Clayton Kershaw can make up to $37.5 million over two seasons as part of his new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, getting the full amount depending on how many starts he makes following shoulder surgery.
A three-time NL Cy Young Award winner who turns 36 on March 19, Kershaw is guaranteed $10 million as part of the agreement announced Friday. He can earn up to $12.5 million this year and $25 million in 2025.
Kershaw gets a $5 million salary this year and can earn $7.5 million in performance bonuses for what his deal defines as starts or relief appearances of three or more innings. He would get $1 million for six, $1.5 million each for seven, eight and nine, and $2 million for 10, according to terms obtained by The Associated Press.
Kershaw has a $5 million player option for 2025, which if he is healthy at the end of the 2024 season can escalate by $15 million based on the same criteria of starts or relief outings of three or more innings: $2 million for six, $3 million each for seven, eight and nine, and $4 million for 10.
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He has five levels of 2025 performance bonuses, depending on his 2024 starts or relief appearances of three or more innings:
if six or fewer in 2024, Kershaw could earn up to $18 million in 2025: $1 million each from 8-25;
if seven in 2024, Kershaw could earn up to $15 million in 2025: $1 million each from 11-25;
if eight in 2024, Kershaw could earn up to $12 million in 2025: $1 million each from 14-25;
if nine in 2024, Kershaw could earn up to $12 million in 2025: $1 million each from 17-25;
if 10 in 2024, Kershaw could earn up to $5 million in 2015: $1 million each from 21-25.
His maximum 2025 compensation is $25 million, the agreement says.
A 210-game winner, Kershaw hopes to return to a major league mound this summer. He had surgery on Nov. 3 to repair the glenohumeral ligaments and his shoulder capsule. There are three glenohumeral ligaments and they reinforce the joint capsule.
Kershaw was 13-5 with 2.46 ERA in 131 2/3 innings over 24 starts last season. He was sidelined between June 27 and Aug. 10 by left shoulder soreness and when he returned didn’t top 5 1/3 innings or 84 pitches.
He gave up six runs while getting one out in the NL Division Series opener, and Arizona went on to a three-game sweep.
The New York Mets realize a long-term deal with Pete Alonso is unlikely before the star first baseman is eligible for free agency after the World Series.
Alonso agreed last month to a $20.5 million, one-year contract that avoided arbitration. He switched agents last fall to Scott Boras, who usually encourages players to maximize value by testing the open market.
“I think that’s probably the most likely outcome,” new president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday, two days ahead of the Mets first spring training workout.
“Look, when you have a really talented player, who’s really good, who’s entering his final year of club control, who happens to be represented by Scott Boras, these things generally end up into free agency and we understand that,” Stearns added. “This is an organization that’s dealt with that before with really good players and has ended up in a perfectly fine spot.”
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A three-time All-Star, Alonso hit a career-low .217 last year with 46 homers and 118 RBIs, down from a .271 average in 2022, when he hit 40 homers and tied for the major league lead with 131 RBIs. Alonso set a rookie home run record with 53 in 2019, when he had 120 RBIs.
“I have not seen Pete here yet, haven’t talked to him here yet, but what we’re going to talk about is, look, let’s go out and have a great year together,” Stearns said. “You go out have a great year. Let’s have a great year as a team, and if we do that we’re both going to be set up, the organization and Pete, are going to be set up very well going into the offseason.”
Taking over a team that failed spectacularly last season, Stearns is optimistic New York can reach the playoffs this year despite a payroll retrenchment.
“As I talked to our players throughout the offseason, really from the moment I took the job, they wanted me to know how good they think the team is,” Stearns said. “They wanted me to know that they didn’t think the way ’23 played out was indicative of the talent level on the team.”
Convinced they were a World Series contender following an offseason spending spree, the Mets finished fourth in the NL East at 75-87 after a midsummer selloff that dispatched former Cy Young Award winners Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer along with closer David Robertson, outfielders Tommy Pham and outfielder Mark Canha and reliever Dominic Leone.
Right-hander Shintaro Fujinami’s pending deal is likely to be finalized Wednesday, when the Mets can starting using the 60-day injured list to open roster spots.
“We expect to compete for a playoff spot and have exciting baseball at Citi Field in September and October,” Stearns said. “Success can be defined in a lot of different ways, but certainly our expectation going into the season is that we’re going to have a quality team that wins games and is a competitive playoff-caliber team.”
