Boston Red Sox offer David Price a seven-year $217 million deal

The Boston Red Sox just handed out the highest contract in team history, to someone who had been one of their biggest rivals beforehand.

The Red Sox trumped all other suitors with a record seven-year, $217 million deal, as first reported by The Boston Globe.

But the Cubs could find themselves relegated to trading highly coveted prospects if they can’t sign a free-agent pitcher – such as Jeff Samardzija, John Lackey or Mike Leake – soon. This was no different. And since Ortiz plays his last season in 2016, Price’s presence bolstering Big Papi’s chances for a fourth ring likely makes his a pleasant rather than unwelcome arrival.

While Grienke would have been a great get for the Sox, he nearly certainly prefers to stay on the west coast, and the Dodgers are and always have been the favorites to retain his services. With the money the team has, could they possibly sign several starting pitchers? Yes, it could work out nice for the first few seasons, but as Price gets older and begins to digress it’s going to go down as a historically bad contract.

An AL Cy Young Award victor in 2012, Price pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays for six seasons before he was traded in 2014 to the Tigers, for whom he posted a 13-8 record in 32 starts during the regular season. It’s the business of big-time sports, it’s just that it’s the Red Sox. The one time that he went was in 2008 as a rookie, working effectively out of the bullpen, in a series loss to the Phillies. That group – Price, Hanley Ramirez ($22M), Pablo Sandoval ($17M), David Ortiz ($10M), Dustin Pedroia ($13M), Rick Porcello ($20M), Clay Buchholz ($13M), Rusney Castillo ($10.5M) and Craig Kimbrel ($11M) – will combine to make $147.5 million, which by all accounts is likely to eclipse the entire Jays’ 25-man major-league payroll.

For Dave Dombrowski, this is officially his team. The Yankees will figure out their roster with all their up-and-coming young players, but the solution won’t come to them by responding wildly to a deal that doesn’t singlehandedly change the dynamic of the league. He spent last season the Royals, Blue Jays and Tigers.

The deal is, of course, not without some risk.

Yes, Price is very clearly one of the leagues top pitchers, but he is not top paid pitcher caliber. The Boston Golbe was the first to report the contract, which would be the richest in Red Sox history. They filled out their rotation with a soft-tossing NL West castoff, a $20 million sinkerball pitcher who doesn’t induce groundballs, and anointed a pitcher who has never made 30 starts in a year as the “ace“. It would take David Price putting together three solid seasons (especially a quality season in 2018) that would lead him to believe he could get more guaranteed money than the $127 million he would still reportedly be owed over the next 4 years.