly two points higher than Price’s, and posted inferior WHIP and strikeout percentage rates. The team used 12 different starting pitchers, and none of them even reached 200 innings.
Ever since trading away Jon Lester at the 2014 trade deadline, the Red Sox have been without an ace. They’re hoping Price can return them to prominence. For his part, Price has a 1.95 ERA at Fenway Park, the best mark for any ballpark he’s visited at least 10 times.
Price’s signing is just the latest off-season moves for the Red Sox, who have been busy acquiring players left and right. Outfielder Chris Young just joined the team, signing a two-year, $13 million. And earlier this off-season, Boston picked up former Padres closer Craig Kimbrel, exchanging four prospects to try to bolster their bullpen. Though they’ve finished last in the AL East two out of the past three seasons, the Red Sox seem to be heading in the right direction, and signing Price is a big help.
Oh, and the most Boston had ever paid a pitcher prior to this? $82.5 million over four years to Rick Porcello, which was signed back in April. Guess the price was just a little higher here. Price will join Porcello, Clay Buchholz, Wade Miley and Eduardo Rodriguez in the rotation.
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Is David Price Baseball’s Next $200 Million Man?
ByTravis Pulveron October 23, 2015inArticles›Sports News
Pitcher David Price is one of the many talented baseball players who have helped the Tampa Bay Rays go from being an MLB doormat to a contending team on a year by year basis. The Rays decided to send him to the Detroit Tigers in a trade during the 2014 season (where he signed a one-year $19.75 million deal) who then traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2015 season.
Price will be hitting the free agent market, and as one of the best pitchers in baseball will likely command a pretty hefty salary from serious contenders. With 18 wins in 32 starts, 225 strike outs over 220.1 innings, and an ERA of 2.45 (fourth best in the league) who would not want him on the roster?
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
However, there may be one problem teams will have when it comes to paying him the kind of salary he will command. His postseason record is terrible. He started Game One of the ALDS for the Blue Jays and ended up taking a loss dropping his career post season record to 1-6.
To be fair, he didn’t have a terrible game, but stayed in maybe a little too long. The five earned runs he was credited with all came in the seventh inning. He did pitch six innings of one hit ball before imploding in the seventh and giving up five hits and five earned runs.
When he was pulled he had only thrown 96 pitches so can Toronto’s manager be faulted for leaving him in? Some would say yes; some would say no. Considering his track record in the post season it is hard to say.
While his post season record may be lacking his regular season is enough to interest teams and command a high salary. Only five pitchers won more games than him (18). Only six pitched more than his 220.1 innings, and seven had more strikeouts than him (225). Yet his salary comes in as the 13 th highest in the league.
There are some that think he will command a $200 million deal; something that only two other pitchers have done, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer . As good as he has pitched, Price is not worth $30 million a season like Kershaw and Scherzer. At 30 it is possible that someone will sign him to a seven-year deal like them, but it is more likely he’ll get something closer to Justin Verlander’s deal (which averages $27 million a season).
So his deal is more likely going to be around $185-190 million (which still isn’t bad).
Will his post season record cost him? Probably not. Teams will pay for a guy that will help them get to the post season first, and then hope that he overcomes his post season demons once they get there.
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