Freelance MLB: Blue Jays, Kevin Gausman agree to 5-year, $110 million contract

Free agent right-handed pitcher Kevin Gausman agreed to sign with Toronto Blue Jays in five years and 110 million dollars, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reporting.

Gausman, 30, is having the best season of his career. He’s in 14-6 with 2.81 ERA (145 ERA+), 1.04 WHIP and 227 strikes against 49 unintentional walks in 192 innings to win 107 Giant. He posted 5.2 WARs, earning his first All-Star pick while placing sixth in the NL Cy Young vote and 21st in the NL MVP vote.

Gausman has played quite inconsistently throughout his nine-year career, displaying brilliant ups and downs but also interspersed with bad times. The last two years in San Francisco, he seems to have hit his next goal. Giving up on the sink player after 2017 and then using the splitter much more in the previous three seasons would be the biggest changes in his pitch mix.

Overall, he seems to have exploited that potential that once made him the fourth overall draft pick in LSU and saw him ranked as one of 20 potential customers in baseball when he’s about to pass Orioles‘minor league system a decade ago. He is a starting striker at this point and is currently being paid as such.

For the Blue Jays, it looks like this means they’re parting ways with winner Cy Young Robbie Ray. Gausman looks set to slip right into Ray’s place, especially since the Jays signed José Berríos to a seven-year, $131 million extension earlier this season. Here’s how things look now with six possible pitchers for the spin:

RHP: José Berríos
RHP: Kevin Gausman
Film Festival: Hyun-jin Ryu
RHP: Alex Manoah
RHP: Ross Stripling
RHP: Nate Pearson

There’s talent and flexibility in it. The top three pitchers included an ace upstream. Manoah was generally very good last year as a rookie. Pearson has yet to exploit the potential that made him into baseball’s top 10 prospects, but he is capable and is only 25 years old. And Stripling could swing to the barn if needed.

As for the Giants, they will have to look elsewhere to fill the void left by Gausman. Logan Webb has returned, Anthony DeSclafani signed again and got a report Alex Wood is coming back. It’s three pivot points with Sammy Long and Tyler Beede right now can hold 4th and 5th place.