With his contract set to expire at the end of the season, Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel maintained he wanted to remain in Houston. He'll get his wish with a one-year contract extension that has a club option for 2021.
"I didn't think it was going to happen before the end of the season," Gurriel said Tuesday. "I wasn't too worried about it, but obviously it was something on my mind, and I'm really happy that it happened."
Gurriel's extension will reportedly pay him $6.5 million with an $8 million team option for the 2022 season that has a $500,000 buyout.
"It's a conversation that we've been having for a little while on and off there," Astros general manager James Click said. "Yuli has made it obvious that this a place he wants to be. He's very comfortable here, we're obviously very comfortable with him, and then over the last week or so I would say that things picked up and we were able to lineup on this."
In his fifth season with the Astros, Gurriel, 36, batted .232 with six home runs and 22 RBI, appearing in 57-of-60 games. He entered the season with an .808 OPS with the Astros, but finished 2020 at just .658.
"I don't know if you would necessarily say he had a down year," Click said. "In a 60-game season you can hit the ball hard and have it line out to a lot of guys. It may look like at some level that you had a down year when in reality, maybe the things that you can control are actually highly positive."
Gurriel was one of three Astros regulars whose contracts expire at the end of the season. George Springer and Michael Brantley are expected to hit the open market this winter.