Astros star Jose Altuve reportedly gets a nice signing bonus

We all know by now that the Houston Astros have signed Altuve to a five-year extension.

This news broke over the weekend with Brian McTaggart reporting it was close, then Jon Heyman later confirming it. Though the Astros nor Jose Altuve have confirmed the deal, there is reportedly a new conference set for 10 am today.

If reports are accurate, the Astros will be retaining Altuve’s services for the next seven years, until 2025. The deal will pay Altuve $151 million over those five-years, making him the second highest paid position player per season.

That works out to about $30.2 million a season, second to Miguel Cabrera, according to Heyman. That’s a pretty hefty salary for a cheap team that Heyman claims the Astros are. Let’s not think of the Astros as being cheap, but they know when and where to spend the money. Altuve is on pace to outplay Astros legend, Craig Biggio.

Altuve is the face of the Stros!

That shows how much Altuve means for the team; they wanted to keep him around for most of his career. He will be 27 when this season opens, meaning he will be 35 when he becomes a free agent. If he is productive still at that age, they could offer him a deal to become a lifelong Astro!

There is no doubt that Altuve is making some money by extending himself now. The Astros could be saving money as well by not allowing Altuve to reach the free agent market. There, other teams would drive up the cost for the Astros to retain him. Or, they could lose him to another team with a higher bid. It’s a good deal for both sides.

But wait, there is more.

According to Jon Heyman, reportedly there is a rather large signing bonus as well. Under Altuve’s current contract, he is set to make $6 million in 2018 and $6.5 million in 2019. This was under Altuve’s previous team-friendly extension that expired after 2019. Heyman tweeted that Altuve will get a $1 million signing bonus now and $10 million later this year. He will also get a signing bonus of $10 million in 2019 as well. That’s a $21 million signing bonus, not too shabby.

This will raise Altuve’s $6 million salary in 2018 to $17 million. This will also raise his $6.5 million salary in 2019 to $16.5 million. After a few seasons of playing for a bargain, the Astros reportedly reward him for his great play. Altuve won the AL MVP in 2017 and led the team to the first championship in team history.

Can’t wait for all this to become official. As we talked about on last night’s Talking Stros, this is a big move for the Astros. The team has shown that it will take care of their players. Jeremy Booth of Program 15 joined the show last night and said that Altuve could feel comfortable in Houston and probably told Scott Boras to get a deal done.

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After seeing how free agency went this offseason, you can see why both sides wanted to get it done. Hopefully, this is the first step to building the team around Altuve for years to come. Heyman said that Altuve passed his physical and is an Astro for seven years, I like the sound of that.

***Stats from Baseball-Reference***