2022 is the final season of the seven-year, $217MM free agent deal that David Price signed with the Red Sox in December 2015, and it has been widely expected that the veteran left-hander will hang up his glove once his contract is up. Price all but confirmed as much earlier this week when speaking with Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register, initially telling Plunkett that he did plan to retire at season’s end, before making it more of a “yes and no” answer for family reasons.
“My (two) kids love it so much. That’s the only thing that makes me even think about playing any longer,” Price said. “I always told myself I’d ask my son, ’Do you want daddy to play baseball or do you want daddy to be home all the time?’ I asked him before this year and he said, ‘I want you to be home.’ I said, ’Are you sure?’ He said, ’Yeah.’ Now when I ask him, he says, ’No, I want you to keep playing.’ “
Now in his 14th season, Price has had an outstanding career since being selected by the Rays with the first overall pick of the 2007 draft. The southpaw’s resume includes five All-Star appearances, the 2012 AL Cy Young Award, and a World Series championship with the Red Sox in 2018. Price was a member of the Dodgers’ roster in 2020, but opted out of the season due to COVID-19 concerns, and thus wasn’t a part of their run to the World Series.
Returning to action in 2021, Price posted a 4.03 ERA over 73 2/3 total innings for Los Angeles, starting 11 of his 39 games. This year, Price has worked exclusively out of the bullpen, a role that Price is happy to fill even though the Dodgers have had some injury-related vacancies open up in the rotation.
While Price said he would start again if the Dodgers asked, the left-hander is happy to see “these young guys getting their starts. I like them being able to get their numbers up so they can go to arbitration and they can get their money. I got mine….I love watching Mitch White pitch. He’s got good stuff. That’s what he needs. He needs to pitch in the big leagues, not pitch in Triple-A. That’s a waste of time.”
Though he missed close to a month of action due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, Price has pitched well as a reliever in 2022, posting a 3.20 ERA, 28.9% strikeout rate, and 4.8% walk rate over 19 2/3 innings. The Dodgers haven’t used Price for many important late-game situations, but he has provided some useful innings for a bullpen that is still missing several key arms on the injured list. Certainly, capturing another Series ring would be a great way for Price to walk off into the sunset, if he indeed decided to retire once the season is done.
Lezzzzz go, Price. Retire with one more ring!
He getting traded to the Yankees?
No- if that were the case, it would probably be to a team that has won a World Series more recently than nearly a decade and a half ago.
Yankees won’t make it out of the first round AGAIN. Especially if they play the Astros. Those dudes are in their heads and fans heads big time. They just feed off the negative energy at Yankee stadium. It’s hilarious.
I’m guessing that “4.8% strikeout rate” was actually his walk rate.
Duh. They never check stuff
it’s been fixed, quit hating, this site is great
Must be fun being part of a baseball team and making $30M and not wanting to start so that ‘young guys’ can get their starts. That might be the laziest take i’ve ever read.
He’s being a good pro at this point. I’ll take that over a guy who thinks he’s the best pitcher on the roster long after his skills have left him. I’m sure he’s helping the young guys come along by imparting his knowledge to them and that is an invaluable thing for a young player. Glad to have him on the team and hope he can sign off with a ring this year.
He’s been good but overrated or simply overpaid. Never liked the guy in Boston ever since the stupid Eckersley incident but a) he got some important outs in 18 and b) his career was still one that most fans would love to have on a resume. Like any athlete with the bank account he has, he’s got the right to go out on his terms. With so much earned, a cut in 23 just makes family more important. He probably would have signed for $5m guaranteed plus incentives and for that kind of money, family matters more. Again, I’m not a Price fan but good for him if this is it.
no, he’s not being a good pro. he shows a lack of intensity and desire. take your money and go home, dude…
Comments like this are just plain depressing. So thanks a lot for that.
you think LAD really wants him taking starts from dudes with their rotation?
