The Chicago Cubs aren’t the only team to sign a starting pitcher to a surprisingly large two-year deal.

The Cubs sign Matthew Boyd to a two-year, $29 million contract and the New York Mets sign Frankie Montas to a two-year, $34 million contract with an opt-out in the middle:

Quick response to both offers: My God, this level of starting pitching is expensive!

The 31-year-old Montas was once a promising young pitcher with the Oakland A’s and had health issues during some big seasons. However, after a trade to the Yankees in mid-2022, injury issues became significantly worse and his performance was ugly (5.12 ERA over 38 games and 191.2 innings).

Still, he gets a two-year, $34 million contract with an exit option in the middle! Good sauce. Deep pitching with a little upside rebound is pretty expensive, right? I think I would lean towards Boyd in both of these deals.

As for the Mets, they had a number of departing starters, so regardless of what else they do in free agency, they needed innings. I completely understand why they might have felt the need to sign a guy like Montas as quickly as possible after the starting pitching market started to move. I’m just amazed at the price. I mean, MLBTR has him projected at two years and $22 million. FanGraphs had him at two years old and $34 million. Massive difference. Typically, the predictions for players at this level aren’t that far off.