The Philadelphia Phillies have re-signed SS Jimmy Rollins to a three-year contract worth around $33 million according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. The deal also includes a vesting option for a fourth year for $11 million.

When this deal was announced on Saturday, it really came as no surprise. I mean, what other options did the Phillies have? It was either bring Rollins back or bring in someone like Yuniesky Betancourt as a seat-filler.

This contract makes me step back and take a look at the shortstop landscape across baseball. Think about it? How many elite shortstops are there in baseball these days? I can count two — Troy Tulowitzki and Jose Reyes. Other than those two, everyone else is in the same group and Rollins is in that next group of shortstops.

Giving Rollins a three-year contract at this stage of his career isn’t probably going to be the best contract in the world, but that’s the going rate for a 3.5 win player these days. This was also a “Thank you for your past contributions” deal.

According to Ken Rosenthal, the vesting option is easily attainable for Rollins. The Phillies clearly didn’t need to do that, but that was more for what Rollins has done for them over the past 10 years than anything else.

By The Baseball Index