Well I think the $30 million dollars he’ll make this season would be money better spent if they got more out of him than relief. This dude has been a dud since he went to Boston. He had HOF written all over him and now he literally has zero chance.
Better spent? Should Friedman call Bloom so they can agree on tlhow Price should be utilized?
However, you can still argue that the point remains of Price is earning $16M/yr is a gross overpay for a low leverage reliever.
Sunk cost.
At $30M you’d think this guy would want to start, or at the very least be a reliever who comes in when the Dodgers have a lead. If the Dodgers ever bumped Kershaw to the pen in favor of ‘young guys’, i’d bet Kershaw would work to become one of the best 8th inning guys. Price is just a bum, a lazy bum.
@bucsfan0004 why would you have such an uncharitable take? Is it because Price is black and Kershaw is white? I think what Price is doing is much to his credit…he doesn’t have it anymore, so he wants young guys to take his innings and earn some money. He’s got his. Geez very hostile opinion for no reason.
Good idea, pull the race card! That worked for Biden!
Race card has worked for Republicans for 50 years now. However, “Iignotant SOB” should not have brought it up in this context.
Unfortunately for Price, he has warts that he has to live with. No such baggage to my knowledge with CK.
He doesn’t have to do it anymore… unless he wants to collect that $30M check. He is doing that in the laziest way possible, not the most altruistic.
How would you feel about any other profession, where one guy gets paid all the money, while he allows others to do the work?
And Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall
@ paddyo875. You could argue, but why would you? First of all, why care? Second, why forget that the Dodgers took on half of his contract as part of the Mookie Betts deal? Is that suddenly not a thing now? And also, why forget that Price gave a grand to every Dodgers minor league player when their season was canceled in 2020? Because it doesn’t fit the narrative of him being a bad guy?
I had much higher expectations for Price when we obtained him in the Betts trade. Part of the price to get Mookie.
Price is a good dude.
His first year with the Dodgers – never played a single game – COVID hits and he donated $1000 to every single minor leaguer in the organization – I believe it was about 200 of them. He hadn’t played a single professional game with the Dodgers, mind you. He opted out – for family reasons – then took care of the minor leaguers that no one else would take care of.
Price was vocal about wanting to start last year and got lambasted for it.
He’s vocal about wanting to be in whatever supporting role the Dodgers want to deploy him in, and he’s getting lambasted for it.
The dude is a pro. He’s checked his ego and is willing to do whatever the team asks of him.
I don’t know if there is anyone in the game of baseball I respect more than Price, and anything you’ve ever heard or read out of the Dodgers clubhouse echoes that sentiment.
Lazy bum??? Geez, take it easy. Why the (misplaced) hate?
So Price doesn’t want to earn his salary, and that’s fine with you??
“While Price said he would start again if the Dodgers asked”
Maybe a little more reading comprehension and a little less miserable and bitter commentary
19 innings this year and making 30 mill… not too shabby
He was the tax for acquiring Mookie. Dodgers don’t want him starting
As a Sox fan, I’d make that trade again and again. Where would the team be if Mookie’s and Price’s contracts were added to the mix? I’m also very happy with Verdugo in the outfield. If we still had Mookie and Price, JDM would likely have.been traded and there would be no chance of the team re-signing both Bogie and Devers.
JDM is leaving. So is Bogaerts.
Verdugo, Kíke & DMountain did not bring Dodgers type success with them to Beantown. But hey, at least the Sox aren’t stuck with one of the top talents in the sport anymore!
He was so good with the Rays.
Like Juego G.
The Rays get the best of them, everyone else gets the rest.
The Blue Jays got a fair shake
The way the Dodgers have used him since acquiring him, he’s been retired as far as I’m concerned.
No HOF for you!!!
Fans hate on any player who wants more playing time. They also call Price lazy for putting his ego aside and doing whats asked of him. You can’t win with the armchair GM’s here.
He didn’t put his ego aside because he was never part of the decision. What he’s doing there is called damage control. Said the right thing and people will assume he’s sincere even if he’s truly bitter.
