The Royals are in agreement with ace Cole Ragans on a three-year, $13.25MM deal that covers this season and his first two years of arbitration eligibility, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The signing does not impact Kansas City’s window of team control. Ragans, a Wasserman client, remains controllable through the end of 2028.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports the specific breakdown. Ragans receives a $250K signing bonus and a $1MM salary for the upcoming season. He’ll make $4.5MM and $7.5MM for the following two seasons and would escalate his ’27 salary to $8MM if he wins the Cy Young in either of the next two years.
Ragans has a little over two years of major league service. He did not reach the cutoff necessary to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player. He would have played the upcoming season on a salary around the $760K league minimum before reaching arbitration next winter. This gives him a modest bump this year while allowing the Royals to lock in his earnings over what would have been his first two arbitration seasons. Barring another extension, he’ll go through the arbitration process one time during the 2027-28 offseason before hitting the open market.
Acquired from the Rangers in June ’23 for Aroldis Chapman, Ragans has blossomed into one of the sport’s top pitchers. He turned in a 2.64 earned run average over 12 starts after the trade. That came against a run of mostly soft competition, but the 6’4″ southpaw put to rest any questions about whether that was an aberration. He took a full 32 starts and posted a 3.14 ERA across 186 1/3 frames last year. He ranked fifth in MLB with 223 strikeouts and earned a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young balloting.
It’s an unconventional extension, as there’s little precedent for a player signing for two or three years in advance of their final pre-arbitration season. Ragans’ future salaries fall mostly in line with what quality starting pitchers can expect to earn in their first two trips through arbitration. As comparison points, Tanner Houck ($3.95MM) and George Kirby ($4.3MM) agreed to slightly less than $4.5MM for their first arbitration seasons this winter. Logan Gilbert is ticketed for a $7.625MM salary in his second trip through the process.
Ragans wasn’t at risk of being non-tendered barring a catastrophic injury, but he’ll lock in some security over the next couple seasons. The Royals have more clarity on their future budgets without running the risk of going to a hearing with their ace in either of the upcoming two offseasons. Having recently turned 27, Ragans is on track to hit free agency in advance of his age-31 campaign.
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