The Minnesota Twins signed their top player from last season to a new deal on Tuesday and rewarded him after registering solid campaigns in his first two full seasons with the team.
Second baseman Brian Dozier signed a four-year, $20 million deal after earning just $1,037,500 over the past two seasons. The contract will cover Dozier's arbitration years (2016-2018) and he'll still be eligible to hit free agency after the 2018 season.
According to Andrew Simon of MLB.com, Dozier will earn $2 million in 2015, $3 million in 2016, $6 million in 2017 and $9 million in 2018. The 27-year-old led the Twins in wins above replacement (WAR) with 5.2 in 2014 and has a total WAR of 8.9 since 2013. Although he didn't earn such honors last season, the statistic suggests that players with a WAR of 5.0 or greater are of All-Star caliber.
In 2013 the former eighth-round draft pick batted .244/.312/.414/.726 with 72 runs scored, 18 home runs, 66 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. He followed up that campaign with a .242/.345/.416/.762 stat line and added 112 runs scored, 23 home runs, 71 RBIs and 21 stolen bases in 2014. According to Peter Keating of ESPN The Magazine, Dozier led the MLB in a metric called runs per hit (RPH), which is calculated by dividing a players runs scored by his hits.
"Because he hit just .242 last year, you might not have noticed that Dozier scored 112 runs, second only to Mike Trout in the MLB," writes Keating. "...Dozier has a broad range of skills that keeps him scoring: 57 extra-base hits, 89 walks and 21 stolen bases, leading to a .772 RPH. Dozier is efficient too: For every 27 outs he made in 2014, he scored 6.3 runs."
The second baseman is already picking up where he left off last season and is slashing .462/.533/.846/.1.379 with five runs scored, two home runs and four RBIs in nine spring training games.
The Twins will open the 2015 season on Apr. 6 against the Detroit Tigers.
