D-Backs, Justin Upton Agree To Six-Year Deal

The breakdown of Upton’s contract is as follows

Signing bonus: $1.25 million

2010: $500,000

2011: $4.25 million

2012: $6.75 million

2013: $9.75 million

2014: $14.25 million

2015: $14.5 million

Upton spoke about the pressures of the deal at the press conference today, and GM Josh Byrnes also explained the reasoning behind it:

Justin Upton’s new deal is going to be worth a little over $51 million, according to Jon Heyman:

The folks at SB Nation’s AZ Snakepit like the terms of the contract, if true:

Earlier today, Ken Rosenthal reported that Justin Upton and Arizona were close in negotiations. Now, according to Bob Nightengale, there’s an agreement in place:

Upton was one of the best players in baseball last year at the tender age of 21, and while there are concerns over his strikeout proneness, he’s so good at everything else that the overall package is phenomenal. There’s little reason why Upton shouldn’t go on to be one of the true stars of the game, and Arizona has locked him up through the majority of what should be an exceptional peak.

This would buy out Upton for this season, the three arbitration years that follow it, and his first two years of free agency. He’d hit the market after the 2015 season, and would still only be aged 28 at that point.

Upton was a No. 1 overall draft-pick in 2005, and debuted in the majors barely two years later, in August 2007. However, he achieved national attention thanks to his performance last season, hitting .300 with 26 home-runs, and making the NL All-Star team despite being barely old enough to drink alcohol.