The Toronto Blue Jays will announce today that Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay has signed what sources say is a four-year, $42-million (U.S.) contract.
Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi, who said signing Halladay to a multiyear contract was his top off-season priority, declined comment yesterday. The club's president and chief executive officer, Paul Godfrey, would say only, "We're still working away on it."
But both the Blue Jays and Halladay were optimistic on Tuesday that a deal would be struck, after the sides exchanged salary figures at baseball's arbitration deadline.
A source said that the contract was "80-per-cent finished" on Tuesday, even before a formal exchange of salary arbitration figures. Halladay asked for $9-million and the Blue Jays offered $6.5-million.
Halladay gave up a little at the front end of the contract in order to receive a little more in the final two years. He will make $6-million this season and see his 2005 salary jump up to $10.5-million. Halladay, who is still two years away from free agency, will be paid $12.75-million in each of the final two years of the contract, which takes into account that he would be eligible for free agency after the 2005 season.
Halladay is believed to have forgone a signing bonus, a generous gesture, even in what has been a tight marketplace.
The richest free-agent contract signed by a pitcher this winter is the four-year, $51-million package that the Anaheim Angels gave Bartolo Colon, who will make $9-million this season. Andy Pettitte's free-agent contract with the Houston Astros is worth $31.5-million over three years, with $17.5-million deferred to the final year of the contract. Pettitte, who turned down $39-million from the New York Yankees, is a Houston native and gave the Astros a hefty hometown discount. He will earn $5.5-million this year.
Javier Vazquez, who signed a four-year, $45-million contract with the Yankees after his trade from the Montreal Expos, will make $8.5-million this year and receive a $2-million signing bonus. But even though he is a year ahead of Halladay in free-agency eligibility, Vazquez will make less than the Blue Jays' ace in the final two years of his contract, earning $11.5-million in 2006 and $12.5-million in 2007.
Halladay, who will turn 27 on May 14, made $3.825-million in 2003, when he set a franchise record and led the major leagues with 22 wins. He lost seven games and had an earned-run average of 3.25. Eleven of Halladay's wins came in consecutive starts from May 1 to June 22, setting a club record.
Two years removed from being sent down to Single-A Dunedin to rebuild his delivery and his confidence, Halladay had 15 consecutive victories over 18 starts from May 1 to July 27, tying Roger Clemens's club record, set in 1998 and falling one short of the American League record.
He led the American League with 266 innings pitched.
His 41 wins since the start of the 2002 season are the most in the major leagues. Derek Lowe of the Boston Red Sox is next with 38, followed by Barry Zito of the Oakland Athletics with 37.
The Blue Jays now have considerable cost certainty, with six players signed beyond this season (Halladay, Vernon Wells, Eric Hinske and off-season acquisitions Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly and Kerry Ligtenberg). Halladay, Wells and Hinske are signed through 2007.
