Texas Rangers to announce Elvis Andrus extension at 1 p.m. today

The Texas Rangers have called a 1 p.m. press conference for today to officially announce the signing of an eight year contract extension by Elvis Andrus.

Reports indicate that the deal is for a straight $15 million per year guaranteed from 2015-22, with a vesting option for 2023, and an opt-out clause allowing Andrus to opt out of the final years of the deal after either 2018 or 2019.

Elvis, 24, is now definitely locked up through his age 29 season. I normally am not a fan of opt-out clauses, but given that I believe that $15 million per year is below market value, and given Elvis's age and durability, I think that the opt-out clause here is a fair trade-off for getting a deal done.

Jon Heyman has a story about the deal, in which he talks about how the Rangers were willing to make this commitment, even with Jurickson Profar waiting in the wings, saying that "Texas people love Andrus, who they see as charismatic, healthy and offensively improving." One of the reasons the Rangers targeted him in the first place in the Mark Teixeira trade, and promoted him in 2009 when he was just 20, was that they viewed him as a potential team leader, a guy with great makeup who you can build a team around.