The Royals officially announced Yordano Ventura's five-year extension on Saturday afternoon.
The extension, which was first reported by Yahoo! Sports on Friday night, is guaranteed to keep Ventura a Royal through the 2019 season. The deal also features club options for 2020 and 2021. Although the Royals do not disclose financial terms to their agreements, CBS Sports reported Friday that the five-year deal was worth $23 million.
The extension buys out all of Ventura's arbitration-eligible seasons and could include his first two free agent years if the Royals pick up the team options.
Ventura, 23, will start Opening Day for the Royals on Monday against the White Sox. Last season, his first full one as a professional, Ventura wowed baseball with an eye-popping fastball that touched 100 miles per hour and shined in Game 6 of the World Series.
He went 14-10 with a 3.20 ERA across 30 starts and 183 innings in 2014, and matched that ERA in five postseason appearances. In his final start of 2014, Ventura shut down the Giants with seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits.
The new deal gives the Royals financial stability for the future, which could become very expensive very soon. Alex Gordon can opt out of his contract at the end of the season and hit the open market. Greg Holland, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy all have arbitration-eligible years left.
Now, Kansas City has its battery of the future locked up for the foreseeable future. In addition to Ventura, the Royals already had catcher Salvador Perez under contract through next season and potentially three seasons after that with club options.
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
