Starling Marte's Deal: Figures, Facts, Sidebars...

Starling Marte's contract:

• The Starling Marte deal is for $31M over 6 years with two club options.That covers his arb years and at least one FA season. If the options are exercised, he'll be a Bucco thru 2021. It took some effort; this contract took three offers before Starling OK'ed it. The final figures, per CBS' Jon Heyman: $2M signing bonus. salaries of 500K, $1M, $3M, $5M, $7.5M, $10M with a $2M buyout. The options could reach $12.M, $13.5M.
• Both sides rolled the dice a bit: Marte, 25, has less than two seasons in the league and a small sample size to work with. He also has injury problems caused by 100% play on the field (he still wears his "oven mitt") and ball magnetism at the dish. But in 2013, he hit .280 with 12 home runs, 41 stolen bases and owned left field, saving 22 runs with just his glove and has a 5.7 WAR in 182 games as a Pirate. 
• BTW, he was scratched from the lineup yesterday not because of any injuries, but so he could take his physical for the contract. He's leading off today.
• Marte signed with Rene Gayo and the Pirates out of the Dominican Republic for $85,000 in 2007. That may have been an even better deal.
• The cost certainty allows the Pirates to budget for the future more efficiently and gives the lineup some stability over time. Cutch, Charlie Morton and now Marte are tied up, so the FO looks like it's identifying its core contributors (tho they may want a mulligan on Jose Tabata) and trying to keep them home. 
• Don't look for Pedro to ink a deal. Scott Boras takes his guys to free agency, and Pedro will almost surely take home a much bigger pile of loot from the market than the Pirates. The same holds true for Gerrit Cole, who with El Toro is one of the two guys the Bucs would love to sign long-term.