http://gty.im/464040938
The Boston Red Sox wasted no time on signing newly acquired starting pitcher Rick Porcello to a huge contract. Porcello, 26 years old, and the Red Sox agreed upon a 4-year $82.5 million extension. He becomes the highest-paid pitcher in team history per annual salary. For the four years he will earn $20M, $20M, $21M, and $21M on the last year with a $500K signing bonus. Porcello is still under contract for $12.5M in 2015.
The Red Sox acquired Porcello in December 2014 when they traded the talented outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Detroit Tigers for the young pitcher. With Porcello’s contract expiring after the 2015 season many wondered if the Red Sox and Porcello were going to talk about an extension. Porcello mentioned that once the season got underway he was going to table any extension talks. He stated, “I don’t want any distractions when the season starts, I just want to focus on pitching.”
Porcello is coming off an impressive 2014 season which he went 15-13 and posted an ERA of 3.43. Red Sox rolled the dice on this extension because if Porcello had a solid 2015 season he could have been looking for a 5-year $120 million contract, so if you think really hard about it they got him at a bargain rate. Porcello could have easily had a great 2015 with his high power offense and that would have cost Boston an extra $20 million.
The signing also proves that the Red Sox are out of the Cole Hamels hunt, but then again you never know.
