Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Padres will announce a four-year contract for starter Chris Young tomorrow. There’s also a club option for the fifth year. Rosenthal also mentions that the club is working on a three-year deal for Mike Cameron; they had been reluctant to add the third year.
The dollars haven’t been revealed yet, but Young’s deal could be in the neighborhood of $10MM guaranteed with a $7-8MM option for 2011. However, Young may have wanted more money than the Noah Lowry/Rich Harden/Matt Cain standard package. He entered 2007 with 69 big league starts under his belt, more than any of the aforementioned three. Interestingly, PECOTA doesn’t like Young. It doesn’t see him ever reaching 200 innings in a season.
I don’t want to irritate Rangers fans so I won’t go on and on about how badly Kevin Towers ripped off Jon Daniels to acquire Young, Adrian Gonzalez, and Terrmel Sledge. Let’s just say it was one of the most lopsided deals of the decade and leave it at that.
Pitchers like Cole Hamels, Rich Hill, and Scott Kazmir may be in line for similar deals if they post strong 2007 seasons.
UPDATE: Young himself denied Rosenthal’s report last night, yet the Padres have a press conference scheduled for this morning.
UPDATE 2: Despite yesterday’s denial from Young, the Padres made the deal official today. The terms: four years, $14.5MM, with an $8.5MM option for the fifth year.
Additionally, Mike Cameron’s agent expects a resolution soon according to MLB.com.