All-Star closer Edwin Díaz is expected back after tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, after which me missed the entire regular season.
“I was incredibly fortunate during my time in Milwaukee to have really good closers throughout the tenure there, and it makes building the rest of your ‘pen and allowing those guys to feel comfortable in their roles a heck of a lot easier,” Stearns said,.
Stearns expects the Mets will continue to monitor the workload of 31-year-old right-hander Kodai Senga, runner-up in NL Cy Young voting. Senga was 12-7 with a 2.98 ERA over 166 1/3 innings during his first season in Major League Baseball. The Mets have several pitchers with options.
“We do have this flexibility to really go to that sixth man in the rotation when we want,” Stearns said, “so I think there will be times this season we’ll do that.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani took his first on-field batting practice Monday for the first time with his new team — and first time since he underwent elbow surgery last September.
Ohtani performed well in his 21 swings over two rounds of batting practice, hitting 10 home runs and topping out at 109 mph on exit velocity, per The Athletic. More importantly, Ohtani told reporters he said he felt “really good” and that he’s trending toward being ready for Opening Day.
The Dodgers’ season opener comes sooner than most MLB teams, as they will play two regular-season games against the San Diego Padres in Seoul, South Korea on March 20 and 21.
Ohtani has been rehabbing after a torn UCL in his right throwing elbow suffered in August. The injury prematurely ended his 2023 American League MVP season with the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani underwent surgery on that elbow in September and will only be a designated hitter, not a pitcher, for the Dodgers in 2024 with the goal of returning to the mound in 2025.
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Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December, $680 million of which is deferred until the following decade. He has won two MVPs in the last three years as the only baseball player in the modern era to succeed as both a pitcher and designated hitter on a routine basis.
The 47-year-old from New Jersey was selected to work a full-time big league spring training schedule this year, people familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. That puts her on track to become the first woman to umpire a regular-season big league baseball game.
Pawol’s spring training assignment was to be announced later Monday. It was disclosed to the AP by people familiar with the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.
MLB’s move comes 27 years after the gender barrier for game officials was broken in the NBA, nine years after it ended in the NFL and two years after soccer’s World Cup employed a female referee.
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Ted Barrett, a big league umpire from 1994-2022, first encountered Pawol at an umpire camp in Binghamton, New York, in early 2015 and encouraged her to pursue the career. Barrett doesn’t think Pawol will be made to feel uncomfortable by players or managers.
“When I first got into this 30-something years ago, that would have been the case,” he said. “Right now, it’s at the point in the major leagues, people don’t care race, creed, color, religion, belief. If you can umpire, you can umpire, and if you can’t, you can’t. The concern of the guys coming up is, ‘Can she umpire?’ If she can, she’ll be accepted and bought in. If she can’t, you got to get her out of there and get somebody else who can.”
Pawol has been a minor league ump since 2016 and worked her way up to the highest minor level last year, when she was behind the plate for the Triple-A Championship game.
MLB has 76 full-time staff umpires and uses fill-ins on crews for openings created by injuries and vacations.
Twenty-six umpires were assigned full spring training schedules last year, and 21 of those were assigned to the in-season call-up list. All worked at least one assignment — either on the field or in the video review control room — with one fill-in getting 149 big league assignments. In all, the call-up group had 1,590 assignments.
Because of the nature of their jobs, umpires often are confronted by angry managers and players.
“Once you get to the big leagues, you start all over, the learning curve,” Barrett said. “It’s going to be: Will she be able to adapt to that? And I’m confident that she will. And then it becomes a numbers game, right? We do have some older guys and there’s going to be some turnover. So any umpire that has major league spring training this year, I feel like they’ve got a pretty decent chance of becoming a full-time umpire.”
Pawol is among a small group of women who have umpired minor league games, among them Bernice Gera (1972), Christine Wren (1975-77), Pam Postema (1977-89) and Ria Cortesio (1999-2007). Nine women are scheduled to work in the minor leagues this season.
Cortesio was the last woman to work a big league spring training game, in 2007.
Pawol became an all-state softball and soccer player in New Jersey for three seasons in each sport at West Milford High School, where she was a 1995 graduate and was inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022. Pawol went to Hofstra on a softball scholarship and became a three-time all-conference pick, hitting .332 with 15 homers, 102 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 161 games from 1996-98
She played for the USA Baseball Women’s national baseball team in 2001.
