According to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates signed closer Matt Capps through the 2009 season. They added $65K to his ’08 salary and gave him $2.35MM for ’09 (his first arb year). They also tossed in a $500K signing bonus. Previously, Kovacevic had said talks with Capps fizzled because of Manny Corpas’ deal.
Corpas receives $2.75MM for his first arb year, so Capps gets about 85% of that. By that logic, perhaps the Pirates could buy out Capps’ last two arb years (2010-11) for a total of $8.3MM or so. Regardless, this is a nice little move for Neal Huntington. According to Capps, the Pirates made a four-year offer in December and remained persistent until now.
