Now that Carlos Gonzalez‘s seven-year contract extension with the Rockies is finalized Troy Renck of the Denver Post has the specifics of the $80 million deal:
2011 – $1 million
2012 – $5 million
2013 – $7.5 million
2014 – $10.5 million
2015 – $16 million
2016 – $17 million
2017 – $20 million
Gonzalez also gets a $3 million signing bonus and the contract stipulates that he’ll receive an “assignment bonus” of $1 million any time he’s traded.
Basically the Rockies gave Gonzalez a sizable increase on what he would’ve made in his final pre-arbitration season in 2011, pre-paid around $25 million for his three years of arbitration, and then bought out his first three seasons of free agency for about $53 million.
If he continues to play at an MVP level the deal will look like a bargain, as the Rockies could potentially save money every year after 2012, but it still represents a very risky upfront commitment to a player who was already under team control through 2014 anyway.
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- BC - Jan 11, 2011 at 12:59 PM
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It actually works out decently. Helton will be off the books with his mammoth contract before Gonzalez’s really escalates.
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- spudchukar - Jan 11, 2011 at 1:10 PM
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Craig, has anyone ever legally challenged the contractual obligations a player is bound to if he is traded. Is it unreasonable to question an old agreement once a player is forced into a new location? Or should an employer be mandated to honor a deal consummated by another enterprise?
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- mustbenugs - Jan 11, 2011 at 2:27 PM
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The point is though, that they’re trading a contract. The other team understands that in the contract there are a lot of said things they may not like. However if they don’t like that contract they will not accept the trade for the player.
Pretty much how it works.
