Rodriguez Now Multimillion-Dollar Player
Dec. 12 -- It’s a lot of money.
Alex Rodriguez can now say that he won the race for the most-prized baseball contract ever. And it’s a lot of money. Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers agreed to a $252 million, 10-year contract — the richest deal in the history of sports.
The contract calls for annual salaries ranging from $21 million to $27 million. Rodriguez’s deal is exactly double the previous record for a sports contract: a $126 million, six-year agreement between forward Kevin Garnett and the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Alex is the player we believe will allow this franchise to fulfill its dream of continuing on its path to becoming a World Series champion,” Rangers owner Tom Hicks said at a news conference Monday evening.
Hicks paid $250 million to buy the entire franchise three years ago from the group headed by George W. Bush and Rusty Rose.
At a press conference today, Rodriguez said he was glad that the free-agent process was over and that he “wants to play baseball and win a World Series.”
Unprecedented Contract
After a full day of negotiations Sunday stretched into early Monday, Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, said he was working on a contract that would give his client the ability to opt out at certain points. He called the opt-out clause was a “precarious part” of negotiations.
“It’s kind of unprecedented,” Boras said.
There is also a clause in the final two years that guarantees Rodriguez will be the highest-paid player in the game. He also gets a $10 million signing bonus that is to be paid out in one-year, $1 million installments.The Seattle Mariners and the Atlanta Braves had also been competing for the free agent. So far, the only team Rodriguez has played for is Seattle.
“Tom [Hicks, the team owner] wants to win and win badly,” Rangers manager Johnny Oates said. “At our monthly meeting in August, Alex was a player he very much wanted in our organization.”
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