The Kansas City Royals and first baseman Billy Butler agreed to a $30 million, four-year contract Saturday, avoiding arbitration. Butler was the Royals' player of the year the past two seasons and was the team's only remaining arbitration-eligible player. The agreement includes a club option for the 2015 season. "There aren't a lot of high-quality right-handed bats out there and when you have one you want to hold on to him," general manager Dayton Moore told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "The fact that he's only 24 is something else that's very exciting for us. We feel that Billy's got a lot of good baseball in him." Butler gets a $2 million signing bonus, a $3 million salary this year and $8 million in each of the following three seasons. Kansas City has a $12.5 million option for 2015 with a $1 million buyout, and escalators could increase the 2015 option price to $14.5 million. Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6049428
