THERE'S A CHANCE HE'S WORTH IT:

Santana gets $137.5M deal from Mets: Six-year contract is baseball's biggest ever for pitcher (Baltimore Sun, February 2, 2008)

Santana and the Mets agreed yesterday to a six-year, $137.5 million contract, a record for a pitcher and the last major step needed to complete the team's blockbuster trade with the Minnesota Twins. [...]

Terms of the agreement were disclosed by a baseball official with knowledge of the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because no announcement had been made. The deal includes deferred money and a club option for 2014 with a $5.5 million buyout that could make the contract worth about $150 million over seven seasons. Depending on Santana's performance, the option could become guaranteed. [...]

Santana's contract topped the previous mark for pitchers, set when Barry Zito received a seven-year, $126 million deal from the San Francisco Giants last offseason. Santana was due $13.25 million in the final year of his contract with the Twins and would have been eligible for free agency after the World Series.

Santana's average annual salary of $22.92 million is second only to New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez's $27.5 million.

There was never any chance Barry Zito would be.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 2, 2008 7:56 AM