[mikev]

Forest Signs Extension

The Crusaders issued a press release late yesterday announcing that first baseman Jakob Forest had been signed to a three year contract extension.

The deal gives Forest a yearly salary increase from $18.25 million per season to just over $19 million, and includes a $1.5 million incentive if Forest wins the Batter of the Year award.

Last season Forest had, by his standards, a down year. He hit under .300 for only the second time in his career and also had an OBP under .400 for only the second time. That said, he was still immensely valuable to the team with a VORP over 50, and was the team leader with 21 home runs and 103 RBI.

He's been the best all around player on the team for awhile now, and hopefully with some protection in the lineup in the form of Ruvalcubu and Santos, we'll look forward to a few more seasons of stellar production from Forest.

With the major expiring contract taken care of, the team can now look into negotiations with outfielder Francisco Mendez, who is likely to be asking for a significant pay increase over his $3.2M salary from his last contract extension.

Anibal Santos is also a pending free agent, but the team has decided to wait until the regular season has gotten underway to determine whether or not he will be able to continue putting up the numbers he's had the last several seasons.