Did David Price Actually Want to Sign with the Boston Red Sox?

If “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase taught 10-year-old me anything, it's that a sleeper hold could get me out of any physical altercation with limited damage. If he taught me anything else, it’s that "everybody has a price."

To that end, I’ve been wondering recently to what degree that idiom affects free agency in the sporting world.

The reason I bring this up is because of the saga of everyone's favourite Blue Jays trade-deadline rental, David Price. As we all know, the Jays acquired Price in exchange for a huge haul of prospects, and he in turn helped guide the Jays to their first playoff appearance since the halcyon days of the early 1990s. Subsequently, Price signed the largest free-agent contract for a pitcher in MLB history with - in a quasi-surprising move - the loathsome Boston Red Sox. The numbers are staggering: $217 million over 7 years, which works out to a tidy $31-million per season, and roughly $1-million per regular-season start.