The A’s and free agent righty Luis Severino have agreed to a three-year, $67 million deal, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. The deal includes a $10 million signing bonus and $57 million in salary over three years, Yahoo’s Russell Dorsey adds. According to Passan, Severino can leave after the second year of his contract. Severino is represented by Klutch Sports.

It will come as a shock to many if the nomadic A’s, who will play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento (home of the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate) next year, land a notable free agent with a hefty multi-year contract. They are in the process of moving to Las Vegas and have been aggressively pursuing free agents to bolster a payroll that entered the offseason without a single contract in 2025. Some free agents – Walker Buhler among them – have completely rejected the idea of ​​playing at a minor league facility. However, with the reported target salary range in the $100 million range, the possibility has long existed for the A’s to be a surprise player in free agency. Darragh McDonald of MLBTR explored such a possibility in detail last month.

The general consensus has been that the A’s will have to overpay to acquire top free agents this winter. Indeed, Severino’s contract terms indicate a clear willingness to spend far beyond market expectations to lure free agents to their new homes. Severino’s deal includes a larger guarantee than most expected And an opt-out option. Because he declined a qualifying offer from the Mets, Severino will cost the A’s their third-highest pick in next year’s draft. He will also give the Mets a compensatory pick, albeit only between the fourth and fifth rounds, as they are considered luxury taxpayers.

The target payroll of $100 million likely comes from the Athletics’ status as a revenue-sharing recipient. The franchise was stripped of its revenue-sharing benefits over the last decade after it failed to adequately utilize those funds to improve the product locally, as is a mandated requirement. The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement reinstated the A’s as revenue-sharing recipients, and they have since spent modestly in free agency to keep payroll at least on par with the other lowest-spending clubs in the league. The deal with Severino signals a willingness to spend some more money. Incredibly, it is the largest contract in franchise history, nominally surpassing the six-year, $66 million contract extension signed by the third baseman Eric Chavez more than two decades ago.

(Related: The highest salary in franchise history for each MLB team)

Severino, 31, will immediately jump to the top of the A’s rotation. He’s likely eligible to start on Opening Day unless another significant acquisition occurs through free agency or trade. He will lead a staff that currently includes projects JP Sears, Mitch Spence And Joey Estes. The A’s have a number of internal candidates for the fifth spot, although the Severino deal obviously opens the door for GM David Forst to sign/trade another big-name starter to further solidify the squad.

Severino, of course, looked like a rising ace for the Yankees in 2017-18, as he pitched 384 2/3 innings at his age with a 3.18 ERA, a 28.8% strikeout rate, a 6 walk rate, 2% and a grounder rate of 45.8%. Relays from 23 and 24 years old. The flame-throwing right-hander averaged over 90 mph with his heater, posted a respectable 12.7% strike rate, and generally had the makings of a star. The Yankees agreed and signed him to a four-year contract extension worth $40 million with an option for a fifth season.

This deal bought out Severino’s entire arbitration years and his first free agent season. At the time, some thought that a pitcher with his talents and the excellence he had demonstrated to date might sell himself short. It worked out beautifully in the long run, as injuries often kept Severino off the field and left him a shell of his former self when he was healthy enough to take the mound. From 2019 to 2023, Severino managed just 209 1/3 innings in the majors, dealing with multiple lat strains and undergoing Tommy John surgery along the way. His 2023 campaign included 89 1/3 frames with a 6.65 ERA.

The 2024 season marked a resurgence for Severino, who signed a one-year, $13 million contract with the Mets after the injury-plagued end of his Yankees tenure. The right-hander’s 182 innings nearly equaled the total from the previous five calendar years. He posted a 3.91 ERA with a below-average but passable 21.2% strikeout rate and a strong 7.6% walk rate. His ground ball rate of 46% wasn’t elite, but it was well above league average.

At the same time, Severino simply wasn’t the dominant force he was at the beginning of his career. His average fastball with the Mets was about 1.5 mph from its peak. His swinging-strike rate of 9.4% was well below average – almost a mirror image of his 9.1% mark in that disastrous 2023 season and nowhere near his career-best rate of 13.3%. In the 2017-18 season, opposition contact only occurred on 81.9% of Severino’s pitches inside the strike zone – the league average was 84.7% – but in 2024 it was a whopping 88.2% (better than the league average). 85.2%).

When the Mets signed Severino to his one-year deal, it had the makings of an upside for a former front-of-the-rotation arm. Last year’s resurgence showed he was healthy, but also seemed to support the notion that his previous elite form is in the rearview mirror. Severino now feels like he’s a third or fourth starter, making his $22.333 million annual salary and an opt-out quite concerning.

Many experts felt that Severino could have – and should have – accepted the Mets’ qualifying offer of $21.05 million; He and his agents deserve credit for not just remarkably eclipsing that guarantee, but actually exceeding that number yearly on a longer contract that will give him another shot at free agency in the 2026-27 offseason. The contract exceeds recent guarantees for Chris Bassittwho was considered a stable and reliable arm No. 2-3, and Yusei Kikuchiwhose brilliant finish with the Astros made him one of the most sought-after pitchers on the market this offseason. Both pitchers signed for $63 million over the same three-year period.

For the A’s, such a significant signing was likely viewed as a necessity to land a mid-rotation arm whose speed and ground ball tendencies may provide hope that he can still make some incremental improvements over his 2024 form. However, there is still significant injury risk associated with Severino, and field-independent metrics like FIP (4.21) and SIERA (4.22) were actually more pessimistic about his performance in 2024 than his already solid but unspectacular earned run average . There’s little doubt he improves the club and shows the A’s are serious about spending this winter, but overall it’s a steep price to pay.

Still, Severino will add some credibility to a rotation that has largely lacked credibility. And the A’s with a growing core of quality players – Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, JJ Bleday, Lawrence Butler, Shea Langeliers — might hope to enjoy a few later additions and advancements from young talent Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom And Zack Gelof could help them exceed expectations faster than most think possible.