As early as November 20, the news broke that Justin Wieland had renewed his contract with the Houston Astros, who had offered the ace pitcher who had barely shot for two years to a two-year, $50 million contract. However, this contract has not been approved by the league before, and just yesterday, when MLB was still in lockdown, Wieland's contract was finally approved by the league.
Because Wieland had not yet pitched after the elbow ligament replacement surgery, even though the two sides had agreed more than a week before the old collective bargaining agreement, the physical examination took a considerable amount of time. The Astronauts submitted the contract before the labor agreement expired on December 1, but for various reasons, it was not approved in time.
Judging from the results, the team side agreed to the contract, the player side had no objections, and there was enough evidence to show that the contract had been submitted to the league before the expiration of the old collective agreement, so MLB had been closed, but there was no reason to refuse Wieland's renewal.
It is unclear why the contract was not approved in time, and it has now dragged on for almost half a month before it was approved. But according to The Athletic reporter Ken Rosenso, this is likely because of language issues in the contract. After the contract came into effect, Wieland's original first-year right to jump was still valid.
In the past two seasons, Wieland has only made one healthy appearance in the 2020 opener, and then there has been an arm problem, dragging until the last day of last year's regular season. But in the season before the injury, Wieland won 21 wins and 6 losses in 34 starts, soared 300 strikeouts in 223.0 innings, and the ERA was 2.58, winning the American League Yang Award.
But Wieland also has his own problems, the recovery from injury needless to say, he will turn 39 next February, in the end these two years to pay such a report card, everyone is also looking forward to it.
(Text/Geng Haoyang)