Don’t worry, Kansas City Royals fans – your young stud pitcher isn’t going anywhere. The club has agreed to a five-year extension with pitcher Yordano Ventura that guarantees him $23 million. The deal also has a pair of club options that can keep Ventura in Kansas City through his age 30 season.
Sources: Ventura deal is for $23M guaranteed. 5 guaranteed yrs, 2 option yrs.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 4, 2015
After a solid debut down the stretch in 2013, Ventura was a fixture in Kansas City’s rotation in 2014. He made 30 starts, tossing 183 innings, pitching to a 3.20 ERA, and striking out 159 hitters. This deal looks pretty similar to the bargain basement contract extension that the Royals signed battery-mate Salvador Perez to a couple years ago, which kept him under team control through 2019 for a maximum cost of $21.75 million.
Of course, there’s plenty of risk in signing a young to a long-term deal like this. Trevor Cahill’s extension with the Diamondbacks (initially agreed to with the A’s) has been a disaster, but the club-friendly contracts signed by Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Chris Sale, and Julio Teheran (among others) have worked out pretty well for their clubs.
It remains to be seen how Ventura’s extension will work out for him and the Royals, but at least Kansas City has another one of their talented young players on a cost-controlled deal until the end of the decade. They haven’t been able to do that with Eric Hosmer or Mike Moustakas, and that pair could be priced out of Kansas City in the next year or two as their salaries continue to grow.
