The Colorado Rockies have agreed to a monumental contract extension with third baseman Nolan Arenado. The 8-year, $260 million contract extension is set to be worth $32.5 million per year which is higher than Manny Machado’s 10-year $300 million contract signed last week. Arenado’s extension includes an opt-out after three years and a full no-trade clause. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported the deal as being close and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the finalization of the deal shortly after.
BREAKING: Third baseman Nolan Arenado and the Colorado Rockies are finalizing an eight-year, contract extension worth more than $255M, league sources tell ESPN. Deal includes an opt-out after three years, would give Arenado the largest per-year salary of any position player.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 26, 2019
Source confirms: #Rockies, Arenado in final stages of negotiating eight-year, $260M extension with opt-out after three years. First to report deal as close: @JeffPassan.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 26, 2019
This deal comes little over a week after the San Diego Padres paid free agent Manny Machado $300 million on his 10-year contract. The contract itself is the leargest contract in United States professional sports history, and Arenado just went and topped him in Average Annual Value (AAV). Arenado recently was involved in a arbitration dispute in which resulted in him asking for $28 million or more from the Rockies, soon after the Rockies answered with this extension.
Arenado was an all-star last year posting a .297/.374/.561 with 38 home runs and 110 RBI’s for the Rockies in 2018. This makes it clear why they did not want Arenado to “test” free agency next offseason and risk losing him. Arenado’s extension puts even more pressure on teams who are in negotiations with Bryce Harper, his value most likely just skyrocketed past the current $300+ million. He is most likely going to ask to top Machado and now possibly Arenado in AAV. Time will tell as teams continue to negotiate with Harper and hopefully reach an agreement which will most likely top Machado and Arenado.
