LAKELAND, Florida: The Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander have agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep the star pitcher with the club through the 2019 Major League Baseball season.
The deal also includes an option for 2020 that could extend Verlander’s tenure with the team even further.
The Tigers did not reveal terms of the agreement. ESPN reported that Verlander will make $28m each season from 2015-2019, the years of the extension. The option is reportedly worth $22m.
Verlander has two years remaining on the five-year, $79.5m contract he inked after the 2009 season. He’ll make $20m in each of those seasons.
Those two seasons combined with the reported terms of the extension and option would make Verlander baseball’s first $200m pitcher.
Verlander, 30, went 17-8 with a 2.64 ERA and 239 strikeouts in 33 starts last season, leading the American League with six complete games, 238 1/3 innings pitched and 239 strikeouts.
He was the American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner as outstanding pitcher in 2011, becoming the 10th pitcher in Major League history to win both the MVP and Cy Young Awards in the same season.
The five-time All-Star is 124-65 with a 3.40 earned run average in his major league career, which began in 2005. He is scheduled to start on Opening Day in Minnesota on Monday, marking the sixth straight season he’s been Detroit’s Opening Day starter.
“Justin is one of the premier pitchers in baseball and we are thrilled to keep him in a Tigers uniform for many years to come,” Tigers president and chief executive Dave Dombrowski said.
“Justin has been a Tiger for his entire career and he is on pace to be one of the greatest pitchers in this illustrious franchise’s history.”AFP
