Atlanta Braves sign Spencer Strider to six-year, $75 million deal

The Atlanta Braves signed right-hander Spencer Strider to a six-year contract worth $75 million that runs through the 2028 season, the MLB team announced Monday.

The deal includes a $22 million club option for 2029 with a $5 million buyout. Strider will make $1 million per season for 2023-2024, $4 million in 2025, $20 million in 2026, and $22 million per season in 2027-2028. The deal will be worth $92 million over seven years if the option is exercised.

Strider, 23, went 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA (39 earned runs/131 2/3 innings) in 31 games, 20 starts, for the Braves this season, striking out 202 and allowing just 86 hits. The 6-foot, 205-pound native of Columbus, Ohio, became the first pitcher in major league history to strike out over 200 with fewer than 100 hits allowed.

The right-hander became the third rookie in franchise history to strikeout 200 in a season when he did so this year, and the first in the modern era. Just 16 rookies have done so in baseball history, with Yu Darvish doing so most recently in 2012. Strider’s 13.8 strikeouts per 9.0 innings this season are the highest by a rookie pitcher in MLB history (min. 12 starts), and he became the quickest pitcher in baseball history to ever reach 200 strikeouts in a single season when he eclipsed the mark in his 130th inning. Hall of Fame lefty Randy Johnson held the previous record, reaching 200 strikeouts in 130 2/3 innings in 2001.

Originally drafted out of Clemson University (S.C.) in the fourth round of the 2020 First-Year Player Draft, Strider spent his first professional season at the club’s alternate training site in Gwinnett. He then pitched at five different levels in 2021, making his major league debut on October 1 vs. New York.