There’s been an investment into the future – and sometimes, the present – as MLB franchises continue to sign younger players to long-term contract extensions. The deals don’t always work out, but the financials and interest from both sides are rising.
Contract extensions, specifically ones that buy promising players out of their final arbitration years and delay their entry into the free-agent market, are all the rage these days among MLB teams.
Considering all the activity just before opening day and into the season’s first month, those extensions for presumptive future stars – sometimes before they even play in the big leagues or even make it to the All-Star break – are about as prevalent these days as an umpire getting ball/strike calls overturned by ABS.
If 2026 trends suggest anything, big shortstops with thump in their bats and smaller-market teams looking for cost certainty for years to come are the likeliest marriages for contract extensions – even if those players have yet to log a day of service time in the big leagues.
Think of it like this: Teams such as the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and the suddenly cost-conscious Boston Red Sox are the franchises most likely to seek out extensions with top prospects, while the big-market, big-budget teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies aren’t nearly as worried about players someday leaving them or their owners needing cost certainty quite as much.
Small- and mid-market teams know they’ll never be able to spend like the Dodgers or Yankees (here are MLB’s biggest contracts), so they have to spend differently. Sometimes, that means spending on a player earlier in his career and assuming the risks involved with doing that.
“Just look at who is doing these contracts,” an unnamed MLB executive recently told USA Today. “It’s the same teams. These are the same teams that aren’t the most desirable places for free agents, so they’re locking up their guys now. That’s all it is. It’s not that complicated.”
The contract extensions are strategic for both the players signing them and the teams so willing to hand them out. For players often drafted and home grown by the club before riding meteoric rises through three or four levels of the minor leagues, the extensions offer financial security and stability to guard against injury concerns or underperformance. For the teams, the financial risk they are assuming fixes the salary for a player they think is on a collision course with greatness. And it does so before that player becomes arbitration-eligible and often delays free agency by a season or two.
When the players and owners begin talks on a new collective bargaining agreement before the 2027 season, rules about paying players could be dramatically altered. While management is expected to ask for caps on salaries, the players will almost assuredly demand concessions that will allow them to become arbitration-eligible sooner than the standard three years and being able to hit free agency before six seasons. If those changes are enacted, the contract extensions signed in recent months will look like genius strategic moves.
Griffin, McGonigle Strike it Rich
How about the sweetheart deals for a couple potential rising stars in their rookie seasons?
Power-hitting shortstop Konnor Griffin needed to play just five games with the Pittsburgh Pirates before pushing past Cy Young Award-winning teammate Paul Skenes on the pay scale by inking a $140 million deal that will cover the next nine seasons.
Similarly, Detroit Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle jumped up several tax brackets on “Tax Day” by parlaying a strong 17-game stretch in the big leagues into a $150 million contract which will keep him in the Motor City through the 2034 season. The sweet-swinging, lefty-hitting shortstop was also able to lock up some protection in his extension: If he gets traded at any point, it would trigger a $5 million bonus each time his contract is assigned to another MLB organization.
Signed after opening day, Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin will earn a base salary of $1M and a signing bonus of $5M while carrying a total salary of $2,333,333 in 2026, per Spotrac.Griffin, MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 prospect before his major league promotion, has gotten off to a shaky start as a rookie, including a .230 batting average and an alarming number of strikeouts (28) compared to walks (six) plus three errors through 25 games.
McGonigle, the No. 37 pick of the 2023 MLB Draft, has adjusted to big-league pitching quite well, batting .333 with 15 extra-base hits through 30 games. The cornerstone of the Tigers’ hopes for the future has repeatedly mentioned feeling right at home in Detroit upon signing his extension, and already he sounds like a player who wants to be a Tiger for life.
“Since I’ve been drafted by the Tigers, the way I am, I’m loyal,” McGonigle said to reporters in Detroit. “I want to stick in one spot and help a team to win a World Series in any year during the time I’m there. We agreed it was fair for both of us, and I know it’s the right move.”
Some Home Run Moves, Plenty of Whiffs
Past results of teams signing players to massive contract extensions less than a year after they reach the big leagues have featured some home runs but also plenty of swings and misses.
Ronald Acuna Jr., who won the National League’s 2018 Rookie of the Year award before signing an eight-year, $100 million extension with the Atlanta Braves in 2019, is the lone MVP winner among the recent signees. Kansas City Royals mainstay Salvador Perez signed a team-friendly five-year, $7 million extension when he was just 21 years old and 30 games into what could become a Hall of Fame career.
For every Acuna or Perez, there are examples of struggles after an early contract extension. The Red Sox appear to have hit on slugging outfielder Roman Anthony and Gold Glove center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, but they might have jumped the gun on second baseman Kristian Campbell, who last year was inked to an eight-year, $60 million extension just six days into his MLB career. One of the criticisms of since-fired Red Sox manager Alex Cora was his handling of Campbell, who hit just .223 and committed seven errors in 67 MLB games before getting demoted back to Triple-A.
