Reading Tea Leaves and Contract Extensions

Well, the White Sox have extended yet another young player.  As of today, the Sox and third baseman Yoan Moncada have agreed to a five-year extension worth $70 million with a one-year team option for $25 million.  There seems to be a definite pattern here.

 

Back in January, GM Rick Hahn signed centerfielder Luis Robert to a similar deal, just as he did last spring with outfielder Eloy Jimenez.  And let’s not forget that that three springs previous, Hahn started this whole extension thing with a six-year deal for shortstop Tim Anderson.  My guess is that Hahn is going to try his best to get starter Lucas Giolito and, if he shows Rookie-of-the-Year promise, infielder Nick Madrigal signed to extensions.  Ditto first baseman Andrew Vaughn when his time comes.

 

These deals allow the Sox to go in a couple of different directions.  Right now, the team makes a very attractive investment should Jerry Reinsdorf decide to sell (please, oh please).  Young, affordable stars playing winning baseball could mean a very nice revenue stream into the foreseeable future.

 

But let’s say it doesn’t.  Reinsdorf or any possible successor would still be insured against his investment going belly up.  All it takes is for two or three of those affordably-signed players to have plus careers (insert appropriate WAR here).  That way, the Sox front office can start flipping players again the way they did Chris Sale, Adam Eaton and Jose Quintana, all of whom were attractive to new teams in part because of the affordable contract control built into their extensions.  Irony abounds.

 

The White Sox signed Sale to a seven-year extension worth $60 million in 2017, a dollars-and-years amount that enticed the Red Sox to trade away Moncada, Michael Kopech and two other minor leaguers.  Sale, who signed a $160 million deal with Boston in 2019, is trying to avoid Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.  Kopech, seven years younger than Sale, got his out of the way last year.  Everything seems to be going in favor of the White Sox.  How strange.

 

Beats the alternative, though.