Contracts: Freddie Freeman vs. Paul Goldschmidt

[Frobby]

I find this to be an interesting case study.

Freeman - debuted in Sept. 2010 and has played full time since then.

2011 - .795 OPS

2012 - .796

2013 - .897

Then on 2/5/14 signed an 8 year, $135 mm deal: arb years at $5/8.5/12, 5 FA years at $20/21/21/22/22 mm.

Since then:

2014: .847

2015: .887 (so far)

Goldschmidt - debuted in August 2011 and has played full time since then.

2012 - .850 OPS

Then on 3/30/13 signed a 5 year, $32 mm deal with a team option: pre-arb at $1.1 mm, arb years at $3.1/5.9/8.9 mm, then one FA year at $11.1 mm and a team option for another year at $14.5 mm ($2 mm buyout).

Since then:

2013: .952 OPS

2014: 938 OPS

2015: 1.129 OPS (so far)

Seems to me Goldschmidt got very bad advice from his agent, or was overly anxious to get financial security very early in his career and cost himself tens of millions of dollars. Or, Freddie Freeman's agent is a genius. I guess Goldschmidt may get some of it back on his next deal.

[Stotle]

Goldschmidt signed-up for guaranteed money after a year of performance. Discounted rates to help offset fact team had almost no track record with which to work. Freeman got to leverage three years of performance capped by a breakout season. Don't know that it's fair to fault Goldschmidt/agent too heavily, outside of maybe stating he shouldn't sign an extension that early in his career. The numbers don't seem out of whack based on when the contracts were signed.

I guess you could look at this as a very good lesson for Machado -- don't sign an extension until you have a couple of years of production under your belt.

[weams]

Goldschmidt signed-up for guaranteed money after a year of performance. Discounted rates to help offset fact team had almost no track record with which to work. Freeman got to leverage three years of performance capped by a breakout season. Don't know that it's fair to fault Goldschmidt/agent too heavily, outside of maybe stating he shouldn't sign an extension that early in his career. The numbers don't seem out of whack based on when the contracts were signed.

I guess you could look at this as a very good lesson for Machado -- don't sign an extension until you have a couple of years of production under your belt.

Or don't have a bad year or another injury. Just don't.

[Just Regular]

Freeman had a higher pedigree too - on industry lists, he was a Top 50 type after 2009 and a Top 20 type after 2010, whereas Goldschmidt didn't really register even on Top 100's, very incorrectly giving his early success something of a "too good to be true" feeling.

Another factor was age - despite accumulating more pro experience before extending, Freeman is two full years younger.