Anthony Rizzo Signs 7-Year, $41 Million Deal

This comes out of nowhere, but is, in my view, absolutely the right thing to do:

Sources: #Cubs agree with Rizzo on 7-year, $41 million contract. Deal runs from 2013 through ’19. Story coming on Foxsports.com.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 13, 2013

There has been no confirmation of this from the Cubs yet, but I wanted to get it posted for you to discuss. If what's stated in the tweet is true, it rips up Anthony Rizzo's current 2013 deal, which is worth $498,000, and replaces it with a new deal and six more years, buying out all of Rizzo's arb years.

There's also no word on how this is broken down per season, but the average annual value of a seven-year, $41 million deal is approximately $5.86 million per year. This is very similar in AAV to the contract Starlin Castro signed last August, which will pay him $60 million over the next seven seasons (including this year).

Here is more info on the deal from Ken Rosenthal:

The Cubs have reached agreement with Rizzo on a seven-year, $41 million contract through 2O19, according to major-league sources. The deal also includes two club options that could extend the deal through 2O21 and bring the total value to $7O million, and escalators that could further increase it to $73 million.

After a really slow start Rizzo has been hot lately; he's currently hitting .280/.352/.538 with 10 doubles, nine home runs and 28 RBI in 37 games played.

This is the way you build teams, in my opinion -- get young stars and get them locked up to under-market contracts. Presuming this report turns out to be true, good work by Theo and Jed.

UPDATE: More on this deal from the Tribune:

The deal will be announced Monday at Wrigley Field, according to sources.