Peter Diana, Post-Gazette photo Jack Wilson: Gets three-year contract extension. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Pirates Notebook: McCutchen a hit at team scrimmage Pirates Photo Journal

BRADENTON, Fla. -- For more than a decade, Major League Baseball players routinely have clamored to leave Pittsburgh. They counted the days, even as they were counting the cash they could make elsewhere.

As he can recall, shortstop Jack Wilson was weighing his long-term future with the Pirates one day in late December, aware he could try free agency after the 2007 season.

He had a somewhat different view:

"I was thinking to myself, 'Oh, wow, what if I don't stink again this year? What if I do well? I'm going to go into my last year. How is this team going to afford me based on the market that's out there?' The more I thought about it, the more I realized all I wanted to do was stay."

With that, Wilson set in motion the process that culminated yesterday in his signing a three-year contract extension worth a guaranteed $20.2 million, a pact that keeps him in the Pirates' fold until 2009 with a club option for 2010.

He started by phoning his agent, Page Odle, and asking him to gauge the Pirates' interest.

Odle momentarily balked.

"I had to ask him if he was a little crazy because I thought he would want to explore the options of free agency, as most athletes do," Odle said. "Bottom line: He wanted to stay. So, that's what we worked toward."

Odle contacted Larry Silverman, the Pirates' general counsel who handles contract negotiations. And, within a month of exchanged offers, the deal was done.

Wilson already had been signed for the coming season and would have been arbitration-eligible in 2007, after which he could have been free to play anywhere.

His $4.6 million salary for 2006 will remain the same, but he will get a $600,000 bonus for signing the new deal. His base pay will increase to $5.25 million in 2007, $6.5 million in 2008 and $7.25 million in 2009. If the club option for 2010 is exercised, he will make $8.4 million. If not, the team must pay a $500,000 buyout.

He also can earn a total of $300,000 in awards bonuses over the life of the deal, $100,000 for any All-Star Game appearance, Gold Glove or Silver Slugger.

How those figures equate to his value will depend largely on Wilson's performance and, to an extent, on how MLB's new collective bargaining agreement -- the current one expires after this season -- sways the market.

"That's one of the reasons you do these things, because you're trying to get ahead of that," Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy said. "We felt good about this deal. Jack's a good player and a good character guy."

Odle projected Wilson would have received more through free agency.

"Believe me, these are discounted dollars compared to what Jack would have gotten on the open market," he said. "But Jack got what he wanted by staying."

The highest-paid shortstop in baseball this season will be the New York Yankees' Derek Jeter at $19 million. Tops in the National League will be the Los Angeles Dodgers' Rafael Furcal at $9 million.

Wilson, 28, has batted .263 in five years as the Pirates' starting shortstop, including his All-Star 2004 in which he had 201 hits. But he is most acclaimed for his defense, having finished the past four years as the runner-up in Gold Glove voting.

Defense was the Pirates' primary concern.

"To find shortstops who play defensively like he does ... there are very few guys out there who do," general manager Dave Littlefield said. "This is a player we wanted to have for a long time."

It marked the Pirates' second contract extension of the offseason, along with left fielder Jason Bay's four-year, $18.25 million deal signed in November.

Wilson never has played for a winner, but he said some of the team's offseason moves, along with lengthy chats with Bay and first baseman Sean Casey, convinced him he might fulfill that wish by staying put.

"Some guys go to free agency and want to play for a contender," Wilson said. "That's what I think I'm doing."

He acknowledged how unusual the move was for the Pirates, given that they have been burned in the recent past by long-term deals. It is no coincidence he is one of only three players on the roster with a multiyear contract.

"There's definitely a risk, if you look at issues with some guys who were signed here. But I talked to Bay and Casey about this, and we all want to be part of this. We want to be part of something special, and we're going to make it so we stay here. We're not going to make it so they have to trade us or whatever. It's not going to happen."