Blue Jays re-sign Marco Estrada to two-year, $26M deal

Shi Davidi weighed in Marco Estrada's two-year deal, calling it an incredibly fair deal for both the Toronto Blue Jays and Estrada, giving both each a little of what they wanted over the qualifying offer.

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays re-signed Marco Estrada to a $26-million, two-year contract ahead of Friday’s qualifying offer deadline, plugging one of the holes in their starting rotation.

The right-hander could have accepted a one-year deal at $15.8 million, or rejected it outright to test the open market, but the two-year deal will assure him a larger guarantee without the risk of hitting the market tied to a compensatory draft pick.

For the Blue Jays, they will lock in another starter for 2016 and 2017 while spreading the cost over two seasons.

Estrada will join Marcus Stroman, R.A. Dickey and Drew Hutchison in a rotation that looks a bit less threadbare now, although ideally the Blue Jays would like to add two more starters.

Estrada enjoyed a career year in 2015 when he was 13-8 with a 3.13 ERA (fifth in the AL) in 34 games, 28 of them starts. The 32-year-old also impressed while winning a pair of elimination games during the post-season.

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