Friday, January 16, 2015

David Price gets record $19.75M, and he's not even a free agent yet

David Price agreed to a one-year contract with the Detroit Tigers on Friday that's worth $19.75 million and — get this! — his big payday is still coming. This is, basically, an appetizer.
Price is one year from free agency, and the embarrassment of riches it promises to bring him. This is Price's last arbitration-eligible season and like many players around MLB, he agreed to a one-year deal Friday to avoid a hearing.
Not many players are getting anything close to $19.75 million, though. In fact, Price's contract is a record for a player who filed for arbitration.
The previous record belonged to Max Scherzer, who got $15.5 million last year. (Like many sports contract situations, new salary records come every year, because duh).
Sometimes the idea of "team control" really is relative, huh?
Such is the life of being a frontline starting pitcher. Scherzer is a free agent currently, the No. 1 commodity on the market even, and the question is whether he'll get the $200-plus milion his agent Scott Boras is stumping for. Price, like Scherzer, will be the No. 1 free agent on the market for 2016. Scherzer's contract should give us some indication of what to expect when Price hits the open market.
We know this, though, $19.75 million will be cheap by comparison.

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