According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the American League Cy Young winner also received full no-trade protection for the first two years, and a trade assignment bonus if he’s dealt after that.
Or the Mariners, who believe Ray will become the undisputed ace of a team looking to make waves in the AL West.
They predominantly use two pitches to navigate their way through lineups, and within the past couple of years both were pulled off the scrap heap before securing $100 million-plus.
A little more than two years ago, Gausman was in a tailspin.
Among pitchers with at least 175 innings during that same span, he ranks ninth in strikeouts per nine innings, ninth in opponents’ on-base percentage and third in fielding independent pitching.
The FIP suggests he pitched better than the traditional stats indicate, but when it came time for the Giants to pick a Game 1 starter for the post-season they passed on Gausman in favour of Logan Webb.
After an all-star campaign with the Diamondbacks in 2017, Ray regressed over each of the next three years.
Projections for the future vary depending on whether people believe he will be able to maintain that pace or regress to his former self.
The team is left either on the hook for a bad deal or misses out on the final two years of what turned out to be a decent contract.
The other separating factor is that because Gausman received a qualifying offer in 2020, he wasn’t eligible for one this off-season.
Beyond that, the fact the Jays aggressively pursued Gausman each of the last two years suggests he was their preferred choice.
No matter what happens with Gausman and Ray over the next few years, they won’t net the Jays the same type of return on investment they got in 2021.
Either Gausman or Ray would have provided the Jays with the front-line piece they required.