Max Fried, Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell agreed to contracts this winter that totaled $610 million, only underscoring the cachet an ace starting pitcher still carries within the game.
In the case of Fried and Snell, you could argue that neither is the ace of his respective team, with Gerrit Cole holding that spot for the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani (who will return to pitching after a year removed from the mound following elbow surgery) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in that conversation with the Dodgers.
All three free agents from this offseason would have claimed the “ace” title with the Mets, but president of baseball operations David Stearns chose a conservative route in regards to the rotation for a second straight winter that is more likely to prevent a case of buyer’s remorse, either now or later.
Re-enter Sean Manaea. Enter Frankie Montas, Clay Holmes and Griffin Canning. In bulk it’s a unit guaranteed $161 million, which is still a lower figure than any one of the Fried-Burnes-Snell trio will earn over the course of his contract.
