Two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom agreed to a five-year, $185 million contract with the Texas Rangers, sources told ESPN, sending the most dominate pitcher in all of baseball to an organization that has been searching high and low for consistent pitching, committing to massive free agent investments for the second consecutive offseason.
The Rangers announced the deal on Friday night, but did not make the terms public.
The 34-year-old deGrom, who has spent his entire career, nine seasons, with the New York Mets, opted out of the final two years of his contract despite throwing just 64.1 innings in 2022. He was on the shelf for the initial four months of the season due to a stress reaction in his shoulder, and injuries have hampered him to 224.1 innings over the last three years.
The Rangers over looked the fact that he is injury prone and to the potential for deGrom to be a staple for the pitching staff for years to come. He shattered the mold industry-wide with expectations of a shorter-term deal with the five-year package that sources said includes a sixth-year option to bring the contract’s total value to $222 million.
The signing comes just over 12 months after the Rangers lavished shortstop Corey Seager with a 10-year, $325 million deal and signed second baseman Marcus Semien for seven years and $175 million. Along with Jon Gray’s four-year, $56 million deal, the Rangers spent the most money in the 2021-22 offseason.
Bringing in deGrom with the biggest deal of the 2022-23 offseason thus far continues the landmark spending. The contract does not include any deferred money and gives deGrom a full no-trade clause, sources said. Between that and the lack of a state tax in Texas, teams competing for deGrom’s services would have needed to exceed the $40 million-a-year mark and stretch the offer’s length to have competed with the Rangers.
In deGrom, the Rangers secured a right-hander with the best array of pitches among starters: a 100-mph-plus fastball he throws with pinpoint command, a hard-biting slider that sits in the low-to-mid 90s and a changeup and curveball that would be elite pitches for others but serve as secondary to deGrom’s fastball-slider duo.
Jacob deGrom concluded an injury shortened 2022 campaign with a 5-4 record and 3.08 ERA in 11 starts, though his peripherals better illustrated his dominance: 102 strikeouts against just eight walks, with nine long balls allowed.
It continued the type of performances that he had demonstrated over the previous four seasons, when he collected both of his Cy Young Awards and elevated himself from a former ninth-round pick out of Stetson University, where he played shortstop position, to the most devastating pitcher in the world.
He did not make his debut with the Mets until a month before his 26th birthday, and with Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz also among the Mets’ young starters, deGrom was not thought of as a future star.
By the end of his rookie season, when he posted a 2.69 ERA over 140.1 innings, expectations rose. deGrom was selected to the National League All-Star team in only his second major league season and earned Cy Young consideration in his fourth year before breaking out as a 30-year-old in 2018. Over 217 innings,
deGrom struck out 269 hitters, walked 46, allowed only 10 home runs and posted a 1.70 ERA in route to his first of two Cy Youngs.
He made it back-to-back awards with a 2.43 ERA over 204 innings with 255 strikeouts in 2019. That spring, he had signed a five-year contract extension that included an opt-out after the 2022 season.
After pitching 68 innings in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, deGrom seemed to be at his apex in 2021, posting a filthy 1.08 ERA in 15 starts, with 146 strikeouts and 11 walks in 92 innings of work. But injuries curtailed him once again, missing more than half the season with arm issues and the first half of the 2022 season, leading some to speculate whether he would decline the final two years of his deal.
He did just that and with good reason. The market for a pitcher of deGrom’s caliber was robust, even with trepidations about his age and health. A year ago, the Mets signed ace and future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer to a three-year, $130 million contract despite him being 37 years old.
While deGrom did not match Scherzer’s average annual value, the $37 million a year exceeds the previous No. 2, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, and, with the lack of deferrals and taxes, is closer to Scherzer’s number than the on-paper gap.
The Rangers’ willingness to go to that level sent shock waves through the MLB community. While it was clear that Texas, whose starters’ combined ERA of 4.63 was in the bottom five this past season, planned on pursuing pitching, giving deGrom a fifth season signaled its intent to get the best pitcher on the market.
With deGrom, Gray, Martin Perez and Jake Odorizzi, along with young big leaguers Dane Dunning and Glenn Otto and prospects Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter and Owen White, the Rangers are suddenly in a far better position.
The competition in the American League West will be thrilling and will not be easy. Atop the division are defending World Series champion Houston Astros, who have signed first baseman Jose Abreu and reliever Rafael Montero, and behind them this season were the wild card-winning Seattle Mariners, who have added outfielder Teoscar Hernández and second baseman Kolten Wong in trades.
