Alex Cora’s Option Vests After 80 Appearances

This afternoon, Adam Rubin, Mets beat writer for ESPN NY, had a live chat and one of the more interesting things that came out of it was some information regarding a vesting option that Alex Cora has in his contract. 

Q – Doesn’t Cora’s option vest with 80 starts, not 80 appearances? It’s bad enough with 80 starts, you’re freaking me out with the 80 appearances thing

A – I asked Alex yesterday, and he confirmed to me it’s 80 appearances for the contract to vest for 2011 — not 80 starts. And that’s exactly how the Associated Press carried the terms of the contract originally when he signed it.

Cora’s vesting option for the 2011 season is worth $2 million dollars not including performance bonuses.

In just under a third of a season, Cora has already appeared in 30 games and is on pace for 95 appearances.

One thing that will practically assure Cora more playing time was manager Jerry Manuel’s new edict that he will be platooning Castillo with Cora for the foreseeable future.

Cora is currently batting .218 in 78 at-bats this season.

This looks like another bad multi year contract in which very little though or logic was applied. Even though it may not rise to the level of the Perez or Castillo contract, it still shows a troubling pattern of the Mets continuing to bid against themselves for marginal players.