Lester’s upfront payment raises bar
Cubs must pay half of $30M bonus by April 1
NEW YOR K Jon Lester set Major League Baseball records for largest signing bonus and biggest upfront payment with his $155-million, sixyear deal with the Chicago Cubs.
The pitcher’s contract calls for a $30-million signing bonus, of which $15 million is due by April 1, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press on Sunday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because those details have not been announced.
The previous high for a signing bonus had been Vernon Wells’s $25.5 million under a $126-million, seven-year deal with Toronto that covered 2008-14. Wells’s bonus was payable in three equal instalments. Lester’s upfront payment tops a mark set Dec. 8 by Cuban defector Yasmany Tomas.
The Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to a $14-million signing bonus for the Cuban outfielder-third baseman. Tomas broke a record that had stood since January 1993, when Cecil Fielder agreed to a $36-million, five-year contract with Detroit that included an upfront signing bonus of $10,187,500.
Chicago and Lester spread out the rest of the signing bonus in three stages, with $2.5-million payments due by Dec. 31 in 2018 and 2019, and a final $10-million instalment by Sept. 15, 2020.
Lester’s deal includes an option for 2021 that, if it becomes guaranteed, would make the deal worth $170 million over seven seasons.
A three-time all-star who turns 31 next month, Lester helped Boston win World Series titles in 2007 and ’13. He was dealt to Oakland at the trade deadline in July.
Lester was 16-11 with a careerbest 2.46 ERA and 220 strikeouts this year and is 116-67 with a 3.58 ERA in nine big league seasons.