Ex-Blue Jay Robbie Ray heads West to join Mariners on 5-year deal

The Seattle Mariners were still in the middle of finishing their first big deal of the off-season when they started making an aggressive move to land a new ace for their pitching rotation, a signing that would grab even more attention.

Once Robbie Ray expressed an interest, it was a quick process to bring the American League Cy Young Award winner to Seattle.

"It just seemed like a really good fit and we were ready to move forward," Ray said Wednesday, a day after signing with the Mariners. "I mean, it happened really quickly, but we're glad that it did."

Ray has a powerful top of the rotation arm and fills one of the needs Seattle identified going into the off-season. Combined with what Seattle already has and a handful of top prospects on the way, the Mariners are taking on the look of an ascending ballclub.

"I think that's one of the main attractions for us is we want to be the team where, when other teams are coming to Seattle to play us, they look at the three pitchers or the four pitchers that are lined up for that series and they say, `Oh man,"' president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said.

Ray's $115 million US, five-year deal includes an opt-out after the third year, something Dipoto said is "getting in line with the times" and was worth adding to make sure the deal was completed.

Seattle's first offer was close to the final number, accelerating the process.

"We made a very strong push immediately," Dipoto said. "These things build toward a crescendo in the negotiation. We went out pretty hard with our first offer and I think we caught his attention, and then it got very serious quickly."

This was a rebound season for Ray, who had gone a combined 2-5 with a 6.62 ERA for Arizona and the Blue Jays and issued the most walks in the majors during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The dip led Ray's base salary to drop from $9.43 million to $8 million this season.

But the mechanical changes Ray made to his delivery clearly worked in 2021 and he believes they can be replicated.

Ray led the American League in several categories, including ERA and games started, and led all of baseball in strikeouts with 248.

He also put together the best season ever stranding runners. According to the Mariners, 90.1 per cent of runners that reached base against Ray failed to score in 2021, the highest percentage since 1901 with at least 150 innings pitched.

"I've always had the mindset of going out and attacking. But it didn't necessarily match up with the delivery," Ray said. "This year, I feel like I really nailed that down and I feel really good about the consistency of the delivery. That consistency, matched with that mindset, I feel like is what allowed me to succeed this year."

Matz finalizes deal with Cardinals

Steven Matz and the Cardinals finalized a $44 million, four-year contract Monday, giving St. Louis the shutdown left-hander it desperately sought for a rotation that otherwise returns intact next season.

Another former Blue Jays hurler, Matz received a $2 million signing bonus, payable within 30 days of the deal's approval by the commissioner's office, and salaries of $8 million next season, $10 million in 2022 and $12 million each in 2023 and 2024.

He can earn $1 million annually in performance bonuses for innings pitched: $200,000 each for 130, 140, 150, 160 and 170. Matz also can earn $50,000 for winning the Cy Young and $25,000 for finishing second through fifth in voting, $25,000 if he is voted AL Championship Series MVP and $50,000 for World Series MVP.

The 30-year-old Matz, who is originally from Long Island, spurned the Mets to sign with a National League rival. He pitched for New York from 2015-20 before he was traded last January to Toronto, where his career-best 14-7 record and 3.82 ERA in 29 starts for the Blue Jays made him a coveted starting pitcher in free agency.