More: Impact and Implications of Lincecum Signing
The San Francisco Giants have come to a verbal agreement with ace pitcher Tim Lincecum on a deal that will pay him $54 million over final three arbitration years, according to CBS' Jon Heyman. That total is $22 million more than Cole Hamels.
The agreement allows Lincecum to avoid arbitration where he was asking for $21.5 million and the Giants were offering $17 million. The deal is for 2 years and $40.5 million with a $500K bonus, $18 million this year and $22 million next year, according to a tweet from the San Francisco Chronicle's Hank Schulman. Looks like Lincecum could be declared the unofficial victor of the negotiations.
But he's proven to be worth all of it.
Lincecum has grown into one of the best pitchers in all of baseball after being taken with the 10th pick in the 2006 amateur draft. He is a four-time All-Star and a two-time Cy Young award winner who has compiled a record of 69-41 with a 2.98 ERA.