Back in April, Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman took a look at a number of exceptional young talents around the league who were in line to make big money in the near future. Said Heyman about Jered Weaver:
Jered Weaver Signs Five-Year Contract Extension With Angels
The Angels’ ace will be sticking around Anaheim for a while, as the team has locked him up for five years and $85 million.
Weaver, the best in the AL so far -- by a lot -- is all but a goner in two years...The Angels don't have a history of keeping their own prime free agents anyway, and they have to have an inkling that this ship has sailed. There's no point even suggesting a Felix Hernandez/Justin Verlander type deal now ($80 million-plus for five years as a four-year pitcher) because that won't be in the ballpark.
All right, great, now fast-forward to Sunday. Heyman?
#angels have signed jered weaver to extension. press conf tuesday, team announces
weaver got 85M for 5 yrs.
Funny the way things work out. Weaver was due to become a free agent after the 2012 regular season, but now he’s under Angels control through 2016. It seems that the Angels quite badly wanted to keep him, and that Weaver - who was born in Northridge and went to school in Long Beach - quite badly wanted to stick around.
Tim Brown says that Weaver receives a full no-trade clause as part of his deal. This is quite the surprising development after Weaver lost his arbitration case against the Angels last February. At that point, it would’ve been understandable if Weaver were looking ahead to his free agency. Not so much.
Weaver doesn’t turn 29 years old until October, and has blossomed into one of the best pitchers in baseball, posting a 2.60 ERA since the start of last season. Over that span he’s generated four strikeouts for every walk, and more, he’s proven himself durable, as he hasn’t been on the disabled list since 2007. There are few better bets than Weaver in the league, at least as far as pitchers are concerned, and this looks like a good deal for both parties.
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