Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Castro will receive a $6MM signing bonus before earning $5MM in 2013 and
2014, $6MM in 2015, $7MM in 2016, $9MM in 2017, $10MM in 2018 and $11MM
in 2019. If Castro finishes in the Top 5 of the MVP voting twice over
the life of his contract, his 2019 salary and the value of his $16MM
option will each increase by $2MM. All told, the maximum value of his
contract including escalators would be $79MM over eight years.
This is more than the original reports of a seven year, $60 million extension. Initial reports indicated that the Cubs and Castro's agent are talking a long term deal, which would take out his arbitration years and at least two years of free agency. The numbers being kicked around by pundits infer that the first three years could net $15-20 million and the first two years of free agency at $15 million each, or a total of a five year $50 million deal. A $10 million average would put Castro at #3 in pay for current shortstops (Jeter, Rollins, Reyes).
From Rosenthal's numbers, the first three years of the extension of the Castro deal are worth $22 million (including the bonus), an increase of 10 to 47 percent of original estimates. But the overall average of $9.8 million over 8 years is less than the projected $10 million over 5 years.
Still, it is a long term commitment to Castro. His deal will effectively block the young Cub shortstops in the system (Baez and Lake). The Cubs must really believe that Castro will bust out in the next two seasons to try to get a long term discount as set forth above.
