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The Blue Jays have signed Marco Estrada to a two-year contract. According to Shi Davidi and Mike Wilner of Sportsnet, Estrada will be paid $26 million dollars. The deal is pending a physical.
Marco Estrada will return to the #BlueJays on a 2-year deal. pic.twitter.com/9xYDVOpxX8
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) November 13, 2015
The move comes just before the deadline for players to accept a qualifying offer. Rather than taking a one year $15.8 million contract, Estrada will take a lower annual salary in exchange for a longer commitment. This represents quite the raise for the right-handed starter, as Estrada made "just" $3.9 million last season.
The Blue Jays will hope that Estrada can repeat his 2015 success. He posted a 3.13 earned run average across 34 regular season games, before boasting a 2.33 ERA in three playoff starts. However, advanced statistics such as FIP, xFIP, and SIERA suggest Estrada's season may have been quite a fluke. If Estrada reverts back to his old self, his tendency to give up a lot of home runs would be a poor fit in the Rogers Centre. On the other hand, if Estrada can continue to generate weak contact going forward, he may be able to continually outperform his advanced statistics.
Update
Per Shi Davidi, Estrada will earn $11.5 million in 2016 and $14.5 million in 2017.
Marco Estrada gets $11.5m in 2016 and $14.5m in 2017. #BlueJays
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) November 13, 2015