Buchholz Agrees to a 4 Year Extension with Boston

Today, the Red Sox locked up another great player that has come up through THEIR farm system. Over the past few years, the Red Sox have locked up Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, and Jon Lester. Over the off season, the Red Sox tried negotiating a contract with Buchholz and used Lester's contract as a starting point. Of course, Lester is better at the moment and the Red Sox got a much better deal on Lester than on Buchholz. Lester got a 5 year, 30 million dollar contract which is one of the most team friendly contracts in baseball especially due to the fact that Lester is a workhorse and is capable of a Cy Young season almost every year. One of the only contracts that is more team friendly that Lester's is Evan Longoria's contract that was made to him right after he debuted due to the Ray's belief that he would be a great player. Clay Buchholz had a no hitter a few years ago that was very nicely pitched. Over the past few years, he has struggled, but last year, the young pitch put together a great season in which he had one of the best ERAs in the AL and almost won the Cy Young.   Over the last few years, Buchholz has been a very highly regarded prospect and has been a very big trade chip but his potential value was greater than what the Red Sox were willing to give up so they kept him. This of course meant waiting a couple years for Adrian Gonzalez and missing out on Roy Halladay but they kept Buchholz and they eventually got Gonzalez for a lower price. Buchholz signed a 4 year, 30 million dollar deal with a few club options. Here are the details:

2011: $550,000 (+ $1 million signing bonus)
2012: $3.5 million
2013: $5.5 million
2014: $7.7 million
2015: $12 million
2016: $13 million team option (or $245,000 buyout)
2017: $13.5 million team option (or $500,000 buyout)
(2017 option increases to $14 million if Buchholz finishes either first or second in Cy Young voting during the contract.)