Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

To spare the sensibilities of the non-baseball fans in the audience (I’ll be subjecting you all to thoughts on the Mitchell Report presently, anyway), let’s keep this one brief.

Consider this from the Star-Ledger:

Alex Rodriguez admits error in opting out of Yankee contract

From the slugger’s perspective, maybe it was a mistake — even a “debacle” — to alienate himself from the Yankees and their fans, even temporarily. Regardless, he’s now making a lot more money than the (lots of) money he was making before, and he’s guaranteed to be making it for a lot longer than before.

His 10-year, $275 million deal includes annual salaries ranging from $20 million to $32 million, according to The Associated Press.

He also gets a $10 million signing bonus ($2 million is payable upon approval of his contract, $1 million each Jan. 15 from 2009-13 and $3 million on Jan. 15, 2014) and has bonuses of $6 million each for five milestones that the team designates as historic achievements. Those milestones are expected to be tying the home-run totals of Willie Mays (660), Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Bonds, and breaking Bonds’ major league record. Rodriguez has 518 homers.

So, view this as a pretty nice contract extension — just one that required some Scott Boras-inflected (-inflicted?) drama along the way.