The cost-conscious Rays, a team that has a history of dealing rising stars before they hit arbitration or free agency, has had successes and failures in handing out extensions. They rewarded Evan Longoria (six years, $17.5 million in 2008), Matt Moore (five years, $14 million in 2011) and Brandon Lowe (six years, $24 million in 2019) with team-friendly extensions after just a few weeks with the big-league club. However, their 11-year, $182 million extension with disgraced shortstop Wander Franco after just 104 days at the MLB level certainly cautions the franchise from signing players to early extensions again.
No MLB Experience, No Problem
Remarkably, teams have even been willing to offer long-term contract extensions to players who have yet to even make the leap to the big leagues.
This year’s signings of Cooper Pratt and Colt Emerson by the usually financially savvy Brewers and Mariners, respectively, before either shortstop ever fielded a grounder at the big-league level brought the total number of players inked to long-term extensions with zero days of MLB service time to nine.
Emerson, the shortstop whose path to the big leagues could be at third base because of the Mariners’ issues at that position this season, got $95 million to break Jackson Chourio’s $82 million from the Brewers in 2024 before ever playing a game.
Not including club options.Emerson, whose deal could keep him with Seattle through the 2034 season, got an $8 million signing bonus. After making $1 million in 2026 and $2 million in ’27, it jumps up to $9 million for ’28, and he’s scheduled to make anywhere from $12-18 million from 2029-33. The average annual salary of $11.88 million could be seen as a bargain if Emerson becomes the star the Mariners have him tabbed to become.
“We’re trying to make sure that we can continue to manage these types of agreements with our players as we move forward,” Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto told MLB.com. “You’ve all heard me talk about this ad nauseam — this is part of our roster-building plan.”
The Mariners spent lavishly on Emerson after saving gobs of cash on two of the most well-timed extensions in MLB history. Seattle inked Julio Rodriguez to a 12-year, $209.3 million extension just five months into his rookie season in 2002, and it locked up catcher Cal Raleigh to a $105 million pact just prior to him smashing 60 home runs in 2025. Locking up Raliegh long term now could have cost them an additional $100 million.
However, if history is any judge, teams would be wise to avoid the temptation of locking up players before they ever don MLB jerseys. Jon Singleton (Houston Astros, $10 million in 2014), Scott Kingery (Phillies, $24 million in 2018) and Evan White (Mariners, $55.5 million in 2019) are some of MLB’s bigger flops in terms of players getting massive paydays before ever playing in the big leagues. Jarred Kelenic infamously claimed he was being “punished” by the Mariners for not signing a team-friendly extension in 2019 – a proverbial bullet dodged by the franchise when the outfielder struggled from 2021-23, then was dealt to the Braves in 2024.
Who’s Next for Early Contract Extensions?
The Cleveland Guardians, a franchise forced to be frugal because of its market size and one that has showed financial discipline through the years, are enjoying a below-market contract for the second time with star third baseman Jose Ramirez.
Now, they could be looking to fortify the roster around Ramirez by potentially signing promising lefty starter Parker Messick, 2022 first-round pick Chase DeLauter and/or 2024 No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana to team-friendly extensions.
The Braves might be wise to take the same tact with catcher Drake Baldwin that they did with All-Stars Austin Riley and Acuna years earlier. Baldwin is already building on his 2025 NL Rookie of the Year season. (Follow the action on our MLB Advanced Leaderboards.)
Could a St. Louis Cardinals team that traded away established veterans Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan, and is going through its first full-on rebuild in more than three decades, be poised to invest their future in standout rookie JJ Wetherholt? All Wetherholt has done this year is homer in his first MLB game, deliver a walk-off winner in his second game, batter the Guardians for his first multi-homer game, and hit a clutch, game-tying homer in Pittsburgh with dozens of family, friends and former college teammates in the crowd.
Last season, when fellow 2024 draftees Chase Burns (Reds), Nick Kurtz (Athletics), Jac Caglianone (Royals), Cam Smith (Astros), and Christian Moore and Ryan Johnson (Los Angeles Angels) reached the big leagues before him, Wetherholt admitted it was tough to still be competing at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. He likely feels the same way now after seeing Griffin, McGonigle, Emerson and Pratt rewarded with eye-popping contract extensions so early in their careers, and he’s left to wait again.
“It’s a mix of both emotions, for sure,” Wetherholt said last July of not being promoted as others received call-ups. “When you see that, you want some of that for yourself. But it’s not how things are supposed to go now. And you don’t benefit by thinking that way.
“So that’s a time I can sit down, reflect and understand that I’m exactly where I should be. It fires me up to see (others getting rewarded). … Where my focus needs to be is trusting in the (organization) and going out and playing good ball. At the end of the day, if I just continue to play well, things will take care of themselves.”
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