Back when Nick Markakis signed for $44 million over four years, a lot of us were left scratching our heads. After all, Nori Aoki is basically the same player, and it seemed like he was probably going to have to settle for a two or three year contract at a significantly lower valuation. I predicted he’d get 3/$24M, while the FG crowd had him at 2/$14M.

Turns out, we were way too high, as Aoki has signed today with the Giants for just $4.7 million in guaranteed money.

aoki gets $4.7M guarantee. $4M salary for 2015, plus 700K buyout on 2016 option. can make 12.5M max

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) January 16, 2015

With a $4 million base salary in 2015, it seems likely the second year option is probably around $7 million, and then some incentives could push it to the $12.5 million figure if he played really well. But even if he absolutely maxes out, that’s still less than what the crowd estimated, half of what I guessed, and only a fraction of it is guaranteed.

At this price, this is probably going to go down as one of the better free agent signings of the winter. Aoki isn’t any kind of star, but he’s a perfectly acceptable corner outfielder. He doesn’t have a platoon split issue, so he can play everyday. He’s a good enough defender to not need to be subbed out for a late game replacement. And yet the Giants are basically paying him like a bench player.

Heyman notes that Aoki took less money to play for the Giants, so perhaps there’s some World Series discount in here, but this is still a huge bargain. In a market where worse players are signing for $20 million and costing their teams a first round pick, Aoki for $5 million is kind of amazing.