The Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to a four-year contract with slick-fielding shortstop Nick Ahmed on Monday.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but multiple reports put the deal at $32.5 million for four years through the 2023 season, an average of $8.125 million per year. Ahmed and the team were heading toward an arbitration hearing, with the infielder asking for $6.95M and the D-backs previously sticking at $6.6M.
Regardless, he would have become a free agent after the 2020 season if an extension was not agreed upon.
Ahmed, 29, earned his second consecutive Gold Glove award in 2019, when he also set career highs for batting average (.254), home runs (19) and RBIs (82), while playing in a career-best 158 games.
Ahmed, selected by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 2011 draft and traded to Arizona in January 2013, made his major league debut in 2014. He is a career .236 hitter with 55 home runs and 231 RBIs in 613 games over parts of six seasons.
Ahmed has led the National League in Defensive Wins Above Replacement in each of the past two seasons, according to baseball-reference.com, with a 2.9 dWAR in 2018 and a 2.6 mark last season.
