Source: Red Sox give Beckett $68M extension

BOSTON – The Red Sox and right-hander Josh Beckett have agreed to a four-year, $68 million contract extension, one major-league source confirmed to FOXSports.com.

The team has called a news conference for 3 p.m. ET Monday.

Beckett is 65-34 with a 4.08 ERA in 123 starts with the Red Sox since 2006. A two-time All-Star in Boston, he was set to become a free agent at the end of this season.

Now, the Red Sox have multiple years of control over the top four pitchers in their rotation: Beckett, left-hander Jon Lester, and right-handers John Lackey and Clay Buchholz.

Lackey, who signed as a free agent last offseason, is signed for five years. Lester and Buchholz won't be eligible for free agency until the 2014 season ends. Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is starting the season on the disabled list, is under contract through 2012.

Beckett had sought a five-year deal comparable to Lackey's, but the Red Sox were concerned about Beckett's right shoulder. Instead, he gets a modest bump over his teammate, and a big raise from the $12.1 million he is earning this season in the option year of his previous deal.

Beckett's best season came in 2007, when he went 20-7 with a 3.28 ERA and made his first All-Star team. He finished second in the voting for the AL Cy Young award to CC Sabathia, the left-hander Beckett faced Sunday night in the first game of the major league season, against the New York Yankees. Beckett struggled in that start, a victory for the Red Sox, allowing five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings.

In the last five seasons, only Sabathia, with 82 wins, and Roy Halladay, with 81, have more than Beckett's 80. And only five pitchers have more than Beckett's 1,193 strikeouts over the last seven seasons.

In 2003, his second season in the majors, Beckett pitched a 2-0 complete game over the Yankees in Game 6 as the Marlins clinched the World Series. In 2007, he pitched the opening game of Boston's Series sweep over Colorado, allowing one run in seven innings.

But in his only postseason appearance last year he gave up four runs in seven innings in Game 2 and the Los Angeles Angels won two days later to sweep the AL division series.

Beckett was 12-10 with a 4.03 ERA in 27 starts in 2008 when he went on the disabled list twice. He missed the start of the season with a lower back strain then was sidelined in late August and early September with inflammation in his right elbow.

But he bounced back last year with a 17-6 record and 3.86 ERA in 32 starts.

Beckett, who turns 30 on May 15, is 106-68 with a 3.79 ERA in his career. In 1,401 innings, he has 1,330 strikeouts.

Boston obtained Beckett after the 2005 season when he went 15-8 with a 3.38 ERA for the Marlins. The Red Sox also got third baseman Mike Lowell in the trade for shortstop Hanley Ramirez.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.