As the clubs all broke from the starting gates last week, there was an interesting development that no one can quite put a finger on, other than independent coincidence: No less than a half dozen of baseball’s brightest young stars all signed lucrative multi-year contract extensions that will take each of them well beyond their prospective first years of free agency.
What makes this interesting is that nobody saw most of these coming. In the case of the Red Sox working a six-year, $178 million deal with newly-acquired ace Garrett Crochet, there was plenty of speculation, if only because the Red Sox gave up a ton of young talent to the White Sox for the 25-year-old lefty who would become a free agent in 2027. Considering the high cost of free agent starting pitchers (See: Corbin Burnes, six years, $210 million with the Diamondbacks; Max Fried eight years, $218 million with the Yankees), it is understandable if Crochet could’ve envisioned a $40 million per year Max Scherzer/Justin Verlander-type payday two years down the road.
Credit the Red Sox for locking up Crochet, but then they delivered a real shocker by signing rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell to an eight-year, $60 million deal after he’d played all of five games in the majors! So what was with that? After years of languishing in the middle of the payroll pack and finishing last three times in four years, it may just be the Red Sox hierarchy got tired of the beating they were getting from the media and fans. And after acquiring Crochet, their first legitimate No. 1 starter since Chris Sale, concluded the AL East was suddenly winnable, prompting them to spent another $120 million on Alex Bregman. In the spirit of further solidifying their future it would not be surprising if the Red Sox do similar Campbell-type long-term deals with the their two other uber prospects, outfielder Roman Anthony and shortstop Marcelo Mayer.
The signing that caught most baseball folks off guard last week was the Padres locking up their 21-year-old budding superstar center fielder Jackson Merrill for nine years, $135 million. Merrill, runner-up for National League Rookie of the Year last year, is already being considered by the Padres as a franchise-type player.
“It’s a good deal for both sides,” said a Padres official, “and the good news for him is that he’ll be only 30 years old when the deal is over.”
Coincidentally, the day after the Padres extended Merrill, the Diamondbacks announced a six-year, $116.5 million extension for their All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte. The 31-year-old Marte could not have been a free agent for three more years, but the D-backs, who are going all in on chasing after the Dodgers in the NL West, made it clear they are committed to their core players. In addition to signing Burnes to anchor their pitching staff, they previously locked up shortstop Geraldo Perdomo (four years, $45 million), No. 2 starter Brandon Pfaadt (five years, $45 million and reliever Justin Martinez (five years, $18 million).
A baseball official I talked to last week had this explanation for the sudden splurge of contracts just as the season opened. “You have to first look at the fact that they’re all team-friendly deals,” he said. “I think from the players’ standpoint it’s still more money than they could have imagined two years ago, and I give the agents credit for getting all this money up front and still leaving room for a second shot at free agency at the conclusion.
“Also I think another factor from the players’ side was that the contracts provide some peace of mind amid the uncertainty of the collective bargaining agreement next year.”
Oh yes, and there was one other common denominator with all these contract extensions: None of the agents involved was named Scott Boras.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
Speaking of contracts, I’m told the Blue Jays and Vlad Guerrero Jr. are inching closer a new deal that will keep him out of free agency. By his own admission, Guerrero said he turned down $500 million from the Blue Jays as the deadline for a new contract expired at the end of spring training. But as a source close to the talks said: “I think Vladdy realized he’s not going to get a [Juan] Soto $700 million deal which was a special case in which the four richest teams in baseball were all bidding against each other. The first base market this winter isn’t gonna be much with all the big market teams looking to stay under the luxury tax thresholds.”