After umpiring NCAA softball from 2010-16, she was approached by Barrett and fellow big league umps Paul Nauert and Marvin Hudson at a clinic in Atlanta in early 2015 and went to an MLB tryout camp at Cincinnati that August. She was among 38 hopefuls invited to the Umpire Training Academy at Vero Beach, Florida, and was offered a job in the Gulf Coast League in 2016.
Pawol moved up to the New York/Penn League in 2017, then was promoted to the Midwest League after the first two weeks of the 2018 season. She worked the South Atlantic League in 2019, the High-A Midwest League in 2021, the Double-A Eastern League and the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues last year.
Violet Palmer became the NBA’s first woman referee when she worked Dallas’ opener at Vancouver on Oct. 31, 1997, and Sarah Thomas was the NFL’s first woman on-field official when she served as line judge for Kansas City’s game at Houston on Sept. 13, 2015. The NHL has not yet had women as on-ice officials but changed the job title from “lineman” to “linesperson” this season.
Stéphanie Frappart of France became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup game when she worked Germany’s 4-2 group stage win over Costa Rica on Dec. 1, 2022, and Rebecca Walsh became the first to referee in England’s Premier League when she officiated Burnley’s 2-0 win at Fulham this past Dec. 23.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Maybe the Red Sox didn’t get the memo when Major League Baseball made a deal with Netflix to spotlight their upcoming season.
It’s the only explanation for the Red Sox’s uninspiring offseason. Even as the organization knows it will be under the microscope in 2024, the club has so far failed to make meaningful roster additions that could change its current outlook: another last-place finish.
New chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has made just one notable signing — here’s the hat tip for acquiring Lucas Giolito — but he has accompanied it with a series of head-scratching decisions. He let clubhouse leader Justin Turner walk without making an offer, despite the respected veteran’s stellar productivity and modest salary. He dealt oft-injured ace Chris Sale to the Braves in exchange for infield piece Vaughn Grissom. And he essentially swapped out Alex Verdugo for outfielder Tyler O’Neill.
And that’s it.
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The Red Sox haven’t done much or spent much to indicate they will compete in the best division in baseball. The Orioles clinched the AL East with 101 wins last year and only got better by trading for Corbin Burnes this winter. As of this moment, the Red Sox are nowhere near the class of the Rays, who most recently registered 99 wins, and the Yankees, who traded for Juan Soto. The Blue Jays might not be better than last year, but they’re certainly not Red Sox bad on paper.
Besides Boston’s lack of roster improvement, the team’s messaging has been completely maddening to its already embittered fan base. Red Sox chairman Tom Werner confidently said back in November that the team would go “full throttle” this winter, suggesting an aggressive spending approach that would make the Red Sox contenders again. The aftermath of that statement featured one let down after another. Just a few weeks ago, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said he expected a lower payroll in 2024. Huh?
At least Theo Epstein is lurking around Fenway Park again to help the front office make better decisions. The architect of three World Series champions, including the 2004 Red Sox squad that broke the franchise’s 86-year title drought, has returned to Boston as part owner and senior advisor. It’s too bad he couldn’t join Fenway Sports Group before the Red Sox got into this mess, before they sunk to the AL East basement three times in the past four years. The only optimism emanating from Boston now is that Epstein is back on board. There is hope his leadership can help Breslow and ownership make better decisions, both operationally and financially.
“Given the desire to win everywhere, we viewed this as tripling down on our commitment to winning,” Kennedy said of the hire, per the Athletic. “If our teams and clubs aren’t winning, there’s nothing to talk about. No one knows better how to win than Theo.”
If bringing Epstein back was the Red Sox’s way of “tripling down,” Kennedy and the rest of his brass must be waiting to reveal their first and second initiatives. So far, Boston’s alleged commitment to winning has only made its fan base angrier and more hopeless about the direction of the franchise. What’s next, will the Red Sox say that commitment will reveal itself in the documentary being filmed this season?
Boston legends reunite to discuss the city’s ‘championship era’
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MLB also announced that there is a second Netflix project coming later this year. That documentary will look back at the historic 2004 Red Sox season “which culminated with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history and the franchise’s first World Series title in 86 years,” per the press release.
Speaking of that 2004 World Series, where did all that Red Sox swagger go?
The Yankees recently gave their Boston rival outstanding mocking material and the Red Sox wasted it away. Aaron Boone revealed last October that the Yankees’ mental skills coach sent the players and the team some highlight videos of the 2004 Red Sox as a source of motivation during their desperate playoff push. At the time, the Yankees’ decision was ridiculed plenty across radio waves and morning sports shows as a ridiculous approach to creating inspiration. But how did the Red Sox respond? They finished last in the division for the second straight year.
