Cards To Sign Wainwright Long-Term

I mentioned on Monday that Cards ace Adam Wainwright seemed a prime candidate for an extension.  Today, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says a contract is done, pending a physical.  According to Goold:

The guaranteed part of the new contract is four years and expected to be worth around $15 million, and it will buy out Wainwright’s arbitration years, through 2011. The deal has an option that would cover the first two years of his free agency, sources said.

MLB.com’s Matthew Leach writes that Wainwright’s $448K renewal for ’08 will be overwritten and is one of the four guaranteed years of the deal.  As such this would be in line with other young starter deals.  And not all of the others got the third arb year guaranteed so Wainwright’s agent did well there.