By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
The Kansas City Royals have re-signed starting pitcher Michael Wacha on Monday. He has received a three-year contract extension.
The 33-year-old will earn $51 million with the extension. However, there is a fourth-year club option that could potentially make the overall deal worth $72 million.
“Not only does it bring our starting rotation back that we’re really proud of – really, our success began with starting pitching – but it brings us clarity,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “There’s not a whole lot for us to worry about from a pitching perspective right now. We can move onto other things that we feel like we need to do. The timing of this was really good. You check off the big box early in the offseason. And now we have three, four months before the season starts to try to make whatever changes we’re going to make.
“With support from ownership and understanding how important it was to get Michael back in the fold, it just really fell in place really quickly.”
Wacha joined the Royals during the 2024 season. Now, he has security after bouncing out from 2020 through 2023.
This past season, Wacha was 13-8 with the Royals. He also had a 3.35 ERA in 29 starts.
He gave up 62 earned runs (65 runs overall) on 154 hits over 166 2/3 innings. Wacha saw 17 balls end up being home runs. He struck out 145 batters and walked 45.
The veteran pitcher spent seven years of his 12-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals. He also pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, and the Boston Red Sox.
Wacha has gone 101-62 as a starter in 257 starts in his long career. He has also appeared in 278 games.
He has finished four games, two complete games, and two shutouts.
He has had a 3.89 ERA in 1,454 2/3 innings. Wacha has struck out 1,290 batters and walked 458. He gave up 629 runs (672 runs overall) on 1,405 hits.
“Just the way the season went throughout the summer, we fell in love with the city, fell in love with the team, the staff here, everyone involved in the stadium,” Wacha said. “And it was something where we didn’t want to go somewhere else. We had been bouncing around a little bit through different teams the past few years, and to find a place that really felt like home, that we could buy a house and get settled here for the next few years, it was honestly a no-brainer. It was important to get it done before the free agency stuff opened up.”
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