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David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
The Arizona Diamondbacks and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. have agreed on a three-year, $42 million deal with a club option for a fourth season, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel on Sunday.
The deal also includes an opt-out after the second season.
Gurriel had his best all-around season at the right time in 2023, coming to Arizona along with catcher Gabriel Moreno for outfielder Daulton Varsho in an offseason trade with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Gurriel hit .261/.309/.463, setting career highs in games (145), home runs (24) and WAR (3.0). The 30-year-old also had an excellent defensive season, ranking second to Steven Kwan among left fielders by saving 14 runs.
The Cuba native — the younger brother of former Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel — was a high-profile infield prospect when Toronto originally signed him to a seven-year, $22 million contract before the 2017 season. He reached the Blue Jays in 2018, but his defensive struggles at shortstop and second base pushed him into the outfield.
Lourdes Gurriel hit 31 home runs in 141 games over the 2019-20 seasons and 21 in 2021, but he hit just five in 2022 and had wrist surgery following the season.
He was a secondary player to Moreno in the trade with the Diamondbacks but proved to be a key contributor as Arizona made the playoffs as a wild card and had a surprising run to the World Series.
Gurriel looks like a safe bet to keep up similar production in upcoming years, with 20-homer power and an above-average contact rate (79th percentile) that teams coveted. His defense is unlikely to remain at the same level, which makes more him more of a projected league-average 2-win player moving forward than the 3-WAR value of 2023.
The Athletic first reported that a deal between Arizona and Gurriel had been reached.