A's Sign Crisp to Two-Year Extension With Vesting Option for 2017

Coco Crisp has signed a two-year extension that puts him under contract with the A's through the 2016 season, with a vesting option for 2017. The extension makes it likely that the 34-year-old outfielder will finish his career in Oakland, and comes a day before the sold-out A's FanFest, which Crisp is expected to attend.

The deal is worth $22 million for 2015 and 2016, and the 2017 option is worth $13 million, or a $750,000 buyout if it doesn't vest. His current contract has him earning $7.5 million in the upcoming season.

The contract also includes a few perks — Coco now is allowed use of a Coliseum suite for six games every year, excluding games against the Yankees, Giants, and Red Sox. I guess the Moneyball myth of A's players having to pay for soda isn't too far off after all.

Crisp is coming off arguably his best year ever, in which he posted a career-high wRC+ of 117. He also set a new career high in home runs, with 22, easily besting the 16 he hit as a Cleveland Indian in 2005.

A switch hitter, Crisp is a lock to start in center field almost every day in 2014, but as his range diminishes with age, it's possible he'll start seeing more time in left field (his arm is too weak to play right field) or at designated hitter.

The move is an interesting one, considering many thought Craig Gentry would take over for Crisp after his old contract expired at the end of 2014. Gentry is under team control through the 2016 season, so this might be a sign that the A's expect his role to be that of a platoon outfielder, who can enter games in the late innings as a defensive replacement or pinch runner.

According to Susan Slusser, the vesting option hinges on specific numbers of games played and plate appearances in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. From ESPN:

Crisp's 2017 option would vest with 550 plate appearances in 2016 or 1,000 plate appearances in 2015-16 combined or 130 games in 2016, or 260 games in 2015-16 combined. In addition, the 260 combined games is with no fewer than 110 played in 2016 and he can't finish 2016 season on the disabled list.

In other news, CSN Bay Area released its schedule for 2014, which features 144 A's games. You can find it here.

In other other news, the A's showed off their green jerseys for the first time today with this Vine. I don't like them. That is all.