PHILADELPHIA — Maybe it wasn’t love at first sight. But it was close.
Rick Porcello signed a four-year contract extension with the Boston Red Sox on Monday despite not yet appearing in a single game with the club. The right-hander saw all he needed to see in the four months since being acquired from the Detroit Tigers to feel comfortable making a long-term commitment.
“Over the course of spring training and getting to know everybody within the organization, it was a pretty easy decision for me that this is something I want to be a part of,” Porcello said. “I’m very grateful and fortunate for the opportunity.”
Porcello’s extension, which runs through the 2019 season, reportedly is worth $82.5 million. He’ll reportedly still earn $12.5 million this season, but he’ll earn a $20 million salary in 2016 and 2017 before receiving a bump up to $21 million in 2018 and 2019.
It’s a big chunk of change for a pitcher who hasn’t completed a regular-season inning in his new duds, but the Red Sox, like Porcello, were enticed by the idea of a long-term commitment.
Porcello just turned 26 in December, so his new deal will take him through his age 30 season. In theory, those should be his prime years.
“It was very clear to us that Rick was someone we wanted to keep here past this season,” Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said Monday. “Aside from the pitcher that he is, which obviously we really like, getting to know Rick more over the course of the winter and spring, he has a lot of qualities we really admire.
“We felt like he was the type of person we want here, one of the types of guys we want here, and we see him as a really important part of our team going forward for the next several years.”
Porcello perhaps could have landed a more lucrative contract if he played out this season, pitched well and hit the open market next winter. It’s rare that a pitcher coming into his own reaches free agency at such a young age, and he undoubtedly would have had several potential suitors barring a catastrophic collapse in 2015.
But, as Porcello detailed in an essay for Derek Jeter’s website, The Players’ Tribune, the Red Sox provided everything he’s looking for in a long-term home. The decision ultimately became a no-brainer.
“I think the most important thing for me, in my mind, going through spring training was that I wanted to be a Boston Red Sox, and that’s really what it came down to for me,” Porcello said. “Obviously free agency provides opportunities for a lot of guys, but to be in Boston, to be able to play for the Red Sox and this organization and be a part of this family here was extremely important to me.
“And to have that opportunity to win, that was the bottom line. I’m extremely happy to be able to pursue that for the next four or five years.”
Porcello admitted that a contract extension wasn’t the first thing on his mind once the Red Sox acquired him from the Tigers at the Major League Baseball winter meetings in exchange for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. So in that sense, no, it wasn’t love at first sight.
But as Porcello, who was entering the final year of his contract, began to prepare for the 2015 season in an environment in which he was comfortable, a mutual infatuation grew, to the point where neither he nor the Red Sox needed to see any more.
Both Porcello and the Red Sox are taking a leap of faith. But it’s a calculated one, at least.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@BostonGlobe
