R.A. Dickey has agreed to a contract extension with the Toronto Blue Jays, meaning that the Jays and the New York Mets have now consummated their seven player trade that sends Dickey to Toronto and catcher Travis d'Arnaud and pitcher Noah Syndergaard to the Mets.
Dickey has agreed to a two year, $25 million contract extension that kicks in in 2014, with an option for 2016 that could give the Jays four years of Dickey's services at $41 million.
Although Dickey is 38, that's more like 32 in non-knuckleballer years, and so this is an extremely attractive financial deal for the Jays. If he pitches from 2013-16 like he did from 2010-12, the Jays will get a ton of surplus value from him.
The Mets are sending Dickey and catchers Mike Nickeas (a former Ranger 5th round draft pick, who was sent to the Mets in the Victor Diaz trade) and Josh Thole to the Blue Jays for d'Arnaud, Syndergaard, 18 year old outfielder Wuilmer Becerra and catcher John Buck.
This is a terrific haul for the Mets, who are getting one of the best catching prospects in the game in d'Arnaud, as well as a quality pitching prospect in Syndergaard. d'Arnaud will probably be ranked in the teens in BA's top 100 prospect list this offseason, and Syndergaard, I'm guessing, will be in the second half of the top 100. To get those two for a knuckleballer with only one year of team control left is quite the coup, although Dickey's desire to sign a team-friendly extension most likely helped convince the Jays to part with that level of talent.