UPDATE: According to Gordon Wittemyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Byrd deal is backloaded: $3 million this year, $5.5 million in 2011 and $6.5 million in 2012.
I guess that’s because Byrd is gonna get more valuable as time goes on.
12:22 P.M.: Rosenthal just tweeted that it’s happening. A three year deal, details to be announced later today. UPDATE: It’s $15 million.
Three years. Mercy.
Byrd is 32 years old. He’s an average defensive centerfielder who, if he is not better suited to a corner now, certainly will be by the end of this deal. He has had some recent offensive success, but it was largely a product of playing in the Ballpark in Arlington. While his overall OPSs for the past three seasons have been 814, 842 and 808, he was 715, 773 and 740 on the road. As our own Matthew Pouliot said a couple of weeks ago, an Alfonso Soriano-Byrd-Kosuke Fukudome outfield is going to be an awful lot more expensive than it will be productive.
Happy New Year, Cubs fans.
