Royals Sign Bo Jackson for Roughly $600,000

Kansas City Royals announced the signing of outfielder Bo Jackson to a one-year contract worth between $585,000 and $700,000, according to published reports.

Richard Woods, Jackson’s attorney, said Jackson plans to continue playing football with the Los Angeles Raiders.

The Kansas City Times reported that Jackson would receive about $600,000 from the Royals with award incentives worth about $125,000. His contract was expected to be filed with the Major League Baseball Players Assn. today.

The Topeka Capital-Journal said sources told it that Jackson, 28, had agreed to $585,000 plus incentive bonuses for the 1989 season.

Woods said Jackson’s contract was the most lucrative contract paid to a two-year player since arbitration rights were modified in 1985, requiring a player to have three years of major league service instead of two.

Jackson’s three-year contract that paid him $1.06 million ran out at the end of last season.

“Bo’s very happy,” Woods said. “And now that the deer-hunting season’s over, well, he’s really getting antsy.”

Jackson, the former Heisman Trophy winner, hit .246 with 25 homers and 68 RBIs last year, his third year in baseball.

Jackson signed with the Royals in 1986 after turning down a reported $5 million offer from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League. His contract with the Royals called for payments totaling $1.06 million over three years. In 1987 he signed a five-year deal worth a reported $2.5 million with the Los Angeles Raiders to play football at the close of each baseball season.

No two-year player ineligible for arbitration has ever been paid more than $330,000.

Jackson has two years and 35 days of major league service.