The Diamondbacks checked their account balance just in time, apparently.
As Zack Greinke was introduced in Phoenix on Friday, Arizona's new ace disclosed just how close he was to signing elsewhere.
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“We were minutes away from going to a different team,” Greinke said, via the Arizona Republic. “It was that close.”
He didn't say whether that somewhere else was San Francisco or Los Angeles, the two other finalists for his services, but it really doesn't matter now that the Diamondbacks have come out of nowhere to alter the balance of power in the NL West in a week's time.
More details emerged Friday of Greinke's unique six-year, $206.5 million deal. According to CBS Sports, Greinke will get an $18 million signing bonus and $62.5 million of his total compensation will be deferred until after the end of the six years. Greinke also will donate 1 percent of his annual salary — more than $300,000 — to Diamondbacks charities each year of the deal.
Whatever the structure, the bottom-line investment remains the same for the Diamondbacks, and owner Ken Kendrick gave credit where it was due — a local television deal with Fox Sports that reportedly will net the club about $1.5 billion over the next two decades.
“I know where the money is coming from," Kendrick said. "And I know as long as the Fox Corporation is in business, we’re going to meet our obligations."
Greinke will be 38 the next time he's on the market, so this could well be his final big-league deal. It's fitting, then, that Greinke feels so strongly about one other feature Arizona has to offer besides the largesse of a new TV contract:
"The sunsets here are fantastic," he said.
