3:28pm: The team announced the deal, which will pay McGowan $1.5MM per season in 2013 and 2014 and includes a $4MM club option for 2015 (with a $500K buyout, according to The Associated Press).
2:50pm: Dustin McGowan, who arrived at Spring Training without a guaranteed spot in the Blue Jays' rotation, now has job security for at least two years. The oft-injured right-hander has agreed to terms with the Blue Jays on a two-year contract extension with an option, Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and MLB Network Radio tweets.
McGowan returned from shoulder trouble to make five Major League appearances last year, his first big league action since 2008. ACES represents the right-hander, who removed himself from a minor league start yesterday because of plantar fasciitis. McGowan, who turned 30 on Saturday, had already agreed to terms with the Blue Jays on a one-year, $600K deal for 2012.
I can’t imagine this being for a very high salary, McGowan can barely get through a single sentence withou- “ow my shoulder!!”
McGowan is already signed for 600k in 2012, and in reality, this
contract extension is actually designed to cover at least 2 years of
free agency.
I’m actually interested in figuring out how McGowan already has 5 years of service time.
you gain service time while on the dl.
No one in MLB has the job security that Dustin McGowan has.
Well… good? Depending on how much this contract is for…
Very excited for him! Came so close to calling it a career too.
That’s friendly of them. Hope it has one of those crazy clauses like Andrew Miller’s contract from last year.
Great for Dustin and his family. Great for the Blue Jays. Great all around!
I hope McGowan has a successful year, he deserves it after all he has gone through.
Does this give him/Jays protection if they have to dfa him to send him to the minors?
Nope…a player only gets three seasons of optional assignments in his career when he is activated onto the 40-man roster. Four seasons if he is activated right out of high-school. Adeiny Hechavarria has four seasons of optional assignments because he signed a pro contract along with his signing bonus and MLB categorized him as a high-school signing.
Okay thx man
Sooooo…where are all the usual suspects to corroborate Bowden’s claim?
Good for him and the Jays.
I think its 2 year 3-4 Million with couple of options tacked on.
If he fails, no biggy. You can not get this type of deal with Dustin McGowan type of upside.
mcgowan is a younger version of chris young..statswise that is…great deal AA
Very shrewd signing by AA. If McGowan overcomes his injuries, he has the potential to be another Chris Carpenter. If not, not much money was lost in the endeavour.
It’s been so long since McGowan’s potential was discussed I forgot how high he used to be ranked. I don’t know if he can be as good as Carpenter(I know he’s compared to Carp because of injuries), but, I’d take it in a heartbeat.
Could end up being thrown away money, but if it is, it’s just 3 mil. If Dustin can SOMEHOW figure it out and stay healthy, it will certainly pay off.
Nice. Classic low risk/ high reward type of deal.
Gotta agree with you….but….I believe you meant low cost/high reward.
Even if McGowan doesn’t “break out”, AA will pay no more than $1 mil per WAR on McGowan for the next three seasons. A very easy contract to move if AA has to make room for emerging prospects.
in general, from what i can understand, low cost=low risk, i’m not 100% sure though
You are probably right…but…I figured I would risk being wrong since it won’t cost me anything.
I approve.
I like it. If it works out, it’s a steal. If it doesn’t, you’re not losing that much money. McGowan gets the security he wanted and needs. Hopefully he can stay healthy and do well.
realistically he’s given his last 3 years of his life to make it back to this point..
its got to be tough to worry about blowing an arm and having to go out and start a new career.
not that this was the reason, I doubt the jays are generous. I’m sure they put him through some tough physicals and exams before inking this
Some are on such an austerity kick that they’ve flipped their lids over this one. But really, it’s peanuts: $1.5m v 2 years to protect a potentially big asset. It’s old-fashioned insurance at a low premium. Tough to hate.
let’s lock up Jesse Litsch now!
You can do it JPR!!!
hes already locked up….to the refridgerator.
Reply fail. And somehow he’s taller/lighter then Snider.
he’s out of options. now he’s likely to clear waivers if they want to send him to the minors. maybe buys him another year of rehab in the minors if noone want to risk 3mil on him…
I feel like if that was to happen they would throw him on the 15 day DL for “arm soreness” instead to avoid that.
Exactly. You don’t sign a guy to a contract so it’s easier to sneak him through waivers.
I don’t get why they’re tacking on future seasons for him when he hasn’t really pitched in three years. It can’t be that hard for them to find starting pitching that they’d lock him up when there’s no guarantee he’ll even pitch well if he is healthy.
I think they are doing it because they believe he has tremendous upside if he stays healthy. He was a 4 fWAR pitcher just before getting injured. Plus, he did rank as high as 18 in Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects and was a Tier 1 high school prospect. He has a tremendous pedigree to go along with good stuff.
This guy was surprisingly a beast in MLB 2K6. Trading Schmidt for him and others proved to be great as he outperformed him that season (not a great game at all, but it just brought back a nostalgia feeling to me).