No pitcher in Major League Baseball was better over the final five months of last season than Gerrit Cole. He posted the longest winning streak in more than a century—including his first three postseason starts—and in the process probably secured himself $200 million in free agency this winter.
During that stretch of dominance, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Cole would be receive the largest contract for a starting pitcher in MLB history, exceeding the total value of David Price’s $217 million deal and Zack Greinke’s $34-plus million average annual value. And that’s definitely still possible, with all the teams in need of a top-tier starter that are expected to be in the running for him.