Extension Season Continues: Jacob deGrom Gets a New Five-Year Deal with the Mets

March 26, 2019, by Michael Cerami Chicago Cubs

Yesterday, Noah Syndergaard was mad that the Mets hadn’t given Jacob deGrom the contract extension he both wanted and deserved: ‘Jake’s the best pitcher in baseball right now. I think he deserves whatever amount he’s worth …. I just think they should quit all this fuss and pay the man already.'”

And as it turns out, he wasn’t just shouting into the wind:

DeGrom five-year, $137.5M deal with #Mets includes full no-trade clause, sources tell The Athletic. Gets opt-out after ‘22, same as Sale, even though he is a year further from free agency. Will earn $107M between now and opt-out, Sale, $105M.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 26, 2019

Before this deal, the Mets had two more years of control over deGrom via arbitration. But because he was a Super 2 player, he was scheduled to get an extra trip through arbitration (four total years, instead of three). And because he was the 2014 Rookie of the Year and 2018 NL Cy Young award winner, he was already scheduled to make $17M this season. In other words, he was cost controlled, but not exactly cheap.

But now, he’ll restructure his deal for 2019 and 2020 and make big, new money in 2021 and 2022 ($33.5M). Then, he’ll have a choice to opt-out or take $30.5M with the Mets in 2023. And then the Mets will have the a club option for $32.5M in 2024. Here’s the breakdown:

DeGrom breakdown 10M signing
7M in 2019
23M in 2020
33.5M in 2021 and 2022
Opt out
30.5M in 2023
32.5M club option 2024

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 26, 2019

Basically, this deal pays deGrom the same amount of money in 2019 (thanks to the signing bonus), gives him a nice raise for 2020, and pays him the “real money” for three years, before giving the Mets an out (club option). This is a solid deal for both sides, even if … once again … we all generally accept that deGrom probably could have/should have received more in free agency. I guess we can throw it on the pile. The number of baseball’s top players forgoing their only shot at free agency is just staggering.

Here is your updated list of recent, extremely notable offseason extensions: Alex Bregman, Eloy Jimenez, Aaron Nola, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Luis Severino, Nolan Arenado, Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt, Miles Mikolas, Blake Snell, Justin Verlander, Chris Sale, and Jacob deGrom.