The Red Sox have announced a four-year right-handed extension Garret Whitlock, with club options also covering the 2027 and 2028 seasons. Whitlock will earn $18.75 million over the four guaranteed years (2023-26) of the deal MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo, and Option 2027 is valued at $8.25M with a $1M buyout. The 2028 option would net Whitlock $10.5 million, with a $500,000 buyout. For escalators, option years can be worth up to $4 million more in extra cash per season.
Whitlock was already arbitrated through the 2026 season, so the extension gives the Red Sox some cost certainty as well as added control over his first two free agent years. Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal (Twitter link) has the annual breakdown, starting with a $1M signing bonus. Whitlock will earn $1 million in 2023, $3.25 million in 2024, $5.25 million in 2025 and $7.25 million in 2026.
If both escalators max out, Whitlock will receive a total of $44 million over the six-year extension term. cotillo adds that Whitlock remains eligible for the league’s pre-arbitration player bonus pool both this season and in 2023, giving the right-hander an opportunity to land even more money.
It’s not a bad payday for a pitcher who is less than a year from his MLB debut and who has never pitched at the Triple-A level. Picked in the 18th round for the Yankees in the 2017 draft, Whitlock had some strong numbers in his first three pro seasons but underwent surgery by Tommy John in July 2019. Without any sort of 2020 season, Whitlock was seen as something of an under-the-radar pick when the Red Sox selected him in the December 2020 Rule 5 draft outside of New York.
As it turns out, Whitlock is now considered one of the best Rule 5 success stories in recent memory. The rookie posted a 1.96 ERA, 49.7% grounder rate, 27.2% strikeout rate, and 5.7% walk rate over 73 1/3 innings and served as a lockdown Multi-inning reliever from the Red Sox bullpen. Whitlock’s surprise appearance was a major factor in Boston’s run to the ALCS, and the team has now locked him in as a contributor for most of the decade.
Contract escalators are tied in part to innings totals, reflecting the possibility that Whitlock could eventually switch from bullpen to rotation. There was some consideration of using Whitlock as a starter this year, but the Sox are choosing to be as flexible as possible in using the rights. Whitlock is partnered with rich hill Piggyback at the beginning of the year, which also gives Whitlock the opportunity to play in high-leverage situations in other games.
This marks the third extension of Chaim Bloom’s tenure as Boston’s chief baseball officer and the second with a spare pitcher after completing the two-year, $18.75 million pact Matt Barnes last summer. Despite the similar guaranteed salaries, there isn’t much of a difference between the two deals as Barnes was only a few months away from entering the free-agent market. Whitlock, on the other hand, turns 26 in June and would therefore not have entered the open market until he was just before his season at the age of 31.
While his $247.5k draft bonus for an 18th-place player was higher than usual, and the new pre-arbitration pool offers an additional opportunity for more revenue for pre-arb players, it’s not hard to understand , why Whitlock (with TJ surgery already on his resume) would be keen to secure a life-changing fortune for himself so early in his career. There was also an obvious appeal from Boston’s side, because the extension is good business for the team, even if Whitlock remains “only” a shutdown reliever. Should Whitlock eventually emerge as a starter, the Red Sox will benefit from that early right-hander investment.
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