After getting thiiiiiiiis close to arbitration, the Cardinals decided to just go ahead and sign Jon Jay to a 2 season deal on Monday and call the hearing off.
Jay will receive a $1.25 million signing bonus and annual salaries of $3.5 million in 2015 and $6.225 million in 2016, according to a baseball source.
I’m sure most of you gave the ol’ – ‘that’s nice; he deserves it’ when you saw the news. But then you look at the numbers. Deals like this are the reason the Cardinals are going to be competing in the NL Central for a good long while.
Jay, 29, ranks eighth among MLB outfielders with a .295 batting average since his debut with St. Louis in 2010. He batted a team-high .303 in 2014 but fell 34 plate appearances shy of qualifying among the National League batting leaders. He hit .483 (14-for-29) against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in St. Louis’ two postseason series.
So the Cards got a top-10 hitting OF for about 5M per year or 16 or so million less than Matt Kemp makes? Sign me up for some of that.
Jay has carved out a reputation for being a big game player and if he continues to produce at the same clip he has been the past 2 seasons, his new contract will be an absolute robbery for the good guys.
Photo: Missourinet
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