Dombrowski has got his man

Brian Hines (@JonLestersGhost)
Contributing Writer

So if you haven't been living under a rock for the past few hours, you've heard the news that David Price is coming to the Boston Red Sox. Price will ink a 7 year $217 million dollar deal with an average of $31 million, the 7th largest contract in MLB history and the largest for any pitcher. The deal also includes an opt-out for Price after year three.

Your first thought, thats a lot of money. Theres no job in the world that should be paid $30 million a year, but this is baseball. Baseball players get paid based on how they perform, and Price performed quite nicely last season. Price put up a 18-5 record along with a 2.45 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 9.19 K/9 in 220.1 IP. Those are numbers that made him the AL Cy Young runner-up. And according to FanGraphs, that type of season is worth $51.2 million. Price is 30 as of this past August, and will spend the next three years in Boston before he can opt out at age 33 and become a free agent. But if he opts in and spends the next seven years of his career in Boston, thats not the worst thing in the world either. He's only 30 which means by the time of his choice, he'll be 34 and he'll be 36 by the time the whole deal is over. The Red Sox have had some success with some pitchers in their upper 30's like Curt Schilling and John Lackey for example.

Now as David Price teed off at his charity golf event this weekend, he figured he'd be leaving a St. Louis Cardinal. But Dombrowski upped his offer to try to lure Price to Boston, and gave him a Tuesday night deadline to make up his mind. Price ended up accepting the new deal and left his golf event as a Red Sox, not a Cardinal. But as all that was going on, Dombrowski and Zack Greinke's camp were in talks. And talks got so far that Greinke was set to sign as a Red Sox. Greinke's camp gave Dombrowski a Tuesday night deadline to either accept or decline their offer, and as Price accepted Dombrowski's offer, Greinke was put out of the picture.


Source: http://www.thestar.com

So now David Price is the main man. Price will become the first Red Sox pitcher to ever have a $100+ million contract, and will have the highest contract average in Red Sox history. Price has been a durable pitcher throughout his career, eclipsing 200+ innings 5 times and starting at least 20 games every year except his first season in 2008. And while he's been so durable, his highest ERA throughout his career was 4.42 which came in his second season. The next highest was a 3.49 in 2011. Some more advantages of Price is he's pitched 7 out of his 8 seasons in the AL East with the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. Against other AL East teams he's 49-21 with a 3.17 ERA. And if thats not good enough for you, in 11 career Fenway Park starts, Price was 6-1 with a 1.95 ERA with a .946 WHIP. And maybe the best news is as Dombrowski traded Price from the Tigers to Blue Jays last season, we do not have to give up our #12 overall draft selection to sign him (Thanks Dave).

So yes its a lot of money, but I mean its not our money. This team needed (good) starting pitching and Henry opened his checkbook and bought us some. So why complain? Welcome to Boston David, lets go get some championships.

And P.S. I told you this would happen: http://bit.ly/1JWbAWJ 

Thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below or find me on Twitter @JonLestersGhost