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Roster of the Month: All-Extension Team

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NDid your favorite team sign a player to an extension recently? Probably so!

This offseason, 24 players signed extensions with 16 teams for a total of 109 seasons and nearly $1.8 billion. 20 of them were announced after the start of Spring Training. You can view them all on the MLB Trade Rumors Extension Tracker.

Everyone is happy when a team retains its stars, but there are significant ramifications for free agency and the state of labor. Ben Lindbergh and Michael Baumann discussed this at length for The Ringer, which is highly recommended reading. Lindbergh summarizes the inherent problems with this trend thusly:

I won’t tell you you’re wrong if you argue that this new crop of contracts is the final phase in the owners’ successful scheme to suppress payrolls: Put pressure on (already underpaid) prospects by pretending they aren’t ready, remove the brass ring for more experienced players by holding the line in free agency, and then reap further rewards when stars size up the market and settle for less than they’re worth. -Ben Lindbergh


Be that as it may, several of the most prominent players and prospects have signed long-term deals over the last two months. This is the focus of April’s Roster of the Month. To be eligible, a player must have signed an extension since the end of the 2018 World Series (with a few necessary exceptions).

Lineup

  1. LF Ronald Acuña, Jr., Atlanta Braves: The Braves’ do-it-all youngster authored one of the most exciting rookie seasons in recent memory. The reigning NL Rookie of the Year is coming off the best debut in Atlanta since Jason Heyward. (Remember when Heyward was basically what Acuña is now?) Unsurprisingly, Off the Bench’s resident Braves fan Sean Morash has thoughts on this recent extension. eight years, $100 million
  2. CF Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels: The indisputable greatest baseball player in the world will remain in Orange County for another twelve years. Any franchise dreaming of Trout becoming a free agent will have to wait until he turns 39-years-old. Off the Bench’s Joe Mangano discussed this contract in depth. ten years, $360 million
  3. DH Alex Bregman, Houston Astros: During the 2018 playoffs, Big Time Bats ran a commercial for Alex Bregman commemorative bats, as he became the first third baseman with 50 doubles and 30 home runs in a season. That’s a fantastic year, but sounds pretty manufactured as far as records go. All the same, the Astros are happy to keep him around. five years, $100 million
  4. 3B Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies: Arenado would have been the belle of the free agent ball following the 2019 season. Instead, he signed the largest non-Trout extension of the spring. seven years, $234 million
  5. 1B Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals theoretically could have waited a year and signed Goldschmidt as a free agent by sacrificing a draft pick (he would have undoubtedly declined a qualifying offer). Instead, they nabbed him a year earlier in exchange for Carson Kelly, Luke Weaver, and Andy Young. This extension affirms the trade as a clear win for St. Louis. five years, $130 million
  6. SS Xander Bogaerts, Boston Red Sox: On the heels of a 133 wRC+ season, Boston couldn’t let Bogaerts walk away at age-27, just as he’s putting it all together. He’s been worth 17.6 fWAR over the last four years. six years, $120 million
  7. RF Eloy Jiménez, Chicago White Sox: Look, it’s nice that the White Sox promoted mega-prospect Jiménez to start the season, but forcing him into a team-friendly extension to prevent service time manipulation is repugnant. six years, $43 million
  8. C Tyler Flowers, Atlanta Braves: Flowers did not actually sign an extension this winter. We have to cheat a little because no catcher has extended at all since his one year deal, which he reached this past August. one year, $6 million (for current season)
  9. 2B Whit Merrifield, Kansas City Royals: Merrifield is a veritable late-blooming star. He led the AL in hits last year and stolen bases in each of the past two years. four years, $16.25 million

