3:50pm: Desmond would also earn an additional $500K for winning NL MVP honors in either season, tweets Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.
11:56am: The Nationals have agreed to sign shortstop Ian Desmond to a two-year, $17.5MM extension that will buy out his final two years of arbitration, according to MLB.com's Bill Ladson (Twitter link). Desmond is a client of Sports One Athlete Management. Desmond will earn $6.5MM in 2014 and $11MM in 2015, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
Desmond's contract is the second two-year deal inked by the Nationals today, as they also locked up Jordan Zimmermann for two years and $24MM. Barring a long-term extension, Desmond's salaries are now locked in until he eligible for free agency following the 2015 campaign. He'd been projected to earn $6.9MM in 2014 by MLBTR's Matt Swartz.
Desmond has broken out as one of the game's best all-around shortstops, slashing .286/.333/.480 with solid defense at shortstop and a pair of 20-homer, 20-steal campaigns in 2012-13. The Nationals are reportedly interested in locking him up to a long-term extension, as is also the case with Zimmermann.
This deal will save the Nats some money over the next two years but they should have paid a little more to buy out some FA years.
This doesn’t mean they still can’t extend Desmond or JZimm before opening day if they work out another deal.
As good as this winter has been, I won’t be able to help being disappointed if one of them don’t get extended.