Wow, I just saw this on ESPN, so I went on their site and its posted.. here it is.

LINK SOURCE http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3389809

That's a pretty fair deal for both sides. I'm sort of surprised the Marlins actually spent money on someone, but good job by the ownership.

Hanley is easily the best SS in baseball right now IMO

But that's if he stays at SS. I thought there were talks of him moving to CF because his defense is lacking? Either way a great deal for the Marlins.

Smart move by Hanley. I wonder if being in the organization when Nomar (supposedly) turned down $60,000,000 had any impact on his decision-making process.

I was always hoping that he'd end up back in a Sox uniform at a relatively young age. This kills that chance, but I'm happy for him and that the Marlins may start paying people again.

They could always end up dumping him ala Dontrelle/Miggy, so who knows?

They are probably due to win another World Series in another 2 years...so Hanley ought to be on the market in 3.

Nice to see the Marlins actually spend some of George and John's money for a change.

This is EXACTLY a Nomar Garciaparra deal. One of Dan Duquette's best moves as a GM was to lock up Nomar in 1997-8 for the record numbers he did. Its a huge risk for the team because its a lot of guaranteed money for a young player with little track record, but if you think the player is a sure thing, you win huge on the back end. Imagine if Nomar was just signed to arbitration deals etc. and went free agent as scheduled? He would have signed a 7-8 year deal at somewhere between Jeter and A-Rod money. We would be paying huge money for him still and it might have cost us two world series.

Its a risk for both parties of course, but its good to see Florida making steps to not be a huge embarrassment in the commitment to the fans and their team department.