Giants, Webb agree to 5-year, $90M extension (2024)

The San Francisco Giants and RHP Logan Webb agreed to a five-year, $90 million extension, the franchise announced Friday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Webb will earn $8 million in 2024 and $12 million in 2025 before climbing to $23 million in 2026.
• Webb led the team with 15 wins last season.
• Including his slow start this season (0-3, 4.76 ERA), Webb is 26-15 with a 3.04 ERA in 61 starts dating back to 2021.

Logan on Lock 🔒

The #SFGiants have agreed to a five-year contract extension with RHP Logan Webb. pic.twitter.com/3K0TARLPhr

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 14, 2023

Why the Giants needed to extend Webb

Teams don’t have to do anything. They can trade popular players for magic beans and give off an organizational vibe that roughly translates to “don’t bother.” So when we say that the Giants had to sign Logan Webb to an extension, they really didn’t. He wasn’t going to be a free agent until after the 2025 season, and there’s a lot that can change with a pitcher between now and then. There are always logical, prudent arguments for a wait-and-see approach with young pitchers who are already under team control.

With that in mind, let’s be clear: The Giants had to sign Webb to an extension, and they settled on five years, $90 million, which buys out three of his free-agent years. The timing was right for Webb, who’s surely aware of how precarious the life of a starting pitcher can be. But the timing was definitely right for the Giants, who typically eschew long-term contracts for pitchers, but knew how valuable Webb was and how hard he would be to replace. By signing a five-year contract today, they avoided a possible decision where they needed to sign him to a six-, seven- or even eight-year contract or lose him entirely. Knowing the Giants, they probably would have chosen the latter. They simply don’t do long-term deals for pitchers into their 30s. —Brisbee

Why Webb is worth the deal

Webb was always going to be the rotation cornerstone worth this risk. Not only is he durable and effective, but he’s a unique pitcher, with a skill set that just isn’t found anywhere else, with horizontal and vertical movement in every direction.

Add in that he’s a local kid (from the Sacramento area) and a gregarious fan favorite, and it was a matter of when, not if, the extension would be signed. —Brisbee

Analyzing the contract terms

My suggestion for Webb wassix years and $103 million. Since that included his $4.6 million salary in 2023, it worked out to about five years and $98 million afterward, valuing his three free-agent seasons at $26 million per season. (I used his former teammate Kevin Gausman as a comp.) This deal gets pretty close to there: It estimates the remaining arbitration years the same way I did and values Webb’s three free-agent seasons at $23.3 million per season; it basically didn’t factor in any inflation for the future the way I did.

Webb is on the younger end of players with his level of service time, and so this deal permits him to hit free agency again ahead of his age-32 season. Webb’s deal sets a standard for what extensions for other players at similar stages in their careers, like Chicago’s Dylan Cease and Houston’s Framber Valdez, could look like. It also adds context for any negotiations with pitchers even earlier in their careers, such as Alek Manoah and Shane McClanahan. — Britton

Backstory

As San Francisco looks to return to its postseason dominance from last decade, the franchise will build its rotation around the 26-year-old Webb.

A fourth-round pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, Webb made his Giants debut in 2019. He started on Opening Day in 2022 and 2023, becoming the undisputed staff ace this season when Carlos Rodón signed with the Yankees.

Webb holds a career 3.59 ERA with a record of 31-22 and 426 strikeouts in 451 2/3 innings. In two career postseason appearances, he is 1-0 with a 0.61 ERA.

Required reading

• Staying grounded: Giants trust Logan Webb to lead them on Opening Day
• Kawakami: Why the Giants should sign Logan Webb to a long-term deal ASAP

(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)