Felix Hernandez agreed to a five-year, $135.5 million contract extension Thursday with the Seattle Mariners, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.
Felix Hernandez is my favorite pitcher and has been forever, I have always dreamed of him being on the Red Sox, but you have to appreciate his loyalty to the team that drafted him. I can't believe that he is actually stoked to stay in Seattle and not testing the waters, because some team would probably pay him more. Seattle doesn't have a ton going for them on the offensive end, although they do have some younger players who potentially could be impactful.
I know they moved the fences in and traded for Michael Morse, but I think it will be a while before this team turns into an offensive juggernaut. But I like that Felix is decided to pull a KG and stick through the bad times to be a legend in Seattle.
9 comments:
You do have to appreciate his loyalty. Then again, I'd be loyal to someone who gave me $27 million a year. So is that really loyalty? Or is it business?
I think he would have got more from another team or a more competitive team.
Yeah, that $27M is nothing.
$27M for king felix would be nothing for the yankees. dodgers? angels? hopefully the sox as well.
I'm not sure how much of this is loyalty and how much of this is insurance/striking while the iron is hot. This was his current deal:
5 years/$78M (2010-14)
signed extension with Seattle 1/19/10 (avoided arbitration, $11.5M-$7.2M)
$3.5M signing bonus
10:$6.5M, 11:$10M, 12:$18.5M, 13:$19.5M, 14:$20M
limited no-trade protection (may block deals to 10 clubs annually)
award bonuses: $50,000 each for All-Star, LSC MVP, Gold Glove; $0.1M for WS MVP; $0.2M for Cy Young
2010 Cy Young increases 2011 salary by $1M to $11M, 2012 salary by $0.5M to $19M, 2013 salary by $0.5M to $20M, 2014 salary by $0.5M to $20.5M
I'd have to see the terms of the new deal, but he wasn't going to hit the Free Agent market for another two seasons and this gives him a significant pay bump and more years. I have no doubt he could have waited til 2015 and made more money, but a lot of stuff can happen in two seasons. Injuries, drop off in performance, etc. It's a shame that he's going to be dumping most of his prime years into a Seattle team that finished in the basement of the AL West and isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but maybe he's not interested in chasing championships?
Good points by Mike. He gets a raise now instead of in two seasons.
He does seem to like Seattle, and that's refreshing. But to praise his loyalty when he's being paid $27,000,000 for that loyalty is like thinking a classy escort would want you even if you weren't paying her.
You mean the strippers arent interested in me - aside from my money?
dude Seattle has sucked, and he's willing to see it out. WHo cares about him getting a contract he deserves. 27 million dollars is a lot of money, but the yankees, sox or whoever would have paid more than that.
Every stud pitcher recently has always tested the market. It is loyalty no way around it.
I pay someone $20 an hour to be my friend. They could get $25 an hour from someone else. I suppose that's a form of loyalty. It's conditional loyalty, though.
I'm not saying Felix isn't loyal, just that praising him for this kind of loyalty is like saying my $20/hr. friend is loyal.
He gets $15M more the next 2 years, before he hits free agency. Then he gets 3 more years of big money. He'll then be 31 and can still cash in with a huge contract. It's win/win for him. He pushes free agency back 3 years, gets a $7.5M/yr raise to do it, and can still get that $300M/9 year deal that the Yankees will break the bank to sign him to.
Post a Comment