Rays extend rookie Longoria

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

ST. PETERSBURG -- Evan Longoria has been signed by the Rays to the longest contract in franchise history.
Friday afternoon at a news conference at Tropicana Field, the Rays and the rookie third baseman announced an agreement on a nine-year contract.

The salaries for the first six years of the agreement are guaranteed with the team holding a one-year option for 2014 season and a subsequent two-year option for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The contract guarantees $17.5 million. If the Rays exercise both options, Longoria would earn more than $44 million over the life of the nine-year agreement.

Longoria, 22, will donate up to $725,000 during the span of the contract to the Rays Baseball Foundation, the team's charitable foundation that supports youth and education programs in the Tampa Bay region.

"In his first two years in professional baseball, Evan has displayed the talent, work ethic and maturity that we envisioned when we drafted him in 2006," said Andrew Friedman, Rays executive vice president of baseball operations. "The fans of Tampa Bay should be excited to know that Evan will be in a Rays uniform for at least the next nine seasons. It is another demonstration of our commitment to developing and retaining our burgeoning group of talented players."

Longoria would not have been eligible for free agency until after the 2014 season. But Longoria's agent, Paul Cohen, has done long-term deals with young clients in the past, such as Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki's six-year, $31-million contract.

Longoria batted .262 (11-for-42) with three home runs, 10 RBIs, a .407 on-base pct. and a .595 slugging mark in 20 games with the Rays in Spring Training. He began the season at Triple-A Durham before he was promoted to the Major League club on April 12, when Willy Aybar was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

Longoria was the Rays' first-round selection and third pick overall in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. In his first two seasons in the Rays' Minor League system, he batted a combined .304 with 44 home runs and 153 RBIs in 198 games. He played in a total of 171 games last season at Double-A Montgomery, Triple-A Durham, the Arizona Fall League and Team USA, and batted .298 with 188 hits, 42 doubles, 33 home runs and 115 RBIs. He was named Southern League (Double-A) MVP despite his promotion to Durham on August 1. He had a combined on base percentage of .402 at Durham and Montgomery.

In his two pro seasons, his teams have gone 127-91 (.583) and he owns two Southern League championship rings. In November, he helped Team USA win their first IBAF World Cup since 1974, as the United States ended Cuba's 33-year dominance with a 6-3 victory in the gold medal game in Taiwan.