Wacha 'fell in love' with K.C., inks new 3-year deal

KANSAS CITY -- After a season in which their rotation was one of the best in baseball, the Royals are hoping to run it back in 2025 – and wasted no time this offseason in ensuring that all the pieces return to do so.

The Royals on Sunday agreed to a three-year contract extension with Michael Wacha, with a club option for 2028. The new contract begins in '25 and replaces Wacha's current two-year deal that had a player option he could have exercised on Monday.

Instead, the 33-year-old gets a multiyear extension that can be worth up to $72 million over the course of four years, sources told MLB.com. The deal includes a guaranteed three years at $51 million with a $14 million club option in 2028.

Wacha will make $18 million in 2025 and ‘26 -- a raise from his $16 million this year and the $16 million player option -- and $14 million in ‘27, with performance bonuses that can push that to $18 million, according to a source. The club option includes similar performance bonuses and a $1 million buyout.

Keeping Wacha in Kansas City was a No. 1 priority for general manager J.J. Picollo, he said during a Monday press conference. Taking advantage of the period between the end of the season and five days after the World Series in which free agency begins, Picollo and his staff got to work right away constructing a new deal with Wacha’s representation that would replace the $32 million contract he signed with the Royals last offseason.

“Not only does it bring our starting rotation back that we’re really proud of – really, our success began with starting pitching – but it brings us clarity,” Picollo said. “There’s not a whole lot for us to worry about from a pitching perspective right now. We can move onto other things that we feel like we need to do. The timing of this was really good. You check off the big box early in the offseason. And now we have three, four months before the season starts to try to make whatever changes we’re going to make.

“With support from ownership and understanding how important it was to get Michael back in the fold, it just really fell in place really quickly.”

Wacha was also adamant he wanted to stay in Kansas City. This will be the first time since he was with the Cardinals in 2019 that Wacha stays with an organization for multiple seasons. He’s been all over the league, bouncing from the Mets, Rays, Red Sox and Padres until landing with the Royals in ‘24.

Wacha said he and his family – wife, Sarah, and 2-year-old daughter, Marcia – “fell in love” with Kansas City this year.

“Just the way the season went throughout the summer, we fell in love with the city, fell in love with the team, the staff here, everyone involved in the stadium,” Wacha said. “And it was something where we didn’t want to go somewhere else. We had been bouncing around a little bit through different teams the past few years, and to find a place that really felt like home, that we could buy a house and get settled here for the next few years, it was honestly a no-brainer. It was important to get it done before the free agency stuff opened up.”

What helped Wacha even more than the atmosphere, though, was the team. Wacha believes 2024, when he helped the Royals win 86 games and make their first postseason appearance in nine years, was just the beginning. Wacha posted a 3.35 ERA across 29 starts and 166 2/3 innings, the second-highest total of his career and most since 2015 (181 1/3 innings).

His ERA ranked 10th in the American League and helped Kansas City’s rotation rank second in the Majors with a 3.55 ERA.

Wacha was crucial in helping establish a winning culture again in Kansas City. Now he wants to keep it going. And a loss to the Yankees in the AL Division Series meant the Royals have “unfinished business” heading into 2025, Wacha said.

“I’m always part of that winning culture – it’s what I’m accustomed to, and it was one of the reasons I signed here last year,” Wacha said. “I believed in these guys here. I believe in the organization, the front office, the coaching staff, the guys on the team. I believe in them. That belief only grew throughout the course of the season. I saw firsthand what a full season with this team will do, that another year of experience will do to some of these guys. I’m excited to be here for the next three years, of Kansas City baseball trending up.”

Thanks to this new deal, the Royals are bringing the key players of that rotation back, with Wacha, Seth Lugo, Cole Ragans and Brady Singer all returning in 2025. Lugo is in the second of a three-year deal he signed last winter (with an opt-out after ‘25), while Singer is in his third year of arbitration.

Now, Wacha gets the contract security. The Royals keep their rotation together and a veteran on their staff for the next few years, all while signaling that their willingness to spend money and bring in talent was not limited to just last winter.

“I think it sends a tremendous message to the clubhouse,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “With him back, the floor is lifted again. We’re going to keep growing. I think that’s what it means to me, that it sends a message to the whole team: We believe in what we’re doing.”

Wacha’s deal means that five of the 10 largest contracts in Royals history are with four players on the current roster, including Lugo’s $45 million contract, both of Salvador Perez’s extensions and Bobby Witt Jr.'s $288.7 million extension.

Picollo said Royals CEO/chairman John Sherman voiced his desire about keeping Wacha and was supportive about a multi-year deal as the negotiations with Wacha’s representation began.

“We are on the same page, believing the same things, and feel very good about the direction we’re going, particularly with pitching,” Picollo said.