Buster Olney has them. In addition to his $8 million:
- He gets $500,000 for winning the MVP Award, $200,000 for finishing second through fifth, and $100,000 for finishing sixth through tenth;
- He gets $100,000 for being voted in as an All-Star, $50,000 for being selected as a reserve;
- $100,000 for winning the Gold Glove and another $100,000 for the Silver Slugger;
- $150,000 for winning the ALCS MVP; $200,000 for being the World Series MVP; and
- He gets a suite on the road.
If the Tigers win the AL Central and Damon doesn’t fall off a cliff I could totally see him getting some MVP votes due to writers thinking he’s a difference maker or a leader or something. All it takes to place 10th is roughly 7-10 of the 28 voters to think you’re one of the top 10 candidates.
The All-Star incentives are less likely to happen. Damon was voted 7th among AL outfielders last season, and that’s with a pretty darn good first half on the Yankees. As for getting selected as a reserve, his former manager Joe Girardi is doing the selecting for whatever that’s worth.
The postseason MVP awards are utterly unpredictable. The suite on road trips is an increasingly popular contract perk among star players. I often wonder what the guys who don’t get suites think of that.
How about that Gold Glove incentive? If I’m the Tigers I’m not going to worry about setting money aside for that one. Damon is more likely to win Best Actress, a MacArthur Genius Grant or the Nobel Prize for literature before he snags a fielding award.