As expected, the Chicago Cubs and Carlos Marmol today agreed to a three-year extension, which buys out his final two years of arbitration and first year of free agency. We’re still waiting on the official announcement, but the deal is expected to be in the $20 to 23 million range, and Bruce Levine hears the same. Marmol requested $5.65 million for 2011 and the Cubs offered $4.1 million. Thus, if you figure he’d get about $5 million in 2011, $7 million in 2012, and then $9 million in his first year of free agency, about $21 million sounds right.
Once it’s official, we’ll update this post to reflect the final details.
UPDATE: Multiple sources say the final figure is expected to be $20 million (if so, I’d be surprised if there aren’t a number of incentives built in). That sounds about right, if on the low end. Marmol gets slightly less money than he might have if he’d gone year-to-year, but in exchange, he gets a whole lot of financial certainty. Remember this is a guy who’s only (ha, only) made a few million thus far in his career.
UPDATE II: Well, the breakdown is less encouraging. Marmol will get just $3.2 million this year, $7 million next year, and then $9.8 million in 2013 – the Cubs have basically deferred some of this year’s salary until 2013. Normally, that would be fine, but that problem is, sigh, Marmol has been given a limited no-trade clause. Thus, should the Cubs decide they want to move him in a couple years, it will be doubly hard: first, he’ll have a salary near $10 million, and he’ll be able to veto various trade proposals. I understand that money is tight this year, but kicking the can down the road simply makes the can even more of a pain in the ass when you happen upon it again. What happens when money is tight in 2013?