Clayton Kershaw, dinner is on you tonight.
The southpaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a seven-year, $215 million deal according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
The deal makes Kershaw the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball history.
The 25-year-old lefty is coming off a 2013 season where he won 16 games, had a 1.83 ERA and took home the NL Cy Young Award.
Kershaw's teammates took to Twitter to voice their excitement.
The Dodgers are no strangers to big spending.
Kershaw joins Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzales, Zack Greinke and Carl Crawford as Dodgers with contracts worth over $100 million.
With the arbitration-filing period ending Friday, the Dodgers wanted to lock up their ace and not risk letting him enter free agency following the 2014 season.
Monster contracts have become the norm for elite pitchers in recent years.
In 2012, Matt Cain and Cole Hamels signed six-year deals for $127.5 million and $144 million respectively. Until now, Justin Verlander had the largest contract for a pitcher in MLB history when he inked a seven-year, $180 million deal last year.
The Dodgers knew they would have to empty out the piggy bank to keep Kershaw aboard.
Plenty of other teams would have salivated at the chance of snagging Kershaw.
Since 2010, Kershaw has started at least 32 games in each season and eclipsed the 200 strikeout mark every year.
The combination of his age, accomplishments and durability make Kershaw a rare commodity in today's game.
Top-line pitchers like Max Scherzer and David Price, who are in contract years, will be looking at this deal as benchmark for future negotiations.
Please comment below to share your reaction to Kershaw's deal!
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