MONEY – David Price has reached an agreement on a seven-year, $217 million deal with the Boston Red Sox, sources confirmed to ESPN.

The Boston Globe first reported the agreement, citing a source.

Price, 30, was 18-5 with an AL-leading 2.45 ERA last season with the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays. He was second in the AL in pitching WAR at 6.0 in 2015.

The five-time All-Star has an opt-out after three years with no deferred money. The yearly payout for Price is $30 million, $30 million, $30 million, $31 million, $32 million, $32 million and $32 million.

One of the worst things about being a Boston sports fan is having to listen to other sports fans (fellow Boston fans included) any time something big happens. The fact is this: since 2001, the four major Boston sports teams have NINE championships. That’s insane, especially if you’re a Patriots and Red Sox fan, who’ve won four and three championships, respectively. There’s no more Evil Empire, there’s no more Lovable Losers, there’s just the city of Boston currently enjoying the greatest run of championships I can ever remember. With all that winning brings a lot of horrible things, including bandwagon fans and the unconditional hate from opposing fans. Out of those four major sports teams, I’m only a Red Sox fan, so that’s where this argument is going to stay. Last offseason, the Red Sox signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, missed out on signing any semblance of an ace, and spent almost the entire season in last place. Hindsight being 20/20, those were some bad moves. When those moves were made, social media was cluttered with people just waiting to hate on whatever opinion a person had. If you were a Red Sox fan and DARED to support your team, you were ridiculed. If you were a Red Sox fan who opposed the moves, you were called out for not being a ‘real’ fan. If you were an opposing fan who liked or disliked the moves, your best bet was to stay off social media for a long time. Cut to December 2015, and the Red Sox signing David Price, and it’s last year all over again. Now if the Red Sox signed David Price for say, $150 million, it would probably be universally regarded as a great move. But since the number is an astronomical $217 million, it’s invited everyone out of their holes to give their opinion on it. No player is worth that kind of money, but at the same time, the Red Sox took an approach last season and felt that they didn’t need an ‘ace’ to be successful, and they were completely wrong. So when a new general manage takes over, you have to expect his philosophy to be as different as possible, or else why would you get a new general manager in the first place? David Price might struggle in the playoffs, but here’s the only stat I’m worried about at the moment:

Those are the numbers from last years Sox rotation compared with Price’s numbers last year. Is he worth $217 million? Nope. Is he going to make the Red Sox a better team this year? Absolutely. Get the duck boats ready.

-Ryan