Ryan Braun signs $105M, 5-year extension through 2020

Here are some details on Ryan Braun's five-year contract extension with the Brewers:

The five years, which run from 2016-2020, are worth $105 million. There is a $10 million signing bonus, with salaries of $19 million in 2016, 2017 and 2018, $18 million in 2019 and $16 million in 2020. There is a mutual option in 2021 worth up to $20 million with a $4 million buyout. It includes a no-trade provision and Braun agreed to defer some salary to help keep the team competitive.

The annual yearly value of $21 million is second-highest ever for an outfielder (after Manny Ramirez's last two-year deal with Dodgers).That's in addition to the $45 million, eight-year deal he signed in  May 2008 -- still the largest deal ever (total and AAV) signed by a  player with less than one year of service time.

Braun is now guaranteed $145.5 million from this season through the  end of the extension.

This makes Braun one of just two players signed through 2020, along with Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki. The only other players signed through 2018 are Joe Mauer and Adrian Gonzalez.

“From here on out the only thing that really matters is winning,” Braun said. “I’m proud of saying that I’ve been a part of a group of guys here who have come in here and tried to kind of change the culture and get back to having the perception of being a winning organization, when guys like Robin Yount played here, Gorman Thomas, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, when all those guys were here, it was a special place to play.”

“There really aren’t many guys that’ve spent their entire careers with one team,” he said.

Braun has been picked to start each of the last three All-Star Games and is one of five players in history to hit at least 125 homers and post a .300 batting average over the first four seasons of his career, joining Joe DiMaggio, Chuck Klein, Albert Pujols and Ted Williams.

Braun’s .308 career batting average is currently the franchise’s best mark.

“Very rarely does it happen where a player understands his franchise and where it’s at and where he wants to be in the future,” general manager Doug Melvin said. “A lot of times we have a tendency just to look at today or tomorrow, but he had the vision of an organization that he wanted to be with and from that standpoint, it’s a very exciting day for us.”

This is the first time a player with five years left on his current deal agreed to an  extension (Tulowitzki had three years plus an option remaining). This  is believed to be the sixth time a player has signed a contract that  guaranteed him 10 or more years of future salary (Dave Winfield, Derek Jeter, A-Rod, Todd Helton's extension, Tulowitzki's extension).

Only seven players are signed through age 36 and have spent their entire career with their original professional organization: Braun,  Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Ryan Howard, Chipper Jones and Todd Helton.

Among teams in the bottom third of MLB markets (according to Nielsen), this is the largest deal ever given out in terms of AAV and  fifth-highest in total value (after Helton, Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday,  Mike Hampton).

This is one of nine contracts ever for a position player with a total value of at least $100 million and an AAV of at least $20  million (A-Rod twice, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Joe Mauer, Manny Ramirez,  Mark Teixeira, Ryan Howard).

Braun is 27, and only two other players 27 or younger signed a contract with an AAV of $20M or more: A-Rod in 2001 and Joe Mauer in  2011.

This is the largest deal in franchise history by total (was Braun's $45M/8 year deal) and AAV (was Prince Fielder's $15.5M for 2011). The total is thus more than double any previous Brewers deal.

(jsonline.com)