Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Largest Contract In MLB History


The Mets introduced two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana to the New York media on Wednesday. The Mets traded with the Minnesota Twins, followed by a 72-hour negotiating window on a profitable contract extension for Santana. The $137.5 million deal was the largest contract for a pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball. The contract will put Santana in a Mets uniform through 2013, with a vesting player option or club option for 2014. Santana went 93-44 with a 3.22 ERA in 251 career games (175 starts) with the Twins. In 1,308 2/3 innings, he has allowed 1,068 hits, 500 runs (468 earned), with 364 walks and 1,381 strikeouts. He has held opposing batters to a .221 career batting average. He led the AL in strikeouts for the 2004, '05 and '06 seasons before finishing second with 235 last season, when he won 15 games and posted a 3.33 ERA in 33 starts. The opposition swung and missed at 27.6 percent of his pitches in 2007, the highest percentage in the AL. He was also third in strikeouts per nine innings (9.66) and fifth with a 2.95 road ERA last season.

3 comments:

Kerry Donohue said...

The mets are spending a lot of money on just one player for a contract that is not too long. It goes to show how much money each team really has to spend on each player. Do you think by having this new player will help the mets out this season?

k.finn said...

That is an insane amount of money to spend on a contract. It seems like it should be the entire budget for a team, let alone one player. The amount of money that flows through a major sports team is truly hard to fathom sometimes.

Anonymous said...

I never knew you were a Mets fan!! I am psyched Santana is coming to New York. Is it baseball season yet? haha