Blue Jays were longshot to sign David Price from the start

The inevitable became reality Tuesday night when David Price agreed to a seven-year, $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.

It's the largest contract ever for a starting pitcher. It's also a contract the Toronto Blue Jays were never going to offer Price, regardless of how often they stressed publicly they would like to have him back.

When the Blue Jays parted with three pitching prospects to acquire Price at the trade deadine, it was always about the 2015 season and 2015 alone. It worked out, too, with Price earning wins in nine of his 11 regular season starts and playing a big part in getting Toronto the ALCS.

To see him sign with a division rival undoubtedly stings, but they had to be prepared for that possibility. The Red Sox were desperate for pitching, especially an ace, and were willing to pay an unprecedented price for it. The Blue Jays knew this day was coming from the moment they made the Price trade.

It's why they went out and did their business early, investing the cost of one season of Price ($31M) into three starters: Marco Estrada ($13M), J.A. Happ ($12M), and Jesse Chavez ($4.7M - projected arbitration total).

None of those three even come close to Price in terms of career achievements, but they can capably fill out a rotation with Marcus Stroman and R.A. Dickey.

The next order of business for Toronto is to decide who will replace the departed Alex Anthopoulos as general manager – interim GM Tony LaCava and current Cleveland Indians executive Ross Atkins are reportedly two finalists for the job – and the front office's focus will turn to improving bullpen depth and finding a backup catcher and a utility infielder.

Blue Jays fans won't have to wait long to see Price again. The Red Sox visit Toronto April 8-10, and assuming Price starts opening day for Boston, he would be in line to make his second start for the Red Sox during that series against the Blue Jays.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr