Jays sign Escobar to two-year extension
Posted June 19, 2011 12:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CINCINNATI –- Returning to Atlanta as a productive member of the Toronto Blue Jays was always going to offer a nice bit of vindication for Yunel Escobar.
Coming back armed with a new contract extension will only make it sweeter.
The slick-fielding shortstop and the Blue Jays agreed Sunday on a US$10-million, two-year contract extension with two options worth US$5 million apiece for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
In the works since May, the deal comes the day before the start of an interleague series with the host Braves. Essentially run out of town when the Blue Jays acquired him a trade last July, he’s now become a part of Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos’s core.
“I feel like this is a new opportunity I have here, they welcomed me with open arms and I’m happy to be here,” Escobar said in comments interpreted by coach Luis Rivera. “Everybody has their own opinion, I respect that, they have their own opinions, Toronto has a different opinion about me.
“That’s the way I play, I’ve always played like that, I have fun on the field and I’m proving now the kind of player I am. The Blue Jays allowed me to be myself.”
