“Don’t sign pitchers to long term contracts” has become a rallying cry for many armchair GMs in the comment sections throughout the internet of baseball. Interestingly, real life GMs might be trending in that direction. Starting pitcher extensions have become more and more rare over the past few seasons, with only six such extensions having been agreed to in 2017 and 2018 combined. Compare that to 18 starting pitcher extensions in 2012, and you can see that this is a relatively new trend.
Most of us can get to the bottom of this without thinking too hard. GMs are learning that pitchers, no matter what their name is or what their previous production might have been – are fighting an uphill battle when trying to stay healthy.