Red Sox sign Porcello to 4-year extension reportedly worth $82.5 million

The Boston Red Sox and Rick Porcello only needed a couple months to figure out they wanted to spend the next five years together.

Porcello, set to become a free agent this winter for the first time in his career, signed a four-year contract extension with the Red Sox on Monday worth a reported $82.5 million. 

The extension will take effect starting in 2016 and includes a $500,000 signing bonus, according to the Boston Globe's Alex Speier.

The Red Sox acquired Porcello from the Detroit Tigers in the Yoenis Cespedes trade at the winter meetings, after the right-hander threw a career-high 204 2/3 innings with a league-leading three complete-game shutouts in 2014. He avoided arbitration in January by agreeing to a $12.5 million salary this season.

"What we see is a driven, incredibly competitive guy, a team-first guy, wants nothing more than to win, does everything he can do to put himself in a position to help the team win," general manager Ben Cherington told reporters. "As we got to know him as a person as much as a pitcher over that course of time, it just motivated us probably even more to try to get something done."

In a first-person essay published by the Players' Tribune, Porcello said he's elated to spend the rest of the decade in Boston.

In a short time, I have become very comfortable with the organization and my teammates. At our winter fan event in January, I got to spend time with the veteran guys on the team like Mike Napoli, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. The main topic of conversation was winning a World Series in 2015. What struck me was that it wasn’t discussed like it was a goal, but rather an expectation. I continued to see this overwhelming commitment from my teammates, my manager, my coaches, the front office and ownership.

Porcello, selected with the 27th pick in the 2007 draft, pitched to a 4.32 ERA and 1.36 WHIP during six seasons in Detroit.

The 26-year-old is scheduled to make his Red Sox debut Wednesday against Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Harang.