It’s taken awhile to get the full breakdown on Giancarlo Stanton’s mammoth new contract with the Marlins, but the numbers have finally been revealed by ESPN’s Jayson Stark. And as expected, they’re shocking, and the contract is severely backloaded.
According to a major league source who had seen the terms, Stanton’s salaries over those first three seasons will be only $6.5 million in 2015, $9 million in 2016 and $14.5 million in 2017, far less than he could have earned through arbitration in 2015-16 and then via free agency. He would then earn $77 million over the next three seasons, and could opt out of the contract after 2020, following his age 30 season.
So essentially, this contract is less of a “13 year, $325 million” deal, and more of a “six year, $107 million” deal, with Stanton needing to opt in to the second half of the contract, which would pay him $218 million over seven years. Got all that? A third of the money will be paid to Stanton in the half of the contract before the opt-out, while two-thirds of the money will be paid to him after the opt-out.
I’m curious as to whether or not a team would be willing to pay him more than the average of $31 million per season he’d be making from his age 31 season on, but at that point in his career, winning a championship might be more important than making an obscene amount of money.
[ESPN]
