The Contract

Well, I guess Johan Santana is no longer a Twin (notice his name is not in bold right there), but that doesn't mean I will stop writing about him. Although his new contract is normally stated as a 7 year, $157 million deal, there are plenty of nuances to it.

• The option for the year 2014, which is for $25 million, can become a player option rather than a club option if one of a number of clauses is fulfilled, including finishing top 3 in Cy Young voting three times. If the option becomes Santana's, he won't receive the $5.5 million buyout if he rejects it.
• There are many provisions for which he could earn a couple hundred thousand dollars each, with Cy Young being the most (as much as $1.5 million). He could also get $100,000 for winning the Silver Slugger! I didn't realize they gave Silver Slugger awards to pitchers, but I think Santana has a good shot to win that one.
• And a few real nuances of the deal: Santana gets a hotel suite when the Mets travel and also a 15-person luxury suite for each Mets home game this year. I don't know if they include things like this in contracts a lot, but I found it pretty interesting!

So, basically, it looks like Santana is in for a pretty enjoyable seven years.