The Tampa Bay Rays and the David Price agreed to a $14-million contract on Thursday to avoid arbitration in February, but the veteran pitcher is still on trading block.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that the 28-year-old pitcher could still be traded before Spring Training despite signing the lucrative deal, which is the all-time highest one-season salary in Rays' franchise history.
"The team-record $14 million salary the Rays and David Price agreed to Thursday in avoiding arbitration was obviously a big deal. But it doesn't provide any assurance that Price won't be traded," Mark Topkin noted.
Sources said that the Rays signed Price to a one-year deal just to avoid arbitration. While Rays officials are still mum on their plans on Price, it is widely believed that the 2012 AL Cy Young winner is on his way out of Tampa Bay.
Price, whose salary for next season surpassed the previous $10.25-million single-season salary of Carlos Pena in 2010, is a vital part of Tampa Bay's rotation, but the Rays are expected to trade him, knowing that he will haggle for a bigger deal once he becomes a free agent in 2015.
But as far as Price is concern, the former Vanderbilt standout is optimistic that he will stay with the Rays for the rest of the 2014 MLB season, and possibly the upcoming season.
"The chances continue to get greater, I guess, as the days go by," Price said in an interview. "So I'm just kind of sitting back watching, like I have all offseason."
The five-year veteran pitcher is expecting that his future with the Rays will be clearer once the bidding war for Masahiro Tanaka ends on Friday.
SEE: New York Yankees Step Up Pursuit Of Masahiro Tanaka, Japanese Pitcher To Announce Decision Soon
MLB analysts believe that all pending trade negotiations involving Price and talks about free agent pitchers like Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez will intensify after the Japanese pitcher makes his highly-anticipated decision.
"I think if I'm in camp, I would be on the team because that would stink if I would be a part of the team in spring training and everybody thinks I'd be there along with them and then I get traded a couple days into spring or something like that," Price said.
Price, who went 10-8 with a 3.33 ERA in an injury-riddled 2013 season, believes that the Rays are on their way to having a successful season this year, and nothing will be sweeter than being a part of it, said the veteran pitcher.
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