WOLVERINES

UM baseball’s Erik Bakich doubles base pay to $400K

Tony Paul
The Detroit News

Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich had suitors this offseason, and it turns out athletic director Warde Manuel wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to do everything he could to keep him.

Under his new, five-year contract, Bakich will more than double the annual base pay of his original contract, according to terms obtained by The News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Bakich’s new contract includes annual base pay of $400,000, compared to $182,327 he made under the last year of his original contract, which was the 2016-17 season. By comparison, Michigan State baseball coach Jake Boss earns a base salary of $170,821 before bonuses, etc.

Bakich, 39, is 176-119 in five years at Michigan, after coming over from Maryland. With the Wolverines, he’s never had a losing season, and has made the NCAA Tournament twice, in the past three seasons. That included the 2016-17 season, in which Michigan sent a program record for victories (42-17) and finished second in the Big Ten before being bounced in the NCAA Regionals.

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Prior to his arrival, Michigan baseball hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2008.

After this past season, Bakich had reported interest from South Carolina, which he denied, and Stanford, which he didn’t deny.

After much speculation, he tweeted in June his intentions to stay at Michigan.

That was right around the same time Michigan had a program-record 11 players taken in a single June Major League Baseball draft. He wasted little time reloading, putting together the 10th-ranked recruiting class in the nation, per Baseball America. That’s the highest ranking ever for a school from the Big Ten.

Bakich’s new contract runs through June 30, 2022, and included a one-time bonus of $200,000, payable this past July.

Among the bonuses Bakich can receive: $20,000 for a Big Ten regular-season championship; $10,000 for a conference tournament tile and/or an NCAA Tournament appearance; $15,000 for a regional championship; $20,000 for a Super Regional championship; $25,000 for a College World Series appearance; and $30,000 for a College World Series title. Those bonuses are cumulative.

At the end of each contract year, Bakich also receives a $25,000 payout from the school’s bat sponsorship.

If Bakich leaves before the deal is up, he would owe UM $125,000 after Year 2, $75,000 after Year 3 and $25,000 after Year 4.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

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