The Arizona Diamondbacks announced in a press conference this afternoon that they have come to terms with Justin Upton to keep him in Arizona though 2015.

According to a report from USA Today’s Inside Pitch, The breakdown of the deal is as follows: $1.25 million signing bonus and $500,000 this year, $4.25 million in 2011, $6.75 million in 2012, $9.75 million in 2013, $14.25 million in 2014 and $14.5 million in 2015.

The Sporting News broke the signing bonus down further reporting Upton will receive half of that bonus on April 15 and the remaining amount on July 15.

The 22-year-old Upton is an outfielder for the Diamondbacks but played shortstop in high school at Great Bridge High in Chesapeake, Virginia. After being switched to the outfield by the Diamondbacks, he is said to have difficulties gauging fly balls but is considered by many to have one of the stronger arms in baseball.

Upton is a solid hitter at the plate, last year hitting .300 with 26 home runs and 86 RBIs.

The Arizona Diamondbacks drafted Upton as the first overall pick in the 2005 MLB draft. At the young age of 19, he was called up to the majors in 2007.

“Justin’s age (22) played a major factor in the decision,” Larry Reynolds, Upton’s agent said. “This financially sets him up for life, and the bottom line is that he’ll still be a free agent at a time he’s just 28 years old.”

The six-year deal is the second largest contract in Diamondback history. The largest was Randy Johnson’s four-year $53.4 million deal in 1999. Had Upton not signed the deal, he would have been eligible for salary arbitration after this season.

In addition to writing her Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com,Miriam Romain has been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is a contributor to SportsClimax.com . She is also writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

© 2010 – Sports Climax^TM

Below is a statement just released by Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell concerning signing Ilya Kovalchuk:

Our goal from the start of this negotiating process was to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a long-term contract. During the process, Kovy affirmed his desire to be a Thrasher for life. We’ve spent several months exploring scenarios with Kovy and his agent to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, and offered many lucrative packages in an attempt to meet his financial objectives. Unfortunately, we’ve reached an impasse and at this point he has declined all of our proposals and we can’t reasonably go any higher.

Ultimately, we offered Kovy more than $101 million over 12 years, which would have been the highest contract signed by an impending unrestricted free agent in the history of the league. If accepted, this contract would have been the second highest offer ever to any NHL player. We also met his desire to be the highest paid player based on average annual salary with a separate offer of 7 years at $10M per year ($70M). This offer is $0.5M higher per year than any other player.

If we went beyond these offers, we would not be able to retain the young players on our roster when it came time to sign them, or invest in other top tier players needed to assemble a truly competitive team. Therefore, we are aggressively exploring all of our options as we move forward.

Other Thrashers Articles:

Kovalchuk Showing Great Leadership in Atlanta

Atlanta Goalie Allows 180-foot Shot to Score in Loss

Copyright © 2010 – Sports Climax

Los Angeles – Manny Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras has made it clear that the Dodgers’ offer (he still won’t confirm the details) wasn’t sufficient. The length of the proposed contract is too short for Boras’ taste. To buttress his negotiating position that age shouldn’t matter in the case of a hitter like Manny, Boras offered this:

“There is evidence of major league teams giving a player that’s older a contract for five years.”

Of course, that refers to the contract Barry Bonds signed when he was 37. And look how well that worked out for the San Francisco Giants, right? They got the revenue from his chase for the record books as he passed Hank Aaron on the career home run record and were able to dump him immediately thereafter when his the contract expired.

Ned Colletti, the Dodgers GM, was quoted yesterday as warning Boras that the Dodgers offer, whatever it is, would not be on the table forever. I’m sure Scott is shaking in his boots. Do you think he wears boots?

In Southern California, sports talk radio has been ablaze with talk about the Dodgers offer to Manny Ramirez and if it will fly with his agent Scott Boras.

Boras threw out the fishing line at season’s end with the announcement that the bidding would start at $25,000,000 for a multi-year deal of four years or more. The Dodgers have a short and exclusive period to see if they want to bite on what Boras is dangling on that line and Wednesday afternoon the team released a cryptic statement about an offer.

It was described by the Dodgers as “the highest average annual value in the history of the franchise and the second-highest average annual value in baseball”.

In other words, the offer was less than what A Rod makes and more than Johan Santana’s annual haul. Neither Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti nor Scott Boras was willing to be specific about the dollar amount or the length of the deal on the table.

Notice the use of the words, “annual average”. Obviously this is a multi-tiered compensation package that either front-loads or back-loads some of the money and might include various bonuses. As I wrote yesterday, the looming new tax bite on the top income earners has agents trying to get clubs to shell out bonus money prior to year’s end.

The Dodgers are being very tight lipped about it as is Boras. No one else can intervene with an official offer until fifteen days after the final game of the World Series was played. But you have to presume that Boras was mixing and mingling with club officials and owners during the meeting held this week here in So Cal and knowing winks and nods were presumably exchanged. Whether they turn into definitive offers remains to be seen.

What is certain is that Dodger fans are saying their prayers that their team lands the biggest fish they’ve had in their pond for a couple of decades.