Cribbed from ESPN.com:
In addition to his salary, he would earn $200,000 for pitching 225 innings, a figure he reached in each of his two full seasons. He would get $500,000 for each Cy Young Award, $250,000 for second, $100,000 for third, $75,000 for fourth and $50,000 for fifth.
He also would get $100,000 each time he's an All-Star, $100,000 for NL MVP, $75,000 for World Series MVP and $50,000 for League Championship Series MVP.
So with a season like 2008 or 2009 -- All-Star, Cy Young winner, 225+ IP -- he'll earn $800,000 extra. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised. I thought the compromise on base salary would mean a chance for a serious boost with the award bonuses. Not to say $800,000 is chump change. It's more than Lincecum's entire 2009 salary. It's more than I've made in 15-plus years of journalism. Bitter? Moi?
But assuming they had the arb case in their favor -- perhaps a big assumption -- it adds more to the question of why Camp Lincecum left so much money on the table. Despite his outward stance, did Agent Thurman privately tell Lincecum that Freakishness or not, the injury risk to a young pitcher is enough to warrant taking the guaranteed cash? If that's the case, why not take the three-year deal at more than $10 M per year that was reportedly offered?
Let's not belabor the details too much. Lincecum is on board, he's about to report for camp, he doesn't need to go through arb next winter, and the green grass of Arizona awaits. But if you have any theories about what just went down, let us have 'em.
