A person familiar with the negotiations tells the Associated Press that Mike Moustakas and Kansas City have agreed to a one-year contract that keeps him with the Royals and guarantees the third baseman $6.5 million.
The deal could be worth up to $22.7 million in two seasons, the person said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a successful physical.
Moustakas gets a $5.5 million salary this year and has the chance to earn $2.2 million in performance bonuses based on plate appearances. The deal includes a $15 million mutual option for 2019 with a $1 million buyout.
Moustakas turned down a one-year, $17.4-million, qualifying offer from the Royals in November. In a historically slow free-agent market, he found the interest of many teams dimmed because a deal with him would require compensation such as a loss of draft picks and/or international signing bonus allotment.
His agreement was first reported by Yahoo.