Marco Estrada is returning to the Toronto Blue Jays after the two sides came to terms Friday on a two-year contract worth $26 million. According to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi, Estrada will make $11.5 million in 2016 and $14.5 million in 2017.
Estrada was one of 20 players who received a qualifying offer last week, and while he didn't take the one-year, $15.8 million offer like Colby Rasmus, Matt Wieters and Brett Anderson before Friday's 5 p.m. ET deadline, the 32-year-old right-hander didn't wait much longer to finalize a deal to stay with the Blue Jays.
Acquired from Milwaukee in exchange for Adam Lind last offseason, Estrada had a career year with Toronto, going 13-8 with a 3.13 ERA in 34 games and 28 starts. He also stepped up in the postseason and delivered wins in two games the Blue Jays were facing elimination. There are some valid concerns that Estrada will have trouble replicating that success considering his .216 BABIP was the lowest mark in the big leagues since 1988. However, August Fagerstrom explains over at FanGraphs that Estrada is perhaps uniquely qualified to pitch like that again.
Taking less money annually over a two-year term than he would have made from the one-year qualifying offer makes sense for Estrada, as he ran the risk of being one of the players that had his market negatively affected by having draft-pick compensation attached to his signature.
Instead he'll be back in an environment where he was clearly comfortable with a fair contract in hand. Estrada, Marcus Stroman and R.A. Dickey are locks for the Blue Jays' rotation in 2016, and it wouldn't be at all surprising to see the team still active in free agency or on the trade market to add another established starter to that list.
At the top of that list is David Price, who excelled with Toronto for the final two months of the season after coming over in a trade from Detroit, but the 30-year-old left-hander is more than likely out of the Blue Jays' price range. Zack Greinke's name has also been tossed around, though that seems hard to fathom as well. Toronto will be in the mix for a pitcher closer to the quality of Jordan Zimmermann, Jeff Samardzija, Mike Leake and Wei-Yin Chen.
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