Joe Musgrove is having the best season of his career. He made the All-Star team for the first time and is currently sporting his lowest single-season ERA and WHIP while on pace to strike out nearly 200 batters. It’s an impressive run, and the Padres are rewarding him accordingly.
Musgrove and the Padres are finalizing a five-year, $100 million deal that would keep the righty in San Diego through the 2027 season. It would be the first time a Padres pitcher has ever earned a nine-figure contract. He joins teammates Manny Machado (10 years, $300 million) and Fernando Tatis Jr. ((14 years, $340 million) as Padres players with massive deals.
Musgrove said he’s excited to play with Machado and Tatis for the next five (or more) years, calling the situation “extremely appealing.” Musgrove, who’s making $8,625,000 this year, was set to become a free agent after this season.
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What’s extra cool about Musgrove’s deal is that he grew up in El Cajon, a city just 17 miles east of downtown San Diego. He went to games as a child and even has a tattoo of a baseball with the Padres logo on it. Beyond sharing the field with some of the biggest stars in the game and a strong roster, he’s getting to play for his hometown team.
It’s also a nice underdog story. As of this writing, Musgrove has a losing record for his career. While pitchers typically can’t control how the team does on offense, it’s still impressive that a guy who’s lost more games than he’s won can make $100 million. And the Padres are banking on Musgrove to continue his recent strong pitching in the coming years.
Before the Padres, Musgrove was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round of the 2011 amateur draft. He made his major league debut with the Houston Astros in 2016, winning Game 5 of the 2017 World Series and eventually a championship when the Astros completed the series victory. The Astros traded Musgrove to Pittsburgh in 2018, and the Pirates dealt him to San Diego after a rough pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
As this deal gets wrapped up, Musgrove can fully turn his attention back to the field. He’s already won a World Series ring in the American League. Now it’s time to get one in the National League, too.