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Report: Escalator clauses may make Cubs' Chatwood ineligible for Cy Young

Adam Hunger / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Tyler Chatwood's contract with the Chicago Cubs contains some unique clauses relating to his placement in Cy Young Award elections, and the writers who make up the award's voting body appear none too pleased.

Members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America - who decide the winners of baseball's four major year-end awards, including the Cy Young - reportedly resolved Tuesday to consider making Chatwood ineligible for the National League Cy Young Award during the next three seasons because of the language in his contract's escalator clauses, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Chatwood's three-year, $38-million deal with the Cubs will pay him a base salary of $12.5 million in both 2018 and '19, and $13.5 million in 2020. This is where the controversial clauses kick in: if Chatwood receives at least one Cy Young vote in either 2018 or 2019, his 2020 salary will rise by $2 million; a single Cy Young vote in both 2018 and '19 would push his '20 salary up by $4 million.

The BBWAA sees this clause as a conflict of interest for writers who cover Chatwood and vote on the award. Wittenmyer noted that writers cited a precedent for this possible move against Chatwood from 2007, when the BBWAA tried to make Curt Schilling ineligible for the Cy Young after the Boston Red Sox - whose general manager at the time was current Cubs president Theo Epstein - gave him a similar escalator clause.

There doesn't appear to be a timetable for a resolution on this issue.

Chatwood has never received a Cy Young Award vote in any of his six big-league seasons.

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