SPORTS ROCKIES GET CLOSER WADE DAVIS FOR $52M
Rockies acquire closer Wade Davis with three-year, $52 million deal
Wade Davis, a three-time allstar, signed a booming free-agent contract with the Rockies that will make him among the richest relief pitchers in baseball, the club confirmed Friday afternoon.
The Rockies capped an aggressive, offseason bullpen spending spree by making Davis their new closer. He accepted a three-year guaranteed contract worth about $52 million — his annual take, about $17.3 million, is the highest ever signed by a reliever based on yearly average.
The contract includes a fourthyear option that could increase Davis’ total pay to about $66 million. His deal outpaces the record-setting contract the Yankees gave Aroldis Chapman a year ago.
“There’s a lot to like,” Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich said of Davis. “His track record speaks for itself. And his experience pitching in important games, in playoff games, the presence that he has at the back end, is important. He’s earned a lot of trust.”
Davis pitched 58M innings for the Cubs this year, finishing with a 2.30 ERA and 32 saves in 33 opportunities. His 2.82 strikeout-to-walk ratio, with averages of 12.1 K’s and 4.3 walks per nine innings, are statistical upgrades over Colorado’s closer in 2017, Greg Holland. And among balls in play, Davis forced 40.5 percent into groundballs — a keen trait to carry at wide-open Coors Field.
The 32-year-old right-hander has been among the best relievers in baseball since 2014, when the Royals converted him from a
starter and moved him to the bullpen. In 241L innings over that span, Davis has a 1.45 ERA. He helped push the Royals to a World Series championship two years ago before landing with the Cubs in 2017.
“Cool, calm, collected. There’s a slow heartbeat there in pressure situations,” Bridich said of Davis. “That’s big for a team with playoff aspirations.”
With Davis and Holland at the back of their bullpen in 2015, the Royals helped set what would become a baseball-wide trend of extended, shutdown bullpen innings. Davis’ 0.95 ERA in 2015 locked down even slim leads for the Royals. And in a four-year stretch, between the Royals and Cubs, his season-ending ERA finished below 2.00 three times.
The Rockies had been pursuing a new contract with Holland, but the signing of Davis appears to leave Holland in the lurch. Davis also replaced Holland as the Royals’ closer after Holland began to suffer an elbow injury that led to him having Tommy John surgery.
Holland had a lucrative, incentive-heavy contract with the Rockies in his return from elbow reconstruction surgery that left him out of baseball for more than a year. He excelled with the Rockies, posting a league-high 41 saves and an all-star berth. Holland wanted to return to Colorado, sources said, and the Rockies were interested in re-signing him. Bridich said two weeks ago they had a “strong offer” on the table for Holland.
Instead, the Rockies fell into a deal with Davis that came together quickly over the past week, Bridich said.
“I’d be very surprised if we added another reliever or a starter,” Bridich said.
Colorado has built some- thing of a super bullpen. With Davis, Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw, the Rockies signed three of the topseven available free-agent relief pitchers this winter.
The Rockies have committed a whopping $106 million to their bullpen in the past month. McGee resigned with the Rockies, getting a three-year, $27 million deal. Shaw, a setup man for the Indians last season, signed a similar $27 million deal that includes a fourth-year option.
“The last few years, the teams that have deep bullpens — the Astros, Royals, Yankees, us in Cleveland — they all had deep bullpens,” Shaw said. “The starters don’t need to go seven or eight innings anymore. They can go five or six innings, then the rest of us can come in and throw an inning and a third here, or an inning and a third there. It’s definitely a trend.”
The Rockies also committed to paying $7 million apiece to relievers Adam Ottavino and lefty Mike Dunn. And longman Chris Rusin is set to enter his first year of arbitration.
So the Rockies have invested more than $50 million in their bullpen for the 2018 season alone — among the priciest bullpens in baseball history — with Davis as their likely closer. His acquisition is an opulent watermark for a club that for years seemed reluctant to spend big on relief pitchers.
“We’re excited to have talented and well-established guys want to come pitch for us,” Bridich said. “There’s a foundation that’s been set for a deep ’pen.”
Bridich said he expects Colorado’s player payroll in 2018 to be about what it was in 2017, when the club started the season with about $127 million in salary costs and finished at about $156 million.
Davis’ contract outpaces a run of recent wealthy deals for closers. The Yankees before last season gave Chapman the then-highest yearly contract for a reliever, a five-year, $82 million deal that pays him about $17.2 million annually by average. The Dodgers are paying their closer, Kenley Jansen, $16 million per year by average on a five-year, $80 million deal.
By signing Davis away from the Cubs, the Rockies will forfeit a second-round draft pick in 2018. But after Holland declined their qualifying offer for next season, the Rockies will receive compensation if he signs with another team.
The Rockies’ dive into the expensive free-agent bullpen market was made possible by an emerging rotation of young starters. All of their remaining starting pitchers from last season will make at or near the minimum major-league salary in 2018. Only 28-yearold Chad Bettis is due a raise in his first year of arbitration.
“It enabled us to be aggressive the last few years,” Bridich said. “It fits into a grander plan with our pitching, to add talent and impact.”