This is the Price the Red Sox must pay for their flip-flopping philosophy
David Price pitches against the Minnesota Twins during first inning in Toronto.
COMMENTARY
This might end up being a disaster.
Maybe not next season, maybe not in 2017, but there may very well be a point in time over the next seven years when Dave Dombrowski and the Boston Red Sox regret their decision to hand David Price the richest contract for a pitcher in Major League Baseball history.
The left-handed starter — the premier player on baseball’s free agent market — reportedly agreed to a seven-year, $217-million contract with the Red Sox on Tuesday, giving Boston the ace it desperately needed since trading Jon Lester at the trading deadline in 2014. Of course, the cost of Price makes Lester, who later joined the Chicago Cubs for $155 million, seem like something that Theo Epstein picked up on a whim at a Dollar Tree cash register.
It’s the largest contract in Red Sox history, drowning the $160 million that slugger Manny Ramirez got 15 years ago this month. That seemed to work out OK.
Price, who turned 30 last August, went 18-5 with a 2.45 ERA last season between Detroit and Toronto. He’s 104-56 with a 3.09 ERA for his career, with a dismal 2-7 record and 5.12 ERA in the postseason.
He’s also 6-1 with a 1.95 ERA at his new home, Fenway Park, over his eight-year career.
In addition to being one of the best pitchers in baseball, Price is a dynamic, outspoken guy. His public feud with now-teammate David Ortiz (“Bigger than the game.’’) will only have one season to be rehashed in Boston, with the veteran slugger planning to retire after 2016. The $200-million man has been known to get into it with fans on social media platforms, a reminder of when Curt Schilling hopped on the Sons of Sam Horn message board to get a feel for Boston while deciding whether to waive his no-trade clause in the fall of 2003.
According to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, Price’s agreement with the Red Sox comes with an opt-out clause after the third season, which means perhaps this, in the end, will really be a three-year, $93-million deal. The lefty has incentive — you know, besides $217 million — to pitch well over the next three seasons, lining up what could be another big payday. But Price will also be 33 years old at that point, and it’s hard to figure, even with baseball salaries spiraling out of control, that any other team is going to give a guy that age more than the four years and $120 million he’ll still be due with the Red Sox.
It was only a year ago that the Red Sox bristled at the thought of giving Lester a long-term deal after the lefty hurtled past his 30th birthday, an age that seemed to be a point of no return according to the franchise owner John Henry’s philosophy at the time. Coming off a World Series victory, the team reportedly offered Lester a four-year, $70-million contract in the spring of 2014, a proposal that was all but laughed at by the lefty’s camp.
When Lester hit the market, the Red Sox were ultimately willing to make a $135-million offer but found themselves outbid by Epstein and the Cubs by some $20 million.
Less than two years after that spring offer, Dombrowski pledged Price triple the amount of cash Boston was initially willing to offer Lester.
So, what exactly is the philosophy on Yawkey Way? Dombrowski’s strategy for team building seems to be different than the one deployed by former general manager Ben Cherington. Such a bold move for Price shows the Red Sox are now making up for mistakes made by the latter. But Henry still writes the checks and presumably influences decisions. So, how exactly did the organization go from what seemed to be a firm stance on not signing pitchers over 30 to long-term deals all the way to signing a pitcher over 30 to the richest pitching contract ever?
Perhaps it was determined that the market has changed. Or maybe finishing in last place three out of the last four years can change a man’s perspective.
Remember, this is the same team that gave 26-year-old Rick Porcello an $82.5-million extension for no more reason than to prove a point. After all, Porcello, who will be only 30 when his contract is up in 2019.
He also went 9-15 with a 4.92 ERA in 2015, enduring a career-worst seven-game losing streak along the way.
But, hey, he’s only twenty-six.
Price becomes only the fourth free-agent pitcher older than 30 to receive a contract worth nine figures. The others were CC Sabathia (2012), Cliff Lee (2011) and Kevin Brown (1999).
Sabathia opted out his his deal with the Yankees only to re-up for $122 million over five years. The 34-year-old is 38-33 with a 4.35 ERA since.
Brown signed for seven years and $105 million with the Dodgers. He went 72-44, but only 14-13 with a 4.95 ERA over the final two years of the deal, spent with the Yankees.
Lee signed a five-year, $120-million contract with the Phillies and went 41-30 with a 2.89 ERA over the life of that deal.
If Price is more Lee and less Sabathia, the Sox will welcome the $31 million annually it costs to have him in the rotation. He will headline a 2016 starting five that now looks like: 1. Price, 2. Eduardo Rodriguez, 3. Porcello, 4. Clay Buchholz, 5. Joe Kelly/Wade Miley/Henry Owens.
But he could be Sabathia. He could be Hanley Ramirez. Pablo Sandoval. Carl Crawford. Edgar Renteria. Julio Lugo…
Boston’s history with big-name free agents hasn’t exactly been sparkling since Dan Duquette landed Ramirez, which no doubt feeds into some of the concern Red Sox fans will have with such a massive commitment to Price. The matter of the team essentially jettisoning Lester, a homegrown, two-time World Series veteran, has not been forgotten. Lester’s career postseason record stands at 6-6 with a 2.85 ERA, including 3-0 in the World Series, after pitching deep into October with the Cubs in 2015. Price, who joins his third club in the American League East (Toronto, Tampa, Boston), has one win in the ALDS. One win in the ALCS.
Not your money, yada, yada, and that’s true. But the more concerning factor in all this is that the Red Sox seem to be building a roster with mix-and-match philosophies, with little consistency to decisions through the years. Perhaps the latest shift can be explained by the leadership change from Cherington to Dombrowski, but the Red Sox seem to adjust their approach more often than Ortiz steps out of the batter’s box. Dombrowski would drive Hanley Ramirez to the airport if it meant unloading him on someone else. Yet the Sox gave him $88 million only 13 months ago.
That’s chump change compared to what they just gave Price, and it seems inevitable that they’ll regret that too, at some point.
It cost $217 million, but the Red Sox are back in business, back in your good graces, just in time for Christmas at Fenway. Get ready for the same festive scene where Crawford smiled before the Boston media when he was introduced in 2010. That was neat.
Not that it ever should have come down to Lester or Price, but the fact that the Red Sox are once again playing the reactionary game makes you wonder when the next rich and rash decision will come.
In the meantime, watching Price is going to be a whole mess of fun.
Now, what about Greinke?
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur
The most lucrative contracts in Red Sox history
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