Dwight Gooden is on the verge of signing a three-year contract extension worth $16.2 million, a deal that will let him surpass Roger Clemens as baseball`s richest player.
Jim Neader, Gooden`s agent, is flying into the New York Mets` camp Monday morning to finalize a package he called ”very innovative, very abstract and very creative.” Neader indicated there is delicate language that still needs attention.
Even though the contract satisfies Gooden`s demand for a $5.4-million-a-year average salary-Clemens` money-the Mets won`t be paying him in three flat installments.
The contract includes a $2-million up-front cash bonus. Also, within his yearly salary-technically now $4.73 million-Gooden will receive $750,000 a year for ”promotional” fees, and another $750,000 a year provided he pitches 200 innings a year or 500 innings for the length of the contract.
”This deal is going to make Doc happy and it`s going to give the Mets what they need,” Neader said. ”I think people are going to be surprised at the way it`s worked.”
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It`s been Mets General Manager Frank Cashen`s intention not to exceed $5 million a year. He still calls the Boston Red Sox`s deal with Clemens ”an aberration” and resents the idea of overpaying Gooden because of Boston`s
”mistake.”
Clemens` four-year extension through 1995 for $21,521,000 currently is the top contract in baseball at an average of $5,380,250 a season. Jose Canseco is second at an average of $4.7 million a year.
In the last two weeks, Neader and the Mets have talked more about language than money, even though the club offered $13.8 million for three years. Gooden flatly rejected that offer.
The breakthrough comes only one week before Gooden intended to shut off negotiations. Had a deal not been struck by next Sunday, Gooden was prepared to increase his demand from three years to four, and in excess of $20 million. Had he entered the free-agent market, he told friends he would demand five years from the Mets, knowing they would never climb to those heights.
Gooden, 26, was 19-7 last season with a 3.83 ERA. He won the National League Cy Young Award in 1985 with a 24-4 record and a 1.53 ERA, then went 17-6 the next season as the Mets won the World Series.
He missed the start of the 1987 season while undergoing drug rehabilitation. Gooden is 119-46 lifetime.