Twins Pitcher Will Likely Lose $500,000 Bonus Because Of A Rain Delay

Minnesota Twins pitcher Phil Hughes is scheduled to make his final start of the season on Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks and there will be $500,000 riding on his performance.

Hughes has a clause in his contract that he is to be paid a $500,000 bonus if he pitches at least 210 innings in a season. Unfortunately for Hughes, he will probably never see that bonus because of an unlucky break two weeks ago.

Hughes has already thrown 201.2 innings this year, meaning he would need to get to pitch into the 9th inning on Wednesday and record at least one out in that inning to get his bonus.

That is unlikely. So far this year, Hughes is averaging 6.5 innings per start and has not pitched past the eighth inning since the first half of the 2012 season.

It would have been a lot easier for Hughes if not for rain postponing a Twins game against the White Sox on September 12. Hughes was scheduled to pitch in that game and was forced to pitch a day later instead.

If Hughes had pitched in that game on Friday, he would have been in line to pitch a day earlier this week (Tuesday) which would have also made it possible for him to pitch on the final day of the season (Sunday).

In other words, Hughes would have had two starts to compile the 8.1 innings still needed to reach his bonus. Instead, he will probably end up 1-2 innings short of his bonus.

Unlucky.

Of course, we shouldn't feel too bad for Hughes. He has already made $22.8 million in his career including a second $500,000 bonus this season for surpassing 195 innings pitched.