The $200M pitcher is coming, But who?

With the news breaking yesterday on Felix Hernandez's big 7-year, $175M megadeal that he received from the Seattle Mariners making him the highest-paid pitcher in the game. The question raises, who going to be the first pitcher to hit the $200M mark?  Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, and David Price. No matter who, its coming.

With all 3 pitchers coming close to becoming free-agents, (Verlander/Kershaw in 2014 and Price in 2015), the time for these pitchers teams to be able to get a deal that both sides can agree on only has so much time to get done. The fact is that one these pitchers is going to get a $200M deal, so who's it going to be?

If or when Clayton Kershaw becomes a free-agent after the 2014 season he'll only be 26 years old, and if he's still pitching like the games top pitcher at that point in time, it would be way to easy to see him getting a deal worth top dollar.

Kershaw has shown interest in getting an extension done but there haven't been any recent talks between the Dodgers and their star pitcher. From the Dodgers point of view, now might be the best time to get a deal done with the price for top-tier pitchers going up after the Mariners raised the bar with the Hernandez signing yesterday.

Besides, its not like Kershaw doesn't deserve a large deal in his 5 seasons for the Dodgers he's 61-37, and has a career ERA of 2.79 with his Cy Young in 2011.

Since David Price has been in Tampa Bay, he's been the franchises best pitcher and he's also been one of the leagues top pitchers. If theres any pitcher in baseball that could get a deal like King Felix, its David Price.

But lets be honest, the Tampa Bay Rays don't have the type of money to gives Price the amount he deserves. The Rays recently gave Evan Longoria a massive 10-year, $100M extension in November, but I just don't believe Tampa is capable of giving Price such a large contract.

So really their only options are to trade him, or let the 2012 Cy Young winner walk in a couple years and let another desperate team show him the money.

Justin Verlander has been arguably the games most dominant pitcher over the last couple of years. If any of these pitcher get the next megadeal, its Verlander. The 2011 Cy Young and MVP winner has thrown over 25,000 in his career, more than any other pitcher. He of all the pitchers has the best chance to get the deal he wants from his current team.

In the end, I believe the safest best might just be Kershaw. He's only 24, has the lowest ERA of the three pitchers, hasn't thrown too many innings so he's still time a lot a time left in his arm. Also Kershaw has shown he can pitching the big markets like LA. And he's capable of throwing a lot of innings to earn his money.

The $200M pitcher isn't just coming. He's already here.