Donovan: Cot’s is one-stop shopping for baseball contract info

And so, back in 2005, Cot’s Baseball Contracts was officially hatched. Cot’s has become, in the ensuing three years, nothing less than the unofficial clearinghouse for MLB contracts, a finely detailed listing of every current big-league deal, from Alex Rodriguez’s $275 million monster with the Yankees (Did you know that the Rangers are still shelling out millions in deferred payments?) to Barry Zito’s $126 million heist from the Giants (which includes a clause that guarantees him hotel suites on road trips).

Want to see who’s a free agent this winter and what kind of contracts they’ve signed recently? Cot’s has it, from Rich Aurilia to Greg Zaun. The highest-paid player on the Twins? Cot’s has that, too. (Justin Morneau has an $80 million deal, but Joe Nathan is going to get paid a team-high $11.25 million in 2009.) The blog has become a regular reference point for worked-up fans, needy members of the media and even big-league front-office types, at least one of whom has told Euston that he’d rather stop by Cot’s than take the time to fire up Major League Baseball’s internal site.

“I was worried, at the beginning, for a couple of reasons. I wasn’t sure that Major League Baseball would be real happy about it,” Euston says. “But once I began hearing from people in the game and working with the clubs, everyone has been very positive. More than a few have told me they have [the site] bookmarked, which I think is very funny.”

Always nice to see a non-MSM site get props from the MSM.