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.
