Porcello’s $10 million deal with Mets has hometown appeal
Rick Porcello’s $10 million deal with the New York Mets shows the fruits of free agency as much as Gerrit Cole’s $324 million contract across town with the Yankees.
While Cole set a record, location was among Porcello’s primary concerns.
“I live about an hour away from Citi Field,” he said Monday after the Mets announced his contract. “That opportunity of having the hometown comfort, the ability for my father and family and friends to be able to come and see these games in person and be get to experience it a little bit more live, were pretty deciding factors for me.”
Porcello lives in Morristown, New Jersey, and was at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange when Detroit selected him with the 27th overall pick of the 2007 amateur draft. He was traded to Boston after the 2014 season and was guaranteed $95 million by the Red Sox over the next five seasons. He won the AL Cy Young Award with a 22-4 record in 2016 and was 17-7 in 2018, when he earned a World Series ring.
“This is a big deal for me,” he said. “I grew up a lifelong Mets fan as a kid, and now to get the opportunity to play for the organization that I cheered on for so many years is a huge honor.”
New York was the first team to contact Porcello during free agency and former Mets pitcher Al Leiter, now a New York baseball operations adviser, helped recruit him. Porcello remembered going to a game when Mike Piazza went deep.
“Watching him in person be able to hit a home run at Shea Stadium was a huge thrill for me,” Porcello recalled, adding the 2000 NL pennant and Subway Series against the Yankees was another thrill.
A right-hander who turns 31 on Dec. 27, Porcello joins a rotation that includes Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard plus fellow New Yorkarea natives Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz, who grew up on Long Island.
• All-Star pitcher Wade Miley and the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to a $15 million, two-year contact, a person familiar with deal told The Associated
Former Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello reached a $10 million deal with his hometown team, the New York Mets. Press.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed free agent catcher Luke Maile to a one-year deal. The Pirates are in need of help at catcher after declining the option on Elias Diaz.
• The Tampa Bay Rays and Japanese slugger Yoshitomo Tsutsugo have finalized a two-year contract worth about $12 million.
• Left-hander Joely Rodríguez and the Texas Rangers have finalized a $5.5 million, two-year contract, a deal that could be worth $8 million if a team option for 2022 is exercised.
College football
OT LITTLE RETURNING TO STANFORD >> Stanford offensive tackle Walker Little said he will return for his senior season in 2020 instead of entering the NFL draft.
Little was considered a top draft prospect before going down with a season-ending knee injury in the season opener against Northwestern.
Little was a freshman All-American in 2017 and a first-team All-Pac-12 pick the following season. Little said he wants to earn his degree and help the Cardinal get back to their winning ways after a 4-8 season this year CAL LB WEAVER ALL-AMERICAN >> Cal senior inside linebacker Evan Weaver picked up two additional first-team All-American honors from AP and ESPN to bring his total number of first-team selections to eight. Two of those eight — AP and Walter Camp — are among the five considered to become a consensus All-American with the other three — Sporting News, AFCA, FWAA — still to be announced.
Weaver is the first Cal player to earn first-team All-America honors since Alex Mack in 2008, while a selection to any of the Sporting News, AFCA or FWAA squads would make him Cal’s 12th consensus first-team All-American and first since Daymeion Hughes and DeSean Jackson in 2006.
Soccer
LAFC SIGNS URUGUAYAN >> Los Angeles FC has signed 20-year-old midfielder Francisco Ginella, bolstering its depth with another blue-chip Uruguayan prospect.
LAFC announced the move made with targeted allocation money.
• Serie A said “true art is provocation” after being criticized as insensitive toward racism for installing a painting at the Italian league’s headquarters featuring three monkeys to represent three different races.
While black players are regularly subjected to monkey chants in games, artist Simone Fugazzotto said his painting was meant “to show that we are all the same race.”
The league is using the painting in its anti-racism campaign, and Fare, soccer’s leading discrimination monitoring group, called it “a sick joke.”
“True art is provocation,” the league said in a statement to The Associated Press late Monday. “The idea behind Fugazzotto’s artwork is that whoever shouts racist chants regresses to his primitive status of being a monkey.
Motorsports
PIONEER IN SAFETY DIES >> Bill Simpson, a pioneer in motorsports safety credited with creating equipment that saved too many drivers to count from death or serious injury, died Monday from complications of a stroke suffered three days earlier. He was 79.
The Motorsports Hall of Fame, which inducted Simpson in 2003 for his long career in racing, announced his death.