Jays extend José Berríos!!
In a somewhat surprising move for this point in the offseason, it appears as though the Blue Jays have come to an agreement on a large contract extension with starter José Berríos!!!!
So let’s talk about it!
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At the trade deadline the Blue Jays paid a huge price for José Berríos, sending prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for the 27-year-old right-hander. Berríos, who made $6.1 million in 2021 and had one more arbitration year remaining before free agency, was brilliant for the club down the stretch, posting a 3.52 ERA and 3.47 FIP in 70 1/3 innings over 12 starts in which he looked every bit the durable, consistent top of the rotation starter the Jays hoped they were getting.
Now, it seems, they’ve paid a huge price again, signing him to a nine figure deal according to reports here on Tuesday morning.
With free agency for Berríos looming at the end of the of the 2022 season, getting his name on a big extension was always going to be a priority of the Blue Jays this winter, though the expectation was that it may have been something that would wait until after much of the more pressing business of the offseason had been complete. Likely because the impending lockout appears as though it’s going to create a sprint to get a lot of work done in the weeks before the start of the season, the Jays — who would have preferred to get a contract with Berríos done before the season began, when some players are uncomfortable negotiating — seemed to have flipped the script, taking care of a major piece of late-offseason business here in mid-November.
The seven-year, $131 million deal — which includes an opt-out after year five, which I don’t think changes the way we need to think about this deal in the slightest — seems to have come together relatively simply here for the Jays, but it wasn’t necessarily always going to be easy. Back in July, Berríos made rumblings about being rather determined to get to free agency — a situation that may have helped expedite his exit from Minnesota.
Here’s what Phil Miller wrote for the Minneapolis Star Tribune less than two weeks before the trade deadline:
Jose Berrios has seen reports that say Byron Buxton has been offered a long-term contract by the Twins, "and he deserves it. Everyone knows what a great athlete he is."
But Berrios' assessment of his own contractual status — like Buxton, he's eligible for free agency 15 months from now — offers a clue to the Twins' chances of getting that deal done. To put it bluntly: It might be too late.
"[I will have been] waiting six years, almost seven, to get where every player wants to be — a free agent, able to maximize our value," Berrios said. "So it's different now. We are in a good position, and we'll see what the best deal is going to be."
Evidently the Twins felt his determination to test the market was sincere:
That the Blue Jays had the confidence that they could get him to agree to forgo free agency — not a necessity, of course, but something they’d have certainly wanted to do given the quality of the prospects they gave up to get him — was pretty bold. That they’ve actually managed to do it is pretty damned special. And speaks well to the direction of the franchise, and the view that players have of playing here in the Mark Shapiro era.
This and Marcus Semien calling Toronto a “baseball paradise” back in September seem to be real validation of something that Shapiro has been talking about for a long time.
“It’s not one person,” Shapiro told Jayson Stark of the Athletic back in April, when asked about what needs to be done to compete with the behemoths of the AL East. “It’s not one decision. It’s not one player. It’s not the manager or the GM or one superstar player. It’s 1,000 little things. It’s just sweating the details and building. It’s very simply obsessing about making Toronto the best place to play and the best place to work.”
Of course, another part of that equation is also going to be about having the money to pay the best players to play here, and clearly the Jays are showing again and again that they can do that as well.
The project that Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins have embarked on here is indeed starting to get expensive. Some hard decisions are surely to come — perhaps like watching Semien and Robbie Ray go play elsewhere next season — but clearly they’ve managed to get ownership to buy in on what they’re doing, and to commit to the ballclub like we’ve never seen before.
When they’re out here making smart moves like getting six of José Berríos’s prime free agent years for $20 million per, whether you’re a fan or a Rogers executive, it’s becoming very easy to believe strongly in what they’re doing.
Wow. This is remarkable on a number of levels. First, it feels like another marquee free agent signing, just a year earlier. Second, it validates the trade. If Berrios had walked after next year and either or both of Martin/Woods Richardson turned into good players, we'd always be lamenting that trade. Third, it's for 7 years! That's what probably got the deal done. Even with an opt out after 5 as per the other comment, the contract is still a steal if he continues to perform at his usual level. It's a big win. Now they just have to find another stud starter or two. Is there much precedent for a contract this length for a young starter with his kind of pedigree?
Passan reporting that he has an opt out after 5th year. Which is fine. If he's pitching like such a boss that he opts out, we're laughing.