Hard-throwing reliever Josh Hader and the Houston Astros agreed to a $95-million, five-year contract on Friday, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was subject to a successful physical.
Hader will get a $19-million salary in each of the next five seasons, none of it deferred. He gets a full no-trade provision and would receive a $1-million bonus for winning the Mariano Rivera/Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Award.
Hader’s deal can be considered the most lucrative for a relief pitcher, even while falling short of the total dollars in Edwin Díaz’s $102-million, five-year contract with the New York Mets that began last year. Díaz’s deal includes $26.5 million in deferred payments he won’t completely receive until 2042 and was valued at $93.2 million for baseball’s luxury tax and $88.8 million by the players’ association.