The ever elusive Baseball Gods have spoken and 2015’s Cy-Young runner-up, David Price, has signed with the Boston Red Sox. Oh wait…no, the Baseball Gods didn’t make this deal happen, $217 million did. It’s Dave Dombrowski’s world and Boston’s living in it now. For inquiring minds, Dombrowski is the newly appointed Red Sox president of baseball operations, and he has an affinity towards these types of mega-deals, having previously agreed to a similar deal with slugger, Miguel Cabrera.
On Tuesday, it was reported that Price and the Red Sox agreed to a seven-year, $217 million contract, which includes no deferred money and an opt-out clause following the 2018 season. The deal will earn the south paw pitcher the highest annual amounts in major league history.
Price was arguably one of the two best free-agent pitchers available – Zack Greinke being the other – so it was bound to cause a big stir no matter where he signed. But what happens when you add the most fervent fan base in the country and the largest contract for a pitcher in franchise history? Well, Red Sox fans make their opinions heard; that’s what happens.
While I personally took to Twitter and Facebook expressing my sheer delight with the deal, many fellow Fenway Faithful were less enchanted. Some expressed doubts about long-term contracts for players in their 30’s, others recounted discord between Price and face-of-the-franchise David Ortiz, some went so far as to inquire if making such bank-busting deals was really the Red Sox way. The most oft-cited gripe, however, was naturally Price’s less-than-stellar post season record.
I understand this concern, as David Price has pitched in 14 post-season games in his career, posting a pretty uninspiring 2-7 record with a 5.12 ERA. I don’t think Red Sox fans should worry, though and here’s why:
A team has to play pretty well to make it to the post-season, which necessarily includes having a dominant regular season starter who can win games, get easy outs and limit innings expected from the bullpen.
Price, who pitched the third most total innings in 2015, threw three complete games on the season. By contrast, two pitchers in the Red Sox 2015 rotation – Wade Miley and Clay Buchholz – each had one complete game. This left a lot of games up to the bullpen, which disappointingly delivered the fifth highest ERA last season clocking in a 4.38. In addition to toeing the rubber for 220.1 innings last year, Price has thrown 1441.2 innings total in his career – over the last six seasons he’s totaled the fourth most innings of any starter.
Post-season numbers notwithstanding, when David Price takes the mound the club he’s representing has a pretty good shot of winning the ballgame. Besides a career 104-56 win-loss record accompanied by a gleaming 3.09ERA and an 8.6 K/9 average, Price is tied for 26th career wins among active pitchers with 104. He’s ranked third in career wins among active starters who have been in the league for 8 or fewer seasons – behind only Clayton Kershaw (8 years, 114 W’s) and Max Scherzer (8 years, 105 W’s.)
To refresh everyone’s memory: last season the Red Sox finished with a 78-84 win-loss record, good enough for fifth in the AL East – last place for the third time in four years. In 2015 Price won 18 games; the Sox rotation won an average of 8.16 games. I think I speak for a lot of fans when I say that I’d give Price the opportunity to be “bad” in the post-season every year if it meant we could get there in the first place.
But this isn’t to say that the lefty will continue to be bad in the post season and Dombrowski knows this from experience. As President and General Manager of the Detroit Tigers, he saw 2011 Cy Young winner Justin Verlander struggle in both 2006 and 2011 post-seasons, only to turn it around drastically and post an average ERA of 1.61 over seven combined starts in the 2012 and 2013 play-offs. We also can’t forget about Kershaw, thought by many to be the best pitcher in baseball despite his post-season performance issues pre-2015 NLDS: 6.30 ERA in the 2013 NLCS and a 7.82 ERA in the 2014 NLDS.
All this to say that just because David Price hasn’t been Mr. October, doesn’t mean he can’t and won’t be.
What the Price deals comes down to is that Boston needed an Ace. Price is that Ace and fans should be thrilled that the front office is taking necessary measures to put together the best possible franchise. Yes, $217 million is crazy money, but in today’s baseball it was going to take more than $200 million over six or seven years anyways, so Dombrowski did what he needed to do. Sox fans need not fret, we can proselytize about Price and the post-season all we want when we get there. But there are 162 games to try and win first and Price certainly puts Boston in a better place to do just that.
-Daisy Letendre
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