Rockies, Nolan Arenado agree to 1-year, $26 million deal

The Rockies and star third baseman Nolan Arenado have settled on a one-year, $26 million contract, according to a club announcement. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the financial details, which is a record for arbitration-eligible player. Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays previously held the record after signing a one-year, $23 million deal last year.

As the Rockies stated in their tweet, Arenado’s deal meant that they agreed to contracts with all eight of their arbitration-eligible players, including Trevor Story, Chad Bettis, Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson, Chris Rusin, Scott Oberg and Tony Wolters. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Rockies will likely look to lock up Arenado for the long term after the kind of campaign he had in 2018.

In his sixth major league season, the 27-year-old right-handed hitter won a National League Silver Slugger award and finished third in the MVP voting after he led the entire National League in home runs with 38 and ranked in the top five in the NL in OPS (second with .935), RBI (tied for second with 110), slugging percentage (third with .561), extra-base hits (tied for third with 78), total bases (fourth with 331), runs created (fourth with 117.8), WAR (fifth with 5.6), and runs (fifth with 104). He also earned a Gold Glove honor for the sixth time in his career after leading all NL third basemen with a 8.1 defensive rating and was named an All-Star for the fourth time in his career.

Arenado is a free agent after this season and will be considered the top third baseman on the market for 2020.