Toronto Blue Jays Sign Marco Estrada To Two-Year Extension

The Blue Jays and right-hander Marco Estrada reportedly were working toward a contract extension and, as the free-agent qualifying offer deadline approached, the two parties agreed on a new deal, the club announced Friday afternoon. He seemed like a logical candidate to accept the Blue Jays $15.8 million qualifying offer, but chose to basically tack on another year at just over $10 million.

Estrada had his best season in 2015 for the Jays at age 31, going 13-8 with a 3.13 ERA in 34 games, including 28 starts, with 131 strikeouts and 55 walks in 181 innings.

His dominance continued in the post-season, earning a 2-1 record with a 2.33 ERA, the lowest among all starters in the playoffs in 2015.

“We obviously identified Marco as a priority to bring back after the season he had”, interim general manager Tony LaCava said during a conference call. “He was a big part of our success”.

Estrada will join Marcus Stroman, R.A. Dickey and Drew Hutchison in a rotation that looks a bit less threadbare now, although ideally the Blue Jays would like to add two more starters.

The contract is expected to give Estrada between $24 million and $29 million in guaranteed money, the NY Post reported. Estrada went winless in his first five starts, then was 12-5 the rest of the way, beginning with a four-start winning streak between June 2 and June 19. At 32 years old, Estrada had an outlier season last year.

As many would say, this comes as a well deserved gift for the prized pitcher who had a spectacular first season in Toronto having come over from Milwaukee in mid-May.