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Kluber and the Red Sox agreed Wednesday on a one-year, $10 million contract that includes an $11 million club option for 2024 and additional incentives, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.
The 36-year-old makes his offseason home in Massachusetts, which may have factored into his decision to continue his career in Boston after a one-year stint in Tampa Bay. Though Kluber was able to steer clear of the health concerns that derailed him in each of the prior three seasons, the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner didn't return to peak form in 2022. His strikeout rate (20.2 percent) took a dramatic dip along with fastball velocity (88.9 miles per hour average), though a career-best 3.0 percent walk rate helped him maintain a respectable 1.21 WHIP over 164 innings. Altogether, Kluber still performed comfortably above the league median (117 ERA-, with 100 being average), so his addition should bring some stability to a Boston rotation that will be counting on two veterans with even more troubling injury histories (Chris Sale and James Paxton), not to mention younger arms such as Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Brayan Bello with more limited track records as starters at the big-league level.
