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Rick Porcello, Boston Red Sox agree to four-year extension
Wow they overpaid him.
Wow they overpaid him.
PHILADELPHIA -- The Boston Red Sox announced Monday night that they have signed pitcher Rick Porcello to a four-year contract extension.
The deal is worth $82.5 million, according to a major league source who provided details of the deal. Porcello received a $500,000 signing bonus. He will be paid $20 million in 2016 and 2017 and $21 million in 2018 and 2019. His 2015 contract remains at $12.5 million.
The Red Sox scheduled an 8:30 p.m. ET conference call to discuss the signing.
Porcello -- who had been coy Monday morning in answering questions about whether he would pursue negotiations after the season started -- wrote about the extension for The Players' Tribune.
"I'm elated to announce that I've signed a four-year contract extension with the Boston Red Sox," Porcello wrote. "In a short time, I have become very comfortable with the organization and my teammates. At our winter fan event in January, I got to spend time with the veteran guys on the team like Mike Napoli, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. The main topic of conversation was winning a World Series in 2015. What struck me was that it wasn't discussed like it was a goal, but rather an expectation. I continued to see this overwhelming commitment from my teammates, my manager, my coaches, the front office and ownership.
"I knew immediately I wanted to work in a place with that mentality."
Porcello, 26, was eligible for free agency after the season. After his trade from the Detroit Tigers on Dec. 11 for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, he came to terms on a one-year, $12.5 million deal. The Sox now will have Porcello under contractual control for what are generally considered the prime years of a player's career, from age 27 through age 30.
He becomes the third player on the Red Sox roster who eventually will command a salary of $20 million or more, joining free-agent signees Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Ramirez signed a four-year, $88 million deal, Sandoval a five-year, $95 million deal.
Porcello is scheduled to start the team's second game, Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. He was 15-13 with a career-best 3.43 ERA in 2014, his final season with the Tigers and the first in which he pitched at least 200 innings (204 2/3). He is 76-63 with a 4.30 ERA in his career.
In a spring in which a regular theme is that the Red Sox are lacking an ace, they will be paying Porcello like one.
"What really sold me on the idea of staying here for many more years was the people," Porcello wrote for the Tribune, the Derek Jeter-owned website. (Porcello's agency also represents Jeter.) "Players here work their tails off and are on a daily mission to win. Coaches here don't just focus on their own area of concentration; they're constantly looking at how the team as a whole can get better.
"The organization offers every opportunity for you to excel as a player on the field, so it's understandable why the expectations are so high. We have a special thing going here, and I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it."
The deal is worth $82.5 million, according to a major league source who provided details of the deal. Porcello received a $500,000 signing bonus. He will be paid $20 million in 2016 and 2017 and $21 million in 2018 and 2019. His 2015 contract remains at $12.5 million.
The Red Sox scheduled an 8:30 p.m. ET conference call to discuss the signing.
Porcello -- who had been coy Monday morning in answering questions about whether he would pursue negotiations after the season started -- wrote about the extension for The Players' Tribune.
"I'm elated to announce that I've signed a four-year contract extension with the Boston Red Sox," Porcello wrote. "In a short time, I have become very comfortable with the organization and my teammates. At our winter fan event in January, I got to spend time with the veteran guys on the team like Mike Napoli, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. The main topic of conversation was winning a World Series in 2015. What struck me was that it wasn't discussed like it was a goal, but rather an expectation. I continued to see this overwhelming commitment from my teammates, my manager, my coaches, the front office and ownership.
"I knew immediately I wanted to work in a place with that mentality."
Porcello, 26, was eligible for free agency after the season. After his trade from the Detroit Tigers on Dec. 11 for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, he came to terms on a one-year, $12.5 million deal. The Sox now will have Porcello under contractual control for what are generally considered the prime years of a player's career, from age 27 through age 30.
He becomes the third player on the Red Sox roster who eventually will command a salary of $20 million or more, joining free-agent signees Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Ramirez signed a four-year, $88 million deal, Sandoval a five-year, $95 million deal.
Porcello is scheduled to start the team's second game, Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. He was 15-13 with a career-best 3.43 ERA in 2014, his final season with the Tigers and the first in which he pitched at least 200 innings (204 2/3). He is 76-63 with a 4.30 ERA in his career.
In a spring in which a regular theme is that the Red Sox are lacking an ace, they will be paying Porcello like one.
"What really sold me on the idea of staying here for many more years was the people," Porcello wrote for the Tribune, the Derek Jeter-owned website. (Porcello's agency also represents Jeter.) "Players here work their tails off and are on a daily mission to win. Coaches here don't just focus on their own area of concentration; they're constantly looking at how the team as a whole can get better.
"The organization offers every opportunity for you to excel as a player on the field, so it's understandable why the expectations are so high. We have a special thing going here, and I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it."