Saying the right thing is putting his ego aside.
How many stories come out where players demand trades or makes things difficult? Younger guys seeing a big money cy young winner take a bullpen role sets the tone for others.
You can hate on him but I’m impressed. I wish Price the best luck going forward
I thought he retired three years ago.
Over/Under on the David Price Podcast starting in ~18 months?
Under
‘The Price is Right’
I hope I’m wrong on the name.
Good he’s washed-up anyway
I thought he retired after 2016
He will retire because you think a guy that made that much will come back next year on a $3 million contract
Arc2 – You are exactly right! Even if Price wants to come back for one more season, he’ll be lucky to find a team willing to offer him $5M in total compensation for 2023; it will probably be closer to $3M. After making $32M per season for the last 7 years, his ego won’t allow him to sign for such a small amount. With that said, I could see him retire in the offseason, get the itch to be back on the mound in April and then re-sign with the Dodgers for a 1/2 season. By then, the sting of the ‘insulting’ offers will have worn off and he’ll sign for $2M + incentives for the remainder of 2023. In his prime, he was a great pitcher but he certainly didn’t endear himself to fans or the media, making him unlikeable to the average fan. With that said, he did do a lot of charity work and he did help pay some of the minor leaguers when they weren’t getting any salaries during the Covid season so you have to give him credit for that. He also didn’t earn the full Red Sox contract he signed but he at least helped them to one ring in 2018, so it wasn’t a complete bust. He started his career on a HOF track but that fizzled after he signed with Boston. He barely makes the Hall of Very Good in my opinion but he should be proud of his overall accomplishments.
That’s a mouthful. If Price can replicate his production for the second half, he can easily make more than $5M. What makes you think Price is solely motivated by money after sitting out and collecting paychecks for the 2020 season?
*not collecting
It’s not ego it’s that he doesn’t need the money. He’s accumulated a lot of wealth in his career. $3 million less half in taxes depending on where he pitches is not worth the time. But if he really wants to pitch next season he’ll do it because again he doesn’t need the money.
Not the biggest fan of Price, but I’ll always be grateful for how he performed for the Jays in the regular season in 2015 after he came over from Detroit. Those were the most enjoyable and exciting months of baseball I’ve ever experienced and he was a huge part of that. Even though it’s been nearly 7 years I still remember how exciting that debut at home against the Twins was and how dominant he was in it.
It was fun, and boy oh boy did I want the Jays to empty the bank account to resign him. Yikes.
Yeah for sure. I wanted him back too but I knew it wasn’t likely to happen and I was okay with it. I assumed from day one that he was just a rental so it didn’t feel all that bad. Definitely looking back it was definitely good that they didn’t empty the bank account to bring him back.
Did he not go on the disabled list for playing too much Fornite?
he did NOT have a ‘great’ career, his time in boston was confusing, derogatory, harassing, painful and an embarrassment, he HATED it here and we hate him, i always did, even before he signed here for money that he never deserved, so lets stop telling ourselves everything is rainbows and lollipops and perfect all the time, it was by far 1 of the worst moves the red sox ever made, i actually gave or threw tickets away if i knew i was going to a game he was starting, the few i did attend, the fans would scream, not yell, but shout for 7 innings how much they hate him, forget about the numbers and the championship( which he really played no part in), hes one of the most disliked, highest paid players and the biggest mistake we ever made. To bad he couldnt stay in Tampa, 200 fans everynight, 1 newspaper and 2 reporters, you get here and its like reality sets in that your on a real team.
Agree with all this, and the part of this article that left yet another bad taste in my mouth was his motivation for letting the younger pitchers get starts this year – so they can get paid. Yeah, it’s all about the money, David. That’s why all of us are here
Do you feel better that you got that off your chest?
That all being said, his top baseball reference similarity scores are (1) Johan Santana and (2) Ron Guidry, which is enough for me to call Price’s a great career.
Sounds like Red Sox fans have some issues. Maybe Price wasn’t the problem.
