Report: Castro, Cubs agree on 7-year, $60 million deal
Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro looks to be on the verge of signing a seven-year, $60 million contract extension.
ESPN Desportes reported Saturday that the Cubs and the 22-year-old shortstop agreed on extension that includes a $16 million option for 2020, which would bring the deal’s value to $76 million.
Neither side was commenting on the reported deal because details still needed to be finalized. However, an extension hardly would come as a surprise, as both sides admitted recently in the media that talks had opened.
When and if the deal becomes finalized, it will carry Castro through four years of salary arbitration and three of free agency. Castro would have been eligible for salary arbitration this coming winter as a “super-two” player, with 2 years and 150 days of major-league service time. Most players become eligible for arbitration after three years.
For the Cubs, such a deal would provide them with cost control over several years. Castro would get guaranteed short-term financial security with a chance to cash in even bigger after this deal expires.
Castro entered Saturday’s day-night doubleheader at Cincinnati with a hitting line of .276/.307/.420. He had a career-best 12 home runs, and his 58 RBI were 8 shy of his career best, set last season.
Although Castro is arguably the most talented player on the Cubs, he has been guilty of mental lapses from time to time, and manager Dale Sveum has said that the young player can be “as good as he wants to be.”
Last season, Castro led the National League with 207 hits.
The Cubs originally signed Castro as a nondrafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in October 2006.