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David Price Bio
updated 3 years, 7 months ago
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David Price – Almost a Dodger
The Dodgers initially drafted David Price in the 19th round straight out of high school. Instead, Price decided to attend Vanderbilt University on an academic scholarship. In his freshman season in 2005, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball named him as a Freshman All-American. That year he had a record of 2-4 with an ERA of 2.86 in 19 games while striking out 92 in 69 ⅓ innings. Price almost quit baseball this year due to his college workload, but his coach talked him out of it.
In 2006 he had a 9-5 record with a 4.16 ERA in 110 ⅓ innings pitched. He struck out 155 batters that year that set a school single-season record and walked only 43. He was one of five finalists for the Golden Spikes Award and a semifinalist for the Roger Clemens Award. Price was also named to the third-team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, first-team All-South Region by the American Baseball Coaches Association, and second-team All-SEC by the coaches in that conference.
In his third and final year at Vanderbilt, he went 11-1 with a 2.63 ERA. David Price was the nation’s top strikeout pitcher when he broke his school record. He struck out 194 batters over 133 ⅓ innings. In the SEC Baseball Tournament that year, he faced Mississippi State and pitched a complete game. Price only gave up five hits, two runs, and struck out 11 batters with no walks. That year he won the Dick Howser Trophy, college’s top honor, and the Brooks Wallace Award. He became the first player to have a clean sweep of all the college baseball awards.
In 2005 and 2006, Price played for the United States National Team, where he went 5-1 with a 0.20 ERA in eight starts. He pitched a complete game shutout in 2005, and in 2006 he helped the US take home the gold medal in the World University Baseball Championship.
Drafted by Tampa Bay
David Price was the number one overall pick out of Vanderbilt University in the 2007 Major League Baseball draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He signed a 6-year contract for $11.25 million with a $5.6 million signing bonus on August 15, 2007. His signing bonus was the second-largest in draft history only behind Justin Upton.
Price made his spring training debut against the Yankees. He hit the first batter he faced before striking out the next three. Tampa Bay assigned to the Class A-Advanced Florida State League to pitch for the Vero Beach Devil Rays in his first season. Price started six games for Vero Beach that season going 4-0. He finished with an ERA of 1.82 while striking out 37 in 34 ⅔ innings.
The Rays promoted him to Double-A in 2008. Price pitched in nine games with a record of 7-0 with an ERA of 1.89 and struck out 55 batters in 57 innings. Next, he was promoted again in 2008 to the Triple-A team, where he pitched in four games, going 1-1 and struck out 17 in 18 innings while posting an ERA of 4.50.
Major League Debut
Price made his Major League debut on September 14, 2008, against the New York Yankees. He threw 5 ⅓ innings in relief, giving up two earned runs and striking out four. Price’s first start came on September 22 against the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched in ALCS Game 2 against the Red Sox, where he picked up the win. Price also picked up a postseason save with his appearance in Game 2 of the World Series that year.
David Price became a constant in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays rotation starting in 2009 after a short stint at Triple-A. In 2010, he made the All-Star team for the first time and was named the starting pitcher for the American League. His 2010 season ended with him winning 19 games with an ERA of 2.72 with 188 strikeouts. He lost Game 1 of the ALDS that year against the Texas Rangers.
In 2012, Price won the AL Cy Young Award and made the All-Star team for the third time in his career. He pitched a complete game shutout against the Angels on April 24. He became the first pitcher in franchise history to win 20 games when he finished 20-5 that year, posting an ERA of 2.56 and striking out 205.
Major League Trades
In 2014, he earned his fourth All-Star spot with a record of 11-8 and an ERA of 3.11 with 189 strikeouts before his trade to the Detroit Tigers before the July 31 deadline. In his seven seasons with Tampa Bay, he had a record of 82-47 with an ERA of 3.18 in 175 games. He struck out 1,065 1143⅔ innings. Price finished off 2014 with the Tigers going 4-4 with a 3.59 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 77 ⅔ innings. That year he led all of baseball in innings pitched (248 ⅓ ), batters faced (1,009), and strikeouts (271).
Price made his fifth All-Star team in 2015. Before the trade deadline, the Tigers traded him to the Blue Jays. He helped the Blue Jays make it to the playoffs that season where he would pitch in Game 1 of the ALDS and would end up taking the loss bringing his postseason record to 1-6. He finished second in Cy Young voting that season.
Free Agency
When Price became a free agent for the first time in 2016, he signed a 7-year, $215 million contract with the Red Sox. It set a new franchise record. His time with the Red Sox was filled with a lot of injuries. He started the 2017 season on the 10-day IL with an elbow injury before being activated on May 29. Just two months later, he was back on the IL again due to elbow inflammation. He made it back before the playoffs that season and pitch 6 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Astros.
2018 was a big year for Price as he finally turned around the narrative on his playoff woes. Price collected his first win from a postseason start in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Astros. His big moments came when it mattered most when the Red Sox faced the Dodgers in the 2018 World Series. He made three appearances (two starts) against the Dodgers and gave up three runs over 13 ⅔ innings. The Red Sox would go onto win the World Series, and Price would win the Babe Ruth Award. The Babe Ruth award honors the MLB player with the best postseason performance. He was also named the AL Comeback Player of the Year.
In 2019, Price made 22 starts even though he was on the IL a couple of times. First, he spent May 3 to May 20 on the IL with elbow tendonitis. August 5 he went on again due to a cyst in his left wrist. He came back on September 1. Price did pitch that day but then sat out for the rest of the season due to injury concerns. He finished the season with a record of 7-5 and an ERA of 4.28 the second worst of his career.
Dave Price – Dodger For Real
On February 10, 2020 David Price was traded along with Mookie Betts to the Dodgers for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong. When COVID-19 put baseball on hold, he donated $1,000 of his salary to each Dodger minor leaguer to help with their financial situations during a time of uncertainty. Due to COVID-19, Price decided to opt out of the 2020 season but is excited to rejoin the team in 2021.
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