Royals Sign Zack Greinke

The Royals announced today that they signed Zack Greinke to a 4 year contract. He'll make $38 million over the life of the contract, backloaded (3.75, 7.25, 13.5, 13.5) so he'll get Jose Guillen's money when that ridiculous deal finally runs its course.

This is a great, great signing for the Royals. The national media hasn't totally figured it out yet (since he doesn't play for New York or Boston), but his stuff is electric and he's showing flashes of being a true top-of-the-rotation guy, a fringe top 10 pitcher in all of baseball. Stealing a little bit from Rany, Greinke's market value was probably around 4 years for $44 million, with a hope that he might take a million per less than that to stay in a relatively comfortable media market like Kansas City. The Royals have beaten that and structured the contract in a way that makes a ton of sense for the organization.