Posada Re-Signs To Hefty Contract

From Peter Abraham:

The Daily News is reporting that Jorge Posada has agreed to a four-year deal worth $52 million. Working on getting confirmation of that.
This makes sense in that $13 million is what they gave Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon when they signed.
UPDATE, 11:19 p.m.: It has been confirmed. It’s actually $52.4 million. Funny how that’s what the Levinsons want for Lowell, too. You can connect the dots with these things quite often.
So Posada gets what he wants, an average annual value of $13.1 million. That nudges him north of Damon and Matsui and makes him one of the highest paid players on the team, as well he should be.
Rivera was in the Dominican Republic today but is supposedly on his way home. I would expect his deal to get done in the next 24-36 hours. (Source Is Here)
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Finally, somebody is coming back. Although I think that the contract is a little outrageous(we'll get to that later) I'm glad that Jorge is back. Without Alex "Sellout" Rodriguez(clever, I know) in the line up, the Yankees offense will need to come through big this year to make up for the missing 156 rbi. Don't let Posada's 36 years of age fool you, Jorge can still swing the bat.

Traditionally older players tend to do a little bit extra to put up big numbers in contract years, assuring a one-year career year to cash in during FA. But during the off season, Posada teamed up with Nike to create specially designed catchers gear for Po, something they are looking to expand with to the general public. It was said to also weigh a lot less than Jorge's catching gear of past, so I guess you can take that for what its worth. Maybe it'll keep him putting up +.300 BA's throughout this new four-year contract, aside from just his 2007 campaign.

Po's contract isn't your normal contract for a 36 year old catcher. It stretches four years wide, guaranteeing $13.1M a year. That is a lot of money and commitment, considering his age and position. I think a three year deal would have been safer, but seeing how desperate the Yankees were, Posada's agents were able to stretch out Brian Cashman for another year. Posada probably only has about two more solid years left in him, and getting one extra looked good. But two more years? Very good contract for Posada, in my opinion. Expect Jorge to shift over to first base or catcher for the final two years, as he will be 39 and 40 years of age respectively.