Red Sox Lose Mind, Give David Price $217 million Contract
The Red Sox just signed David Price to a bigger contract than Clayton Kershaw makes. $2 million more to be exact. Clayton Kershaw's total contract is $215 million over seven years as opposed to new Red Sawk David Price's $217million over seven years.
Price is good, but he's had his struggles both in the playoffs and against the Yankees (even though he dominated them this year). There's no guarantee that he will or won't dominate the Yankees which is or isn't comforting. What is comforting though, is that Red Sox are giving $31 million a year to a starter for the next seven years and that's going to give them problems.
Also, that opt out clause? That's for David Price not the Red Sox. The team can't just decide to cut him loose after three years. Price could choose to opt out, but I will make a personal guarantee to you that he won't. He's making $31 million a year for seven years. He would have to be pitching like Nolan Ryan the next three years to think he could make anymore than he's set to make now. So don't make the mistake of thinking that makes this contract any better.
The Yankees cannot overreact here. The last time the Yankees overreacted was to Robinson Cano leaving and they spent $438 million on four players (the Red Sox just gave half of that to one player) and that's backfired big time. There's certain guys you go all in on, but the ones the Yankees signed (Ellsbury, McCann, Tanaka, and Beltran) weren't those guys. The Yankees really need to have learned their lesson and not go out and overpay for someone on the market - there's just no player out there this year worth spending that much money on.
That doesn't mean I would be opposed to Justin Upton or Alex Gordon at a reasonable price, but they shouldn't add in extra money or years to get a deal done in order to answer the Red Sox like they did with Beltran in order to answer the Mariners.
The Yankees definitely need to make moves to improve this roster, but they shouldn't feel any pressure as a result of this David Price deal to rush one. This is just a case of a franchise desperately (and irresponsibly) dishing out loads of money in an effort to be relevant again. Remember when the Mariners gave that huge contract to Robinson Cano? How many playoff appearances are there to show for it? Remember when the Red Sox signed Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval among other moves last year? They finished in last place. Just relax Yankee fans. Breathe. This is not the end of the world.
Article by: Nick Scott
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All statistics provided via Baseball-Reference.com
Confirmed: Price deal with #RedSox is seven years, $217M. No deferred money. Three-year opt-out.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 1, 2015
That should really say it all folks. Is David Price a good pitcher? Absolutely, but he's not better than Clayton Kershaw and no Yankee fan should be upset they made the mistake of paying him like he is. Will it suck to face him on the rival Red Sox? It sure will. But the Yankees had to face an even better pitcher several times a year from 1998-2004 named Pedro Martinez and still won three World Series and made the the playoffs every year in that time span. This is not the end of the world.
Just to chew on: Sabathia and Price had roughly same IP over first 7 full seasons. But Price is 3 years older than CC was at that point.
— Sweeny Murti (@YankeesWFAN) December 1, 2015
I've been saying it all along, but I'll say it again, Price has some eerie parallels to CC Sabathia. Because of this I did not want the Yankees to even get involved with Price. Sweeny Murti brings up an even better point in the tweet above. Price has an awful lot of miles on his arm and is 30 years old. Even if he doesn't completely come undone like Sabathia did, at that age, he's probably got two maybe three years of his best left before he starts to decline. However, as Sabathia has shown us, with so many innings on the arm, it can get pretty ugly fast and I do suspect Price to drop off in some kind of similar fashion.Price is good, but he's had his struggles both in the playoffs and against the Yankees (even though he dominated them this year). There's no guarantee that he will or won't dominate the Yankees which is or isn't comforting. What is comforting though, is that Red Sox are giving $31 million a year to a starter for the next seven years and that's going to give them problems.
Also, that opt out clause? That's for David Price not the Red Sox. The team can't just decide to cut him loose after three years. Price could choose to opt out, but I will make a personal guarantee to you that he won't. He's making $31 million a year for seven years. He would have to be pitching like Nolan Ryan the next three years to think he could make anymore than he's set to make now. So don't make the mistake of thinking that makes this contract any better.
The Yankees cannot overreact here. The last time the Yankees overreacted was to Robinson Cano leaving and they spent $438 million on four players (the Red Sox just gave half of that to one player) and that's backfired big time. There's certain guys you go all in on, but the ones the Yankees signed (Ellsbury, McCann, Tanaka, and Beltran) weren't those guys. The Yankees really need to have learned their lesson and not go out and overpay for someone on the market - there's just no player out there this year worth spending that much money on.
That doesn't mean I would be opposed to Justin Upton or Alex Gordon at a reasonable price, but they shouldn't add in extra money or years to get a deal done in order to answer the Red Sox like they did with Beltran in order to answer the Mariners.
The Yankees definitely need to make moves to improve this roster, but they shouldn't feel any pressure as a result of this David Price deal to rush one. This is just a case of a franchise desperately (and irresponsibly) dishing out loads of money in an effort to be relevant again. Remember when the Mariners gave that huge contract to Robinson Cano? How many playoff appearances are there to show for it? Remember when the Red Sox signed Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval among other moves last year? They finished in last place. Just relax Yankee fans. Breathe. This is not the end of the world.
Article by: Nick Scott
Follow me @TeixeiraFanClub
Follow us @BronxBomberBlog
All statistics provided via Baseball-Reference.com
Given how the FA pitching market has gotten so out of control so fast, I think it's a near certainty that Price opts out after year three of this deal, barring catastrophic injury or precipitous decline in the next three years. If he does so, the Sox are well advised to take the compensation pick (if they still exist) and seek their fortunes elsewhere (Harper and Jose Fernandez both hit the FA market that same off season. Kimbrel's contract comes off the books that same off season as well.).
ReplyDeleteThe CC and Arod deals were fine until the the Yankees decided to reup with both of them. I doubt the Sox make that same mistake. They let Pedro walk after all. Turned the compensation pick into Jacoby Ellsbury. I'll bet they follow that same blueprint if they are lucky enough to have Price opt out. And I absolutely think he will (with the usual caveats attached).