Prince Fielder's salary starts at $23M

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NEW YORK -- Prince Fielder will start making the big bucks right away with the Detroit Tigers.

Fielder will earn $23 million in each of his first two years with Detroit, then will make $24 million annually in the final seven seasons of his $214 million, nine-year contract, according to terms obtained by The Associated Press.

That contrasts with Albert Pujols' backloaded $240 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels, agreed to last month.

Pujols gets $12 million this year and $16 million in 2013, with the salary increasing to $23 million in 2014 and then rising $1 million annually.

Detroit announced the deal Thursday, and scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. ET.

Fielder would get an additional $500,000 if he's the AL MVP, $200,000 if he's second through fifth and $100,000 if he's sixth through 10th. For each MVP he wins after the first, he would get $1 million.

He also would get $100,000 if he's an All-Star starter and $50,000 if he's a reserve, or alternatively $100,000 if he's a Baseball America or Sporting News postseason All-Star. He also would receive $100,000 for a Gold Glove, $100,000 for a Silver Slugger, $100,000 for the Hank Aaron Award, $150,000 for League Championship Series MVP and $200,000 for World Series MVP.

In addition, he gets a hotel suite on the road.

Fielder made $15.7 million in his final season with the Brewers. He had a $15.5 million base salary and earned $100,000 for finishing third in NL MVP voting, $50,000 for starting the All-Star game and $50,000 for a Silver Slugger award.

This is the fourth $200 million contract in baseball history, following Alex Rodriguez's $275 million, 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, Rodriguez's $252 million, 10-year deal with Texas and Pujols' agreement with the Angels.

Among current players, Fielder's $23.78 million average salary is behind only A-Rod ($27.5 million), Ryan Howard ($25 million), and Cliff Lee and Pujols ($24 million each).

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

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