Fangraphs: Whose Contract Extensions Should Teams Tackle with Urgency?

[geschinger]

22 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I just think Adley is a different level of catcher.  Whether Angelos keeps or sells the O's, extending Adley is the best situation.  O's are just a different team w/ Adley.  An 8 or 9 year deal is a no brainer for me.  If Cohen was the O's owner, Adley would have to say I don't like money.

Adley is interesting because of his age.  If he wants to maximize his career earnings, he cannot afford to give up FA years.   He needs to be an unrestricted FA at 29.  He's not going to get a massive second contract as a catcher approaching his mid 30s.

My perfect scenario would be a 7 year extension - lock him up through age 32.  But for him - being a catcher and reaching FA as a 33 year old is not ideal and probably a bad idea of him unless the Orioles were paying a truly massive premium over what all these other pre-arb extensions are paying. 

If he wants a chance to be making a massive payday in his mid 30s, he needs to be offering teams at least the tail end of his prime when he's up for his second contract. 

[Os4days]

I am not as familiar with the whole ownership situation with Angelos and his intentions on owning the team long term. 
 

However it would be great if the Os followed the same script as the Braves who have locked up all their young talent for years to come. Obviously it would cost a lot upfront but I think there would be savings long term as contracts are really ridiculous right now and just getting more outrageous. 

[SemperFi]

23 minutes ago, geschinger said:

It could be cheap ownership for why the O's were not competitive in free agency - I would never discount that possibility with the Angelos family. 

But even more likely is Elias and Sid are smart enough to have done a deep analysis of players' performance, age, and the success (and mostly failure) of past FA signings to know when the dollars and, more importantly, years cross the line and become a risk not worth taking.  I suspect they would have walked away from the players they were rumored to be interested in even if they had the budget considering the length of the contracts given out this offseason. Overpaying in FA would be out of character considering where they came from and their previous organization's success without being a big player in FA.

Which is why I hope there are placeholders in the budget for extentions-I guess we will see!!