The intensely rumored Yadier Molina extension is now officially in the books, looking only a little different than it did when Ken Rosenthal started tweeting details earlier this week. For instance: Now, instead of being a five year, $75 million deal that starts in 2013, it's a six year, $82 million deal that starts in 2012 and subsumes his existing contract. More pressingly: there's a somewhat-unlikely mutual option now on the books, which will nab Yadier Molina an addition $15 million if he and the Cardinals agree to terms in 2018.

I'm hard-pressed to imagine a situation in which they'll do that—if Molina's worth $15 million in 2018, of course, the Cardinals have already won this deal, and I won't worry about it—but such is the dressing-up of contracts for public consumption. Out comes the easy logic of dollars and years, in comes the cruft of negotiations and feelings-soothing. The good news is that this one doesn't appear to have a buyout attached, like Jake Westbrook's equally unlikely 2012 option.