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The Derek Holland contract is apparently going to be announced this morning, and Jon Heyman has a tweet with some more financial information:
#rangers and derek holland in agreement on 5 year deal believed worth about $28M. deal 1st reported by @JeffWilson_FWST
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) March 20, 2012
(On the issue of credit, Jeff, in a classy move, subsequently tweeted that Evan Grant gets credit for breaking the story first.)
I had estimated last night that it would be $26 million, a number I started thinking this morning was probably a little low. $28 million over five years is a pretty reasonable amount to pay for locking up Holland through his first year of free agency. There's always risk assumed on the part of the club on these deals, but the potential upside for the Rangers exceeds, I think, the risk involved.
UPDATE -- $28.5 million with two option years, apparently:
Derek Holland's deal is for five years and $28.5MM, with two club options.
— timdierkes (@timdierkes) March 20, 2012
So, yeah, it depends in part on what the numbers on the option years are -- if it is $23 and $25 million, for example, the option years don't help much -- but assuming the option year figures are reasonable, this looks like a really, really nice deal for the Rangers.
UPDATE II -- Per Richard Durrett, the 2017 team option is for $11 million, the 2018 option is for $11.5 million, although incentives could move those figures higher. Regardless, those are very team-friendly option numbers, and pretty well solidifies my opinion that this is a great signing for Texas.