K-Rod's vesting clause now a mutual option
Pitcher Francisco Rodriguez #75 of the New York Mets works against the Colorado Rockies in the ninth inning at Coors Field. (May 12, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
Francisco Rodriguez may have wound up on the Brewers by accident, but that won't prevent the trade from paying off for him one way or the other.
K-Rod and his new representative, Scott Boras, negotiated a path to free agency Friday by getting the Brewers to make the $17.5-million vesting option in his contract a mutual option instead -- while increasing his buyout from $3.5 million to $4 million. The Brewers can now pay the buyout and avoid being on the hook for the $17.5 million he'd be due for completing 55 games, thereby making him a free agent.
Boras now stands to make a commission from a new contract rather than zero from the vesting option that was put in place by Paul Kinzer, Rodriguez's previous agent.
According to Boras, the Brewers were not among the teams that K-Rod was willing to be traded to when he signed with the team in 2008, but he said the Mets are saying they never received a no-trade list.
"I don't have the facts in this case only in the sense that the Mets are contending that they did not receive a list," Boras said. "We have not had sufficient time to examine whether there is a list in existence and we haven't had sufficient time to examine that there are contentions on the former representative side that the list was sent in a timely fashion."
Rodriguez said this week that he believed Milwaukee was on his no-trade list. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson has said that a no-trade list never was submitted.
Kinzer declined to comment Friday, other than to say he would have a statement at a later date. As for Boras, he told Sirius XM during an interview Friday that he planned to investigate the no-trade issue, but had no intention of challenging the trade.
Regardless, Boras and Rodriguez are getting what they want. Boras has the chance to negotiate a new deal and Rodriguez will have the opportunity to be a closer again with the Brewers, this time without the pressure of the vesting option. The Brewers now have no need to demote him to a setup role.
