Charlie Blackmon signs six-year, $108 million extension with Rockies - MLB

The Colorado Rockies have announced that they and center fielder Charlie Blackmon have agreed to a six-year contract extension. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the club, but NBC Sports has learned that it’ll pay Blackmon $108 million and could be worth as much as $116 million with incentives.

The contract begins immediately and includes two player options, the exercise of which would keep Blackmon in purple and black through the 2023 season. It breaks down thusly:

2018: $12 million + $2 million signing bonus, which basically replaces the $14 million arbitration-avoiding deal Blackmon signed in January;

2019: $21 million;

2020: $21 million;

2021: $21 million;

2022: $21 million Player Option;

2023: $10 million Player Option, subject to various bonuses and escalators.

Those bonuses and escalators, which could bring the total value of the contract to $116 million break down like this:

Any season between 2018-2022 in which Blackmon finishes 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the MVP Voting increases the 2023 salary by $2 million. Any season in which he finishes in 4th or 5th place increases the 2023 salary by $1 million;
If Blackmon has between 400 and 575 Plate Appearances in 2022, his 2023 salary escalates an additional $5 million;
Those two previous points notwithstanding, his 2023 base salary may escalate by no more than $8,000,000 in total due to incentives, so his max salary for 2023 is $18 million.
The deal includes limited no-trade protection, though it’s worth noting that Blackmon will gain 10/5 rights (i.e. ten years total service time, five with his current club) following the 2022 season, allowing him to veto any trade from that point on;
Blackmon will also get a hotel suite for all road games, which is pretty common for a team’s veteran stars.

Blackmon, 31, is coming off of a monster 2017 campaign in which he won the batting title, hitting .331/.399/.601 with 37 homers and 104 RBI. In addition to leading the league in average, he led the league with 14 triples, 213 hits, 137 runs and 725 plate appearances. A leadoff hitter with rare power, Blackmon won a Silver Slugger Award, was an All-Star and finished fifth in the MVP voting.

Those accomplishments aside, it’s worth noting how good a deal this is for Blackmon, all things considered. After all, Blackmon still has this season to play before he could’ve become a free agent, and will be 32 when he would’ve hit the market, almost certainly saddled with a qualifying offer. Given the environment out there right now for somewhat older free agents like Blackmon would’ve been, getting a nine-figure deal now, with no one else bidding, is pretty great.

That’s also before you realize that Blackmon likely would’ve faced a steeper uphill climb than a lot of free agents given that his numbers have been put up at Coors Field. Blackmon has some pretty significant home/road splits, in fact, with his career OPS at Coors coming in 226 pts higher than his road OPS. Last year, his breakout year, that gulf was a staggering 455 points. Given that the market has, traditionally, been skeptical of Rockies hitters as so-called Coors Creations, the fact that Blackmon landed this deal a testament to both his agents for negotiating the contract and to the Rockies for locking up a homegrown star.

About the agents: Blackmon switched agencies back in November, hiring the ACES agency, run by Sam and Seth Levinson. At the time that decision led to some weird, snarky backbiting in the media, seemingly aimed at casting aspersions on ACES by claiming — quite unconvincingly, I argued at the time — that Blackmon got a bad arbitration deal. As I noted then, such sniping, in addition to likely having ulterior motives, conveniently left out the fact that ACES is noted for getting good long term deals for players who want to stay with their current clubs (e.g. David Wright, Dustin Pedroia) and that Blackmon is on record wanting to strike a long term deal with the Rockies, preferring to stay with one club for his entire career if possible.

That track record and that desire matched up quite nicely. Now it has resulted on a very nice contract for a player north of 30 at a time when those things are increasingly the rarest of unicorns. Nice job all around, I’d say.

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CARSON CITY, Nev. — A bill introduced in the Nevada Legislature would give the Oakland Athletics up to $380 million for a potential 30,000 seat, $1.5 billion retractable roof stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.

The bulk of the public funding would come from $180 million in transferable tax credits from the state and $120 million in county bonds, which can vary based on interest rate returns. Clark County also would contribute $25 million in credit toward infrastructure costs.

The A’s have been looking for a home to replace Oakland Coliseum, where the team has played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season. The team had sought to build a stadium in Fremont, San Jose and finally the Oakland waterfront, all ideas that never materialized.

The plan in the Nevada Legislature won’t directly raise taxes. It can move forward with a simply majority vote in the Senate and Assembly. Lawmakers have a little more than a week to consider the proposal before they adjourn June 5, though it could be voted on if a special session is called.

The Athletics have agreed to use land on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, where the Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort sits. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has said he is disappointed the team didn’t negotiate with Oakland as a “true partner.”

Las Vegas would be the fourth home for a franchise that started as the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901-54. It would become the smallest TV market in Major League Baseball and the smallest market to be home to three major professional sports franchises.

The team and Las Vegas are hoping to draw from the nearly 40 million tourists who visit the city annually to help fill the stadium. The 30,000-seat capacity would make it the smallest MLB stadium.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said a vote on the Oakland Athletics’ prospective move to Las Vegas could take place when owners meet June 13-15 in New York.

The plan faces an uncertain path in the Nevada Legislature. Democratic leaders said financing bills, including for the A’s, may not go through if Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoes the five budget bills, which he has threatened to do as many of his priorities have stalled or faded in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Under the bill, the Clark County Board of Commissioners would create a homelessness prevention and assistance fund along the stadium’s area in coordination with MLB and the Nevada Resort Association. There, they would manage funds for services, including emergency rental and utility assistance, job training, rehabilitation and counseling services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The lease agreement with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority would be up for renewal after 30 years.

Nevada’s legislative leadership is reviewing the proposal, Democratic state Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said in a statement.

“No commitment will be made until we have both evaluated the official proposal and received input from interested parties, including impacted community members,” Yeager said.