Officer Mclouth collects on this citation

The Pittsburgh Pirates are shuffling deck furniture on the Titanic. Nate Mclouth, our favorite officer of the big leagues has signed a 3-year contract extension with a club option for a fourth year.

The Pirates took the one asset they have in Mclouth and decided to resign him and hold him hostage for a few more years. Mclouth is 27 years of age and had a pretty nice season last year. Total guarunteed money for the deal is $15.75 million dollars. Here’s a little more breakdown of the deal:

There is a $1.5 million signing bonus and salaries of $2 million this coming season, $4.5 million next season, $6.5 million in 2011. The club option for 2012 is $10.65 million, with a $1.25 million buyout. There also are performance bonuses that can be as much as $500,000 for 2010 and 2011, as much as $750,000 in 2012. The bonuses are based on awards.

But we all know how this ends don’t we? A year or two into the deal the Pirates will begin talking trades with one of the big fish of baseball, offering Mclouth for the latest and greatest prospects that organization has to offer. The two sides will come to some sort of an agreement that has Mclouth playing out his friendly contract in a bigger city that can afford to pay good players and keep them should they want to. If Mclouth plays well he’ll be there for a while, if not he’ll be thrown out at the end of that season like used dumpster trash.

It’s frustrating to see little engine that could franchises like the Pirates lock guys up for 3 years and then have the cities’ media call it a ‘long-term deal’. If the guy were in a real big league city (and we know all to well how Pittsburgh feels because we follow Cincinnati) then Mclouth would get at least a 5-year deal which in our opinion is a real long term contract.