Los Angeles Dodgers add Outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr. with a two-year contract worth $2 million -MLB Update
Waiting till the last minute, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally signed on their outfielder, Tony Gwynn Jr. to a two year contract worth a reported $2 million on Monday, December 12, 2011, less than a day before he could have been lost to the vast free agent
market due to the expiration of the signing deadline.
Hearing that he would be given a two-year deal with the Dodgers, it was something that immediately caught the attention of the veteran 29-year-old player.
"The first offer they made me was a two-year deal,'' Gwynn said.”I hadn’t even thought of that. When they came with a two-year deal, my ears immediately perked up.''
Gwynn Jr. will be making $850,000 next year as part of the deal following a boost of $1.15 the next in 2013, after which he will become eligible to become a free agent yet again.
"I was a lot more calm with the whole process [this year],'' Gwynn told Hernandez. "I was coming off a much better season. I was comfortable going through the whole process. I knew I was going to have a job somewhere. But I wanted to stay here. I really
enjoyed the coaching staff. I enjoyed being with the players.''
Gwynn might know that the amount he will be making now is nothing compared to what he should be getting and could have gotten in arbitration, but looking at the free agent market and how some players are struggling to get picked up, he thought of it as something
rather than having nothing at all.
"That suits me really well,'' Gwynn said."That’s not just a Dodger thing.”
Gwynn will be playing in his sixth straight season in Major League Baseball (MLB) after having spent three back-to-back with the Milwaukee Brewers, the following two with the San Diego Padres and the last with Los Angeles.
Last season, Tony Gwynn Jr. totalled a career high of 136 games played and batted .256 with 37 runs and 22 stolen bases.
It will certainly be exciting to see what he is capable of doing next year when the 2012 MLB regular season kicks off.
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