The last thing the Red Sox need right now is a Netflix docuseries detailing their upcoming season. The army of camera crews and extra attention will just be another distraction. The only thing this club should be focused on is returning to the elite level of play that has delivered an MLB-high four championships in the past 20 years. You can’t fault the league for jumping at the opportunity to feature the Red Sox. The franchise and Fenway Park are gems — fundamental components of MLB and its history. And it’s no surprise Netflix chose to highlight the organization, regardless of its current state.
Everyone else seems to understand the high expectations that surround the Red Sox. It’s just the Red Sox, lately, that are behaving like a small-market team. It’s the Red Sox that are saying one thing, and doing another. It’s the Red Sox that are playing with fire and facing irrelevance by not investing in the required resources to win. The Red Sox, by agreeing to this docuseries, are asking us to give them more attention.
Too bad ownership and the front office haven’t provided a product worth watching.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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Shohei Ohtani walked through his new spring training clubhouse wearing a simple white T-shirt with one word “BOSS” across the front in big, dark capital letters.
The 29-year-old Ohtani gave his first interview at Camelback Ranch as a member of the Dodgers on a chilly Friday morning, surrounded by more than 50 reporters who asked questions of baseball’s first and only $700 million man.
It’s these kinds of scenes that make it hard for Ohtani to be just one of the guys.
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But he’s trying.
“I’m on a brand-new team, so I’m going to act like a rookie,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Try to get along with all the guys and teammates.”
The Dodgers had their first official workout of spring training Friday, with pitchers and catchers reporting. Several hitters were also taking batting practice, though stars like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman haven’t yet arrived at camp. The Dodgers are the first of the 30 teams to start spring training ahead of their opener against San Diego on March 20 in Seoul, South Korea.
Ohtani’s two-way superstardom is on hold for the 2024 season while he recovers from elbow surgery that will keep him off the mound. But he’ll still be able to hit — and he does that quite well. The three-time All-Star hit .304 with 44 homers last season despite missing most of the final month of the season.
Now that he doesn’t have to worry about pitching, those numbers could take another jump.
“I feel like there’s not just one level, but several levels ahead offensive-wise,” Ohtani said. “It just depends on what kind of lineup I’m in.”
All signs point to the Dodgers having a stellar offensive lineup. Los Angeles could start a lineup that includes fellow All-Stars like Betts, Freeman, Max Muncy and Will Smith. Ohtani said he’s ready to contribute.
“My swing — effort level-wise — is almost 100%,” Ohtani said. “My next step is facing live arms, some velocity.”
Ohtani’s first year of his 10-year contract is one of the many storylines for the big-spending Dodgers, who allocated more than $1 billion to free agents. The Ohtani deal was even richer than many expected and then days later, Los Angeles landed right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto with a $325 million, 12-year deal.
Manager Dave Roberts said he’s talked to Ohtani a few times already in Arizona, but he’s trying to give him space as he adapts to new surroundings.
“Everything he does is intentional, which is pretty amazing, but not surprising,” Roberts said. “I think right now, you see a lot of teammates trying to watch how he operates, learn what makes him tick, but it takes time.
“But I’ve still got to pinch myself to see him in a Dodger uniform.”
Roberts said the Dodgers are embracing the organization’s new role as the sport’s version of Taylor Swift. The manager hearkenedback to his days as a player with the San Francisco Giants in 2007, when teammate Barry Bonds was chasing the all-time career home run record, and the media was a constant presence in the clubhouse.
“It’s hard to ignore who he is as a ballplayer, the contract,” Roberts said. “But he wants nothing more than to win, and to win as a Dodger. That’s why he chose to come here. I can speak for everyone in the organization — we could’t be more excited.”
Former New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler was suspended through the 2024 World Series on Friday by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, who concluded he directed the team to fabricate injuries to create open roster spots.
No Mets medical or athletic training personnel were mentioned in the announcement by Major League Baseball.
Manfred said in a statement that Eppler directed “the deliberate fabrication of injuries; and the associated submission of documentation for the purposes of securing multiple improper injured list placements during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.”
Eppler, 48, was the Mets general manager from November 2021 until he quit last Oct. 5, three days after owner Steven Cohen hired David Stearns as president of baseball operations. Eppler resigned the day MLB’s investigation became public.