Trust me, we aren’t all that bad.
Trust me, we aren’t all that bad.
Price is just very thin skinned. He can’t handle criticism in any form.
Consider how you just proved Ted’s point.
We hear this from Boston fans all the time. Then those players go somewhere else, and nobody has any problem with them. But it must be the player’s fault. Right.
he wasnt able to make it here cause he cant get made fun of or judged, did you even WATCH him pitch here? he looked like most nights he was crying, he was never right for this market, it looked like everytime he threw the ball he wanted to go home and commit suicide
Many would feel the same if they were surrounded by fans like you.
Price was great in the 2018 regular season (second half) and post season and helped the Red Sox win the World Series. A Red Sox fan would know that.
I remember him warming up for ages during game 4 in the 18 ws then starting 5 on 3 days rest.. It was gutsy. He might have been silly and ignorant a couple of times, but he’s got guts, and guts is enough.
36 year old former Cy Young award winner going from top of the rotation starter to seldom used reliever. Price sees the writing on the wall and probably doesn’t want to sign an non-guarenteed or small money contract to have to fight for a job. He has his ring and other hardware so there is little incentive for him to keep going other than money
“Now when I ask him, he says, ’No, I want you to keep playing.’”
In other words, he’s likely to keep ‘playing’ for as long as anyone is willing to pay him. Just like almost all of them. Wish he would just go away.
He never pitches, hidden in the bullpen
him going to the yankees is more than funny its borderline insane, he couldnt handle boston, ya hes gonna go to the biggest city and market in the country, he’ll be booed once then run off the field, you just dont get it, do you?
He checked out long ago.
Hall of Fame? Yes or No?
No
Reasoning? Not enough wins maybe?
Price’s peak was better than I remember.
2010: 2.72 ERA, 19 wins, Cy Young runner up
2012: AL-best 2.56 ERA, 20 wins, Cy Young
2013: led AL in SO/BB, BB% and CG
2014: 271 SO in 248.1 innings (both best in MLB) with 2.78 FIP
2015: led AL with 2.45 ERA, Cy Young runner-up
It’s a pretty good peak but I think he falls way short of the traditional counting stats. His 2020 absence and now being a middle reliever don’t help. Had he been a Eckersley or Smoltz, I think there could be a debate.
Tbh, back when the Dodgers acquired Price, I thought they might be able to make him a Smoltz 2.0. I thought that he might be able to stay more healthy out of the pen, he might regain a little velo, and work himself into a high-leverage lefty.
Bit of a cluster after Detroit (with a high point).
His trade to Toronto directly led to Papa Mike’s eventual firing of Dave Dombrowski. Therefore, Tiger fans connect the Al Avila dots to David Price. Gotta blame someone for that endless nightmare.
Praise the Lord! Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out! $23 Million a year for three years of nothing! Bye. Bye Looser!
32 million, 16 million paid by Boston, so for Dodgers fans thats 16 million a season.
Broken down further thats 6.4 million per win if he ends his dodger career with 5 wins. 2.9 million per start.
The Dodgers are stacked. He would still be starting on most other teams if he wasn’t getting paid $32m. The backends of the mega deals are rarely pretty, and pitching is extremely volatile. The outcome isn’t shocking. Those types of deals are risky. Pretty funny how personally some of these commenters seem to take these things. Where were the Red Sox fan lynch mobs when Pedroia was milking the end of his contract when he didn’t have much of a shot of returning? Or the Mets fans when David Wright did the same? I’m sure the Red Sox fans didn’t have a problem with it when Ellsbury was doing it to the Yankees. The unhealthy anger, if directed anywhere, should be at the front offices that issued the deals…but even then…it’s not your money. Go touch grass, as they say, haha.
I’m sure the Orioles are interested in him at the league minimum in 2023.
Going strangely unmentioned in this article about his potential retirement, Price will turn 37 next month.
Plenty of dough in the bank and young kids at home. Dudes done.