Rays reward Cy Young winner Blake Snell with $50M extension

March 21 (UPI) -- The Tampa Bay Rays have agreed to a five-year contract extension with 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

Tampa Bay announced the pact Thursday. Sources told MLB Network the pact is worth $50 million. Snell, 26, posted a Major League Baseball best 21 wins in 2018. He also won the American League ERA title with a 1.89 mark in his 31 starts for the Rays.

The left-handed starter also made his first All-Star appearance in 2018. Snell owns a career 2.95 ERA and a 32-20 record in three seasons with the Rays. He made $558,200 during his Cy Young Award winning campaign.

Snell joined the Rays as the No. 52 overall pick in the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Wa. His new deal runs through the 2023 season. He can make an additional $2 million in incentives.

"Since being drafted in 2011, Blake's talent and hard work have enabled him to establish himself as one of the most dominant pitchers in the game," Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said in a news release. "We're looking forward to seeing him take the mound for the Rays for years to come."

The pact is the largest contract ever given to a pitcher before he entered arbitration.