Jacob deGrom got his money, and the Mets should probably pay commission on the Sale.
The five-year, $137.5 million deal struck between the Mets and their ace Tuesday morning, pending a physical, fits tidily into a league in which more players, fearful of the growing free-agency freezes and a CBA that expires in 2021, don’t want to wait to hit the market to get their money, and teams feel most comfortable bidding against themselves and not rivals to lock up their own.
In a spring training that already had seen standouts such as Justin Verlander, Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Hicks, Aaron Nola and Luis Severino choose the guaranteed comforts of extensions, it was Chris Sale whose pact gave the Mets and deGrom some parameters.
The cases are not mirror-image; Sale (soon to be 30) is nearly two years younger (even if he’s thrown nearly 600 more big-league innings). Sale also would have been a free agent sooner — next offseason — while the Mets had an extra year of control, with deGrom’s contract set to expire after the 2020 season.
Still, one beginning-to-age ace set the table for the next. Sale received $145 million over five years. Each gets an opt-out after the 2022 season, at which time deGrom will have earned $107 million and Sale $105 million.
While Sale will start getting his fortune soon — he’ll make $30 million in 2020 — deGrom’s truckloads won’t truly begin until 2021, when he’ll make $33.5 million.
But they’ll come. DeGrom’s baseline deal is tied for the 14th-largest ever given to a pitcher, according to Cot’s and Baseball Reference:
1. David Price: 7 years, $217 million
2. Clayton Kershaw: 7 years, $215 million
3. Max Scherzer: 7 years, $210 million
4. Zack Greinke: 6 years, $206.5 million
5 (tie). Felix Hernandez: 7 years, $175 million
5 (tie). Stephen Strasburg: 7 years, $175 million
7. CC Sabathia: 7 years, $161 million
8. Masahiro Tanaka: 7 years, $155 million
9. Jon Lester: 6 years, $155 million
10. Chris Sale: 5 years, $145 million
11. Cole Hamels: 6 years, $144 million
12 (tie). Justin Verlander: 5 years, $140 million
12. Patrick Corbin: 6 years, $140 million
14 (tie). Jacob deGrom: 5 years, $137.5 million
14. Johan Santana, 6 years, $137.5 million
So many long-term deals, especially for pitchers, have gone awry, but teams are showing a commitment (at times reluctant) to stars they need to hold on to. Sale will be 35 at the end of his deal; deGrom would be 37 at the conclusion of his if the Mets pick up the 2024 option.
Verlander is 36 and just agreed to a two-year extension for $66 million, a pitcher-record $33 million average annual value. DeGrom did not vie for the record, previously owned by Zack Greinke, but has made Mets history. At $27.5 million, deGrom matches Yoenis Cespedes for largest per-season average in Mets history. And the $137.5 million matches the largest pitcher contract the Mets have given out, as Johan Santana had a six-year deal for that total.