Livan Hernandez will need to pitch 160 innings to earn more than $5 million from the Twins this year, and the value of his new contract won’t reach $7 million unless he pitches 230 innings.

On Tuesday, Hernandez signed a one-year, $5 million contract with up to $2 million in incentives. The Star Tribune obtained a copy, and here’s a closer look:

Base salary: $3,500,000
Signing bonus: $1,500,000

Incentives
160 innings pitched: $133,334
165: $133,334
170: $133,334
175: $133,334
180: $133,334
185: $133,333
190: $133,333
195: $133,333
200: $133,333 (Note: That’s $6.2 million if he reaches the 200-inning mark.)
205: $133,333
210: $133,333
215: $133,333
220: $133,333
225: $133,333
230: $133,333

The contract includes a fairly standard awards package: $25,000 an for All-Star selection, $100,000 for World Series MVP honors, $50,000 for LCS MVP honors, $100,000 for the Cy Young Award, $50,000 for a Gold Glove.

It also stipulates that the Twins will not offer Hernandez arbitration if he becomes a Type A free agent. When teams offer Type A free agents arbitration, the next team that signs the player must surrender a first-round draft pick to the team that lost him. This can harm a players free agent value.

The Twins will receive an extra first-round pick from the Angels this year for losing Torii Hunter, a Type A free agent. Hernandez was a Type B free agent this year. By signing him, the Twins didn’t lose anything, but the team that last had Hernandez, Arizona, receives an additional draft pick.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.