On Saturday April 4, 2015, the Kansas City Royals agreed on a contract extension with their young 23-year-old ace pitcher, Yordano Ventura, on a 5-year deal. Ventura will get paid $23 million over the next 5 seasons. At the earliest the star pitcher can become a free agent in 2020, while this new deal makes sure that his arbitration years (2017-2019) will be avoided. In addition, the new contract includes a club option for the sixth year. After his stellar rookie campaign, including a wonderful WS Game 6 performance, locking up a guy like this was extremely important to KC.
For a franchise like the Royals, big contracts, like the one they couldn’t offer to James Shields, are hard to throw down, because of the low salary cap. So, developing a winning team in their farm system then locking up their top prospects early for little money is the plan that must be followed. If not done properly, then those young up and coming stars, like Ventura, will become to expensive for the Royals to sign. The hardest part is guessing right in which star will become the next franchise leader.
So far, KC has done a good job on the guessing game, as Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, Alcides Escobar, and Erik Hosmer, have all already signed extensions, either previously or sometime in the past. And all of those have worked out brilliantly, as each player is now playing above and beyond what the price of their contract says. Now, it’s Ventura’s turn, and after the marvelous season he put together in 2014, $4.6 million/year is a big-time bargain the men at the K.
Considering Yordano’s huge upside and talent, within a couple seasons he will be one of the best pitchers in the game. Comparisons to Pedro Martinez have already been made from the sight of KC’s young ace. With all of that in mind, $15 million/year is at the least what the young Dominican Republic kid will be worth very soon. Yet, he will only be obtaining $4.6/year until 2020; thus being a steal.
