Rangers agree to two-year, $16M contract with ALCS MVP Cruz

The two-time defending AL champion Texas Rangers avoided arbitration with another of their core players, agreeing Thursday to a $16 million, two-year contract with AL Championship Series MVP Nelson Cruz.

The deal came eight days before a scheduled arbitration hearing for Cruz and a day after slick-fielding shortstop Elvis Andrus completed a $14.4 million, three-year contract on the eve of his scheduled hearing.

The deal for Cruz, negotiated by agents Sam and Seth Levinson, includes $500,000 in performance bonuses over the two years.

Cruz, who made $3.65 million last season, had asked for $7.5 million in arbitration and the team had offered $5.5 million.

In last year's six-game ALCS against Detroit, Cruz had six home runs and 13 RBI, both major-league records for a postseason series. That included the first game-ending grand slam in postseason history. Cruz became the first player with extra-inning homers in two games of one series.

In 33 career playoff games, all over the past two years when the Rangers made their first two World Series appearances, Cruz has hit .270 with 14 homers and 27 RBI.

Cruz is also a .270 career hitter over seven major-league seasons and has hit 84 of his 106 career homers over the past three years despite six stays on the disabled list during that span. Most of the DL stints have been because of leg issues.

Cruz missed 29 games because of two DL trips last year caused by a left hamstring strain and a strained right quadriceps muscle.

That was after he missed 51 games during three separate DL stints in 2010 because of problems with both hamstrings. Even though he played only 108 games in 2010, he matched a major-league record with five extra-innings homers, three being game-ending shots. In the playoffs that year, he had 13 extra-base hits (six homers), a record for a single postseason.

The Rangers acquired Cruz in a trade deadline deal in July 2006, when he came from Milwaukee with Carlos Lee.

At the end of spring training in 2008, the Rangers put Cruz on waivers. But he cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Oklahoma, where he had an MVP season in the Pacific Coast League. He rejoined the Rangers for the final six weeks, hitting .330 with seven homers and 26 RBI in 31 games.

Texas, which hasn't had an arbitration hearing since Lee Stevens in 2000, is still in talks with catcher Mike Napoli.

Napoli set career highs by hitting .320 with 30 homers and 75 RBI in 113 games in his first season with Texas, when he made $5.8 million after spending his first five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. He asked for $11.5 million, and Texas offered $8.3 million.