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Mets owner Steve Cohen and former manager Buck Showalter also were not mentioned in the public findings of Manfred.
“The Mets have been informed of the conclusion of Major League Baseball’s investigation. With Billy Eppler’s resignation on October 5, 2023, and with David Stearns leading the Baseball Operations team, the Mets consider the matter closed and will have no further comment,” the Mets said in a statement.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Kluber, who pitched for five big league clubs across a 13-year career, announced his decision in a statement on Friday, which read in part: “As I take my leave from the pitcher’s mound, my passion for baseball remains unwavering. I eagerly anticipate exploring opportunities to continue contributing to the sport in a different capacity.”
Adolis García and the Texas Rangers agreed Thursday to a $14 million, two-year contract, avoiding a salary arbitration hearing between the American League Championship Series MVP and the World Series champions.
The deal is pending a physical, according to two people familiar with the agreement. Those people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the contract, which includes escalators, wasn’t finalized.
García was the only Ranger eligible for salary arbitration who didn’t reach a deal before last month’s exchange of proposed salaries. A hearing had been scheduled for Thursday in Scottsdale, Arizona. García would again have been eligible for arbitration next winter.
The two-time All-Star slugger, who set an MLB postseason record with 22 RBIs last fall, was eligible for arbitration for the first time. He had requested $6.9 million and Texas had offered $5 million. That was the widest gap among the 23 players around the league who exchanged salary proposals with their teams.
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García had indicated through a translator before the team’s annual awards dinner two weeks ago that he was prepared for a hearing. General manager Chris Young had said then there had been good dialogue with García and his representatives, and described being encouraged by those.
The Cuban outfielder, who turns 31 next month, made $747,760 last season when he set career highs with 39 homers and 107 RBIs in 148 games. He had 27 homers and 101 RBIs in 2022. He can become a free agent after the 2026 season.
An emotional leader with a big bat for the Rangers, García hit .357 with five homers and a series-record 15 RBIs in the ALCS against Houston. He was the first player with RBIs in six consecutive games within the same postseason series.
He went deep in five consecutive postseason games, including his winning homer in the 11th inning of the World Series opener against Arizona. But he missed the last two World Series games with an oblique issue. He also missed 10 games late in the regular season because of a patellar tendon strain in his right knee.
García had said before the Rangers’ annual awards banquet on Jan. 26 that he felt good. He said he took about a month off after the season before resuming his workouts.
Rangers’ Adolis Garcia lifts them to a walk-off win in World Series Game 1
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After making his MLB debut in 21 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018, García’s next big league appearance was three games for the Rangers during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
García went to spring training with Texas in 2021 as a non-roster invitee after being designated for assignment by the team, but was called up two weeks into the season. He became an All-Star, hitting .243 with 31 homers and 90 RBIs in 149 games, and finished fourth in the balloting for AL Rookie of the Year.
The Rangers haven’t been to a salary arbitration hearing since 2000 with designated hitter Lee Stevens.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Rebuilds don’t always take as long as some might expect. In 2021, Major League Baseball’s three worst records belonged to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles. The first two teams just competed in the World Series. The last was the top seed in the American League last year and remains one of this year’s favorites.
The turnaround tactics varied. The Rangers spent their way back to contention. The Diamondbacks found linchpins in Zac Gallen and Corbin Carroll and surrounded them with savvy acquisitions. The Orioles cultivated one of the sport’s dynamic young cores. Teams’ methods will depend on ownership’s financial commitments and their ability to identify and develop talent.
But there’s one foolproof practice every team can employ, regardless of payroll, market size or prospect hit rate: make sure young generational talents don’t leave.
Which brings us to Kansas City and 23-year-old Bobby Witt Jr.’s 11-year, $288.7 million extension, a deal that shattered the Royals‘ previous record contract of $82 million given to Salvador Pérez in 2021. It’s the latest encouraging example of the sport’s shifting paradigm when it comes to smaller-market teams finding ways to keep their franchise cornerstones.
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For a while, extensions like Witt’s would’ve seemed unfathomable. During the 2010s, only three players under the age of 25 — Texas’ Elvis Andrus (2013), Atlanta’sFreddie Freeman (2014) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2019) — signed extensions of at least eight years. Andrus and Freeman were 24-year-old All-Stars who had already established themselves as consistent forces.
