The Tampa Bay Rays have agreed to a five-year, $50 million extension with AL Cy Young award winner Blake Snell, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN:

The deal will cover this season plus three years of expected arbitration and the first year that Snell would have been eligible for free agency. Per Passan, it is also the largest deal ever given to a pitcher with two years of service time.

Snell led the major leagues with 21 wins while also topping the American League in ERA (1.89) and bWAR (7.5). The 26-year-old has made big strides since debuting with the Rays in 2016, and last year he easily surpassed his prior bests with an 11.0 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 along with a league-best 219 ERA+ in just his third season.

Tampa Bay has typically had one of the lowest payrolls in the majors. And despite breaking out to win 90 games last season, the Rays had the second-worst attendance in all of baseball. The hope was that plans for a new ballpark to replace the decrepit Tropicana Field would be enough to spark attendance and increase the payroll, but those plans were scrapped last December.

Thus, it was not expected that Snell would receive more than a $400,000 raise in arbitration, which he vented about to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times:

“It’s disappointing,’’ Snell said, reluctant to talk much about the situation given his focus on team goals and season prep. “You want fair. But at the same time they don’t have to do it, so I understand the business side of it.’’

But following a recent wave of extensions for youngsters like Alex Bregman and Eloy Jimenez, the Rays are doing right by their ace and ponying up guaranteed money now in order to secure their future.