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22 Teams Hand Out Multiyear Free Agent Contracts
Nearly three quarters of baseball's 30 teams signed at least one free agent to a multiyear contract this offseason. A year ago 17 clubs signed free agents to multiyear deals and that figure rose by five to 22 this winter. Only the Blue Jays, Rays, Indians, Royals, Braves, Brewers, Astros and Cubs have limited themselves to one-year commitments to this point.
Over the course of the entire 2009-10 offseason, 27 free agents signed multiyear contracts. This offseason, teams handed out 44 multiyear free agent contracts, as MLBTR’s Transaction Tracker shows*.
There's a chance that Vladimir Guerrero, Scott Podsednik or another free agent signs with one of the eight clubs above, but that seems unlikely at this point in the winter. There probably won't be any more multiyear free agent contracts for the 2010-11 offseason.
Most teams spent on free agents this winter, but it's worth noting that small-market clubs weren't the only ones shying away from the winter's robust free agent market. Teams such as the Braves and Cubs also avoided long-term free agent contracts, while small-market clubs including the Pirates and A's signed multiple free agents to multiyear deals.
*I am not counting Tsuyoshi Nishioka's deal, since he was not available on the open market. No extensions for players under team control count, either. I am counting the extensions for Ted Lilly and Brandon Inge, since they were on the brink of hitting the open market, when they signed their respective contracts.
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