New Red Sox pitcher David Price already loves Boston

David Price has signed a seven year deal for $217 million with the Boston Red Sox and is looking forward to life in Boston.

It’s early December and a cold winter is ahead, but Major League Baseball fans would probably never think of the deep freeze given the excitement in the early portion of this offseason. This winter’s biggest free agent was David Price and this week he signed the largest contract for a major league pitcher, for seven years and $231 million, with the Boston Red Sox.

Last season, Price was a pitcher with the Detroit Tigers before joining the Toronto Blue Jays, just prior to the July 31 MLB Trade Deadline. As a member of the Detroit Tigers pitching rotation, he went an impressive 9-4 and an ERA of 2.53 in 146 innings of work in Michigan. In the final two months of the season, in Toronto, he concluded the campaign with a 9-1 record and a 2.30 ERA in 74.1 innings as the team’s ace pitcher. He proved to be a smart acquisition by the Blue Jays and a key piece that helped the team make the playoffs for the first time since winning the 1993 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. During the 2015 playoffs, the Blue Jays defeated the Texas Rangers in the American League Divisional Series before losing against the eventual World Series winners, Kansas City Royals, in the American League Championship Series.

Price was one of the three finalists for the 2015 Cy Young award, competing against Oakland Athletics Sonny Gray and Houston Astros’ Dallas Keuchel. Ultimately the award went to Keuchel and Price was the runner-up for the honor.

Price’s departure to their division rival has left a sour taste on the fan base, in Toronto, as well as across Canada. The Canadian fans are thinking that ownership should have thrown whatever Price wanted and kept the core pieces together and compete for a championship in 2016.

Price has done and said all the right things after his departure from the city of Toronto via Twitter last week. Price now joins the Red Sox and joins the hottest and toughest baseball market in the United States.

The offseason is only just beginning and a lot can happen to the Boston Red Sox and the other divisional rivals of the American League East. Price steps in now and becomes the top ace of the Red Sox team that finished in dead last the past couple of seasons after winning the 2013 World Series. There will be a lot of pressure on the 30 year old left hander. He will need to continue to build off of last year’s season in Detroit and Toronto and be under consideration again for the Cy Young award. He is saying all the right things and will have “31 million reasons” over the next seven years pitching at Fenway Park.

The Boston Red Sox can’t be blamed for this signing and they will not be considered to be an immediate cellar-dweller team after also acquiring closer Craig Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres. The fans in Boston, the Red Sox team and David Price appear to be in a joyful union.

The Red Sox are serious threats once again!