David Price walks off mound and into interesting free agency situation
Game 6 of the ALCS was supposed to be David Price’s grand opportunity to rewrite his playoff legacy. He entered Friday night’s game with zero wins and seven losses in seven postseason starts as a starting pitcher. Here he was, taking the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays with his team trailing the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in the series needing a win to force a winner-take-all Game 7. It was expected the Blue Jays would need a monster performance from the 30-year-old left-hander they acquired from Detroit the trade deadline with these kind of games in mind to get it done.
Well, the Blue Jays bowed out of the postseason after losing a 4-3 thriller, but Price’s contributions will largely fade into the background given everything else that transpired in a wild game at Kauffman Stadium. Price pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowed five hits and one walks, struck out eight and was charged with three earned runs.
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It was a solid start – easily his best of these playoffs – and he certainly did enough to walk away with a win. Price recovered nicely after giving up early home runs to Ben Zobrist and Mike Moustakas that put the Royals up 2-0 after two innings. The third run came across in the seventh after reliever Aaron Sanchez allowed the runner he inherited from Price to score, but was off the hook for the loss when Jose Bautista tied the game with a two-run home run in the top of the eighth. Kansas City scored one run off Roberto Osuna in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead and Wade Davis closed it out in the ninth to send the Royals to the World Series for a second straight year.
And now the questions about Price’s future really come into focus. He’s about to be a free agent for the first time in his career, and even if he insists he’s not worried about free agency or even aware when it begins, here’s what we do know: he’s going to command a massive contract on the open market, potentially worth more than $200 million. He’s won a Cy Young before, may add a second soon thanks to his regular season play this season, and is the type of ace that teams dream about having at the top of their rotation.
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After giving up three prospects to get him, will the Blue Jays even make a competitive offer to keep him? The usual suspects when it comes to big-time free agents – the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs – have already been talked about as teams with interest in landing him.
Price came to Toronto in a blockbuster trade and helped power a team that was .500 when he arrived to the AL East title and to within two wins of the World Series. The playoffs didn’t go as planned, but it was a move that worked out for all parties involved. It’ll be very interesting to see where Price winds up next season.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
