Our long national nightmare is over. Hot off the presses:

The contract is reported to be for two years and $23 million. SI.com reported that Lincecum will receive $8 million in 2010, $13 million in 2011 and a $2 million signing bonus to be split between the two years.

Narrowly missing arbitration, Lincecum agrees to a 2-year, $23M deal with the Giants. It’s not a bad deal for either side. Lincecum get’s a little security in his 2nd year of the deal (if he blows out his arm, he’ll still get $14M next year) and he’ll get another chance to go back to arbitration and receive a raise if he’s still pitching at an elite level. I would expect that if Lincecum holds up over the next 2 years, the Giants will try to ink him to a longer term deal before they head back into arbitration. The Giants get Lincecum for 2-years and won’t have to worry about going back to arbitration with him for the 2011 season.

With his $9M salary for 2009 (I’m including his $1M per year bonus), Lincecum becomes the 4th highest paid Giant behind Barry Zito (18.5), Aaron Rowand (13.6), and Edgar Renteria (10). That’s a lot of dead weight at the top of the salary scale. It’s easy to remember how bad Zito’s deal looks and how uninspiring Rowand’s deal is — but seeing the number “$10M” beside Edgar Renteria just kills me. Rent’s signing wasn’t a terrible one at the time and if you searched this site you would see I wasn’t opposed to it. But, man, he’s taken a turn for the wrong direction.

5 days until pitchers and catchers report!