A’s Sign Canseco for $1.6 Million

Jose Canseco, voted most valuable player in the American League last year, avoided arbitration and nearly quintupled his salary Friday by agreeing to a 1-year contract with the Oakland Athletics.

Canseco will earn $1.6 million in 1989, an increase of $1.245 million over the $355,000 he made last year, his third full season in the major leagues.

Canseco’s raise is the largest ever in baseball, topping the $1.15-million increase Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs received for the 1988 season.

Canseco had sought $1.64 million in arbitration. The Athletics were offering $1.3 million.

“I think it’s a reflection of our feeling that the number he submitted was a fairly reasonable one,” Oakland General Manager Sandy Alderson said. “Obviously, it reflects a certain evaluation of the case on their part and ours.”

Last season, Canseco became the first man in baseball history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season.

He also is the first player to have hit at least 30 home runs and driven in 100 runs in his first 3 full seasons. He led the major leagues in 1988 with 42 home runs, 124 runs batted in and a slugging percentage of .569 while polling the most votes of any member of the 1988 American League All-Star team.