The Red Sox signed David Price to a record-breaking, seven-year, $217 million contract

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The Red Sox and free agent pitcher David Price have agreed to a seven-year, $217 million contract, the Boston Globe reports.

The $31 million average annual value is the largest in Major League history. Miguel Cabrera's 8-year extension with the Tigers is also worth $31 million per season, but the average value goes down slightly if the two years remaining on his old contract (at the time) are included.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Price can opt out of the contract after three years.

The 30-year-old lefty pitched the second half of last season with the Toronto Blue Jays, and along with Zach Greinke was considered the best free-agent starting pitcher of this off-season.

The Red Sox will be the third AL East team of his career. In 2012, he won the Cy Young with the Tampa Bay Rays, who drafted him first overall out of Vanderbilt in 2007.

Landing Price marks the first major acquisition by Dave Dombrowski, the veteran executive that was hired last year by Boston to be the president of baseball operations. The mammoth $217 million price tag is a record number for a Boston pitcher. The previous high came last April, when the Red Sox gave Rick Procello a four-year, $82.5 million extension.

Price's contract also surpasses that of Clayton Kershaw, who signed a seven-year, $215 million contract extension with the Dodgers in 2014.