Acuña, meanwhile, was just 21 years old and 115 games into his major-league career when the Braves inked him to an eight-year, $100 million deal, which made him the youngest player in baseball history to sign a nine-figure extension. The deal paved the path for the plethora of team-friendly extensions to come in Atlanta (including, later that month, Ozzie Albies‘ ludicrous seven-year, $35 million deal). Other teams, particularly in smaller markets, seemed to take notice.
The four largest extensions given to players under the age of 25 have all happened since 2021, when baseball’s most eye-opening wager took place. That year, the Padres committed $340 million over 14 years to 22-year-old Fernando Tatís Jr., marking the largest deal for a player before arbitration. A year later, two 21-year-olds cashed in. Seattle gave Julio Rodriguez a 12-year, $209.3 million extension, while Atlanta handed Michael Harris II an eight-year, $72 million extension less than three months into his major-league career.
Last year, Carroll’s eight-year, $111-million pact became the largest contract for any player with fewer than 100 days of service time. More ground was broken two months ago, when the Brewers committed eight years and $82 million to 19-year-old prospect Jackson Chourio, marking the largest contract ever for a player yet to make his debut.
Long-term commitments to young players aren’t foolproof, as the Rays are dealing with after handing out their largest contract ever in 2021 to a 20-year-old Wander Franco, who might never set foot on a major-league field again. But far more often than not, the gambles have paid off.
Why Bobby Witt Jr.’s extension is good for Royals and MLB
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In 2004, the Cardinals inked a 24-year-old Albert Pujols to a seven-year, $100 million extension. He was named MVP three times during that stretch. That deal included a team option for 2011, which the Cardinals exercised on their way to another World Series championship. Count future Hall of Famers Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout among the list of players under the age of 25 to ink nine-figure extensions.
Increasingly now, teams are seeing value in making calculated bets on their best young players, which remains the best way for small- and mid-market clubs to find creative ways to keep their superstars at a potentially far below-market rate.
Witt’s captivating deal applies.
His $288 million guarantee is the second largest for a pre-arb player behind only Tatís. It might be best to view Witt’s deal more like a seven-year pact. The contract will reportedly allow him to opt out after the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th years, making him eligible to cash in on another megadeal in his 30s. If he is the player many assume, it’s hard to imagine he won’t renegotiate or test free agency at that point.
If he does make it through year 11, there is a club option that would add three more years at $89 million, bringing the total value of the deal to 14 years and $377 million. While those numbers might seem hefty, remember that he likely would have commanded far more on the open market if his career continued at its current trajectory.
The Royals just bought themselves seven years to put a winning product around one of the game’s most promising young stars. For a team that hasn’t had an MVP since George Brett in 1980, hasn’t had a winning season since hoisting the World Series trophy in 2015 and is trying to convince its city to build a new stadium, it’s a worthy bet on one of the game’s most dynamic talents.
Witt, who was one year away from arbitration, just completed the first season of at least 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in Royals history while leading the majors with 11 triples and finishing seventh in American League MVP voting at just 23 years old. He is now the only player in MLB history with 50 homers and 79 stolen bases through his first two seasons. Most importantly, for a team trying to project his potential, he got better across the board from his rookie year. He barreled more balls, hit 10 more homers, cut his strikeout rate from 21.4% to 17.4% and increased his slash line from .254/.294/.428 in 2022 to .276/.319/.495 in 2023, all while morphing into one of the elite defensive shortstops in the game.
Coming off a 56-win season, the Royals started this offseason demonstrating to Witt their intentions of lifting themselves out of the doldrums by committing more than $100 million to seven free agents. While their payroll still clocks in at the bottom half of the sport, it represents a significant step forward from where they were. Now, in a wide-open AL Central, anything feels possible.
Of course, Witt’s new deal doesn’t guarantee success in Kansas City. The Royals have a lot more work to do in order to create a contender, and for every Carroll or Acuña extension, there is a Giancarlo Stanton or Nolan Arenado. But for a team that once traded away Carlos Beltrán and Zack Greinke in their primes, Witt represents a new bedrock of promise and stability — and a reason to tune in for the rest of this decade. It’s an encouraging trend.
While payroll disparities around the sport remain an issue, no longer are places such as Arizona or Kansas City or San Diego or Milwaukee or Cleveland or Pittsburgh simply breeding grounds for the game’s most promising talents to develop before getting their paydays elsewhere.
If the Royals can make this kind of commitment, so can any club.
Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and MLB as a whole for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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