The Royals are in agreement Russ Courtnall Jersey with ace on a three-year, $13.25MM deal that covers this season and his first two years of arbitration eligibility, Jeff Pa san of ESPN. The signing does not impact Kansas Citys window of team control. Ragans, a Wa serman client, remains controllable through the end of 2028. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com the specific breakdown. Ragans receives a $250K signing bonus and a $1MM salary for the upcoming season. Hell make $4.5MM and $7.5MM for the following two seasons and would escalate his 27 salary to $8MM if he wins the Cy Young in either of the next two years. Ragans has a little over two years of major league service. He did not reach the cutoff nece sary to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player. He would have played the upcoming season on a salary around the $760K league minimum before reaching arbitration next winter. This gives him a modest bump this year while allowing the Royals to lock in his earnings over what would have been his first two arbitration seasons. Barring another extension, hell go through the arbitration proce s one time during the 2027-28 offseason before hitting the open market. Acquired from the Rangers in June 23 for , Ragans has blo somed into one of the sports top pitchers. He turned in a 2.64 earned run average over 12 starts after the trade. That came against a run of mostly soft competition, but the 64 southpaw put to rest any questions about whether that was an aberration. He took a full 32 starts and posted a 3.14 ERA acro s 186 1/3 frames last year. He ranked fifth in MLB with 223 strikeouts and earned a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young balloting. Its an unconventional extension, as theres little precedent for a player signing for two or three years in advance of their final pre-arbitration season. Ragans future salaries fall mostly in line with what quality starting pitchers can expect to earn in their first two trips through arbitration. As comparison points, ($3.95MM) and ($4.3MM) agreed to slightly le s than $4.5MM for their first arbitration seasons this winter. is ticketed for a $7.625MM salary in his second trip through the proce s. Ragans wasnt at risk of being non-tendered barring a catastrophic injury, but hell lock in some security over the next couple seasons. The Royals have more clarity on their future budgets without running the risk of going to a hearing with their ace in either of the upcoming two offseasons. Having recently turned 27, Ragans is on track to hit free agency in advance of his age-31 campaign. Image courtesy of Imagn Kiefer Sherwood Jersey