Bench

  • OF Aaron Hicks, New York Yankees: It’s hard to fly under-the-radar in New York, but not many people realize that Hicks was a top three center fielder in baseball last year. His 4.9 fWAR trailed only Mike Trout’s 9.8 and Lorenzo Cain‘s 5.7. seven years, $70 million
  • OF Max Kepler, Minnesota Twins: Kepler has basically been a league-average player over his three full seasons. He supplements a career 93 wRC+ with good right field defense. five years, $35 million
  • SS Jorge Polanco, Minnesota Twins: The Twins announced both Polanco’s and Kepler’s deals on Valentine’s Day. It’s easy to love a 25-year-old switch-hitting shortstop coming off a 110 wRC+ season. five year, $25.75 million
  • C Christian Vazquez, Boston Red Sox: We have to bend the rules again to find a backup catcher. Vazquez signed a long-term deal on March 24, 2018. He’s a defense-first starting catcher for the Red Sox. three years, $13.55 million (including this season)

Pitchers

Most of the pitchers who signed extensions are starters, so rather than force some of them into the bullpen, we’ll just have an old-fashioned general pitching staff.

  • RHP Carlos Carrasco, Cleveland Indians: Carrasco is one of only eight starting pitchers with at least 5.0 K/BB since 2014. three years, $37.25 million
  • RHP Jacob deGrom, New York Mets: The Mets couldn’t let deGrom, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, become a free agent after the season. Could you imagine if he signed with the Yankees? four years, $120.5 million
  • RHP Kyle Hendricks, Chicago Cubs: Hendricks’ fastball averaged merely 86.9 MPH last season, yet he posted 3.5 fWAR over 199 innings. Given that fellow soft-tosser Dallas Keuchel remains unsigned, it’s no wonder that he didn’t want to test the market. four years, $55.5 million
  • RHP Raisel Iglesias, Cincinnati Reds: Iglesias has a career 2.45 ERA and 27.8% K-rate in his career as a reliever. He’s the closer for an up-and-coming Reds team. three years, $24.13 million
  • RHP Jose Leclerc, Texas Rangers: For the uninitiated, Leclerc is baseball’s next shutdown reliever. His 38.1% K-rate placed sixth among qualified relievers in 2018, and he surrendered only one home run all year. four years, $14.75 million
  • RHP Miles Mikolas, St. Louis Cardinals: Mikolas spent three successful seasons with the Yomiuri Giants, then signed a three year deal with the Cardinals before 2018. He exceeded expectations, earning an All-Star bid and down-ballot Cy Young support. four years, $68 million
  • RHP Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies: Forget Bryce Harper; Nola might be the best player who signed a deal with the Phillies this offseason. He kept pace with deGrom and Max Scherzer in the Cy Young race for most of 2018. This deal eats up his remaining arbitration years and delays free agency by one. four years, $45 million
  • RHP Ryan Pressly, Houston Astros: After being traded from Minnesota to the Houston on July 27, 2018, sequencing and location adjustments transformed Pressly into a beast. He allowed only 15 baserunners and two earned runs in 23.1 IP after the trade. two years, $17.5 million
  • LHP Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox: Adjusted for innings, no pitcher in the AL was better than Sale last season. He led the league in K-rate (38.4%) and FIP (1.98) with a minimum of 150 IP, and recorded the final out of the World Series. It would’ve been a tough sell for the Red Sox to let him test the market after the 2019 season. five years, $145 million
  • RHP Luis Severino, New York Yankees: Severino’s 97.6 MPH average fastball was the fastest in baseball among starting pitchers. With 11.2 fWAR over the last two seasons, he gets results to match the heat. four years, $40 million
  • LHP Blake Snell, Tampa Bay Rays: After winning the Cy Young with a 1.89 ERA at age-25, the Rays gave him merely a $15,500 raise. Was this leverage to force him into a team-friendly extension? At least he won’t have to face off against management in arbitration. five years, $50 million
  • RHP Justin Verlander, Houston Astros: Remember when the Tigers were giving away Verlander for almost nothing, but no one wanted to take on his contract? The Astros reinvigorated the future Hall of Famer, who led the AL in strikeouts (290), WHIP (0.902), and K/BB (7.84). Now, the team has him locked up through age-38. two years $66 million
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