MLBTR's Mike Axisa looked at the largest contracts by service time a year ago; it's time for an update.
Less Than One Year
Position Player: Ryan Braun. Eight years, $45MM.
Pitcher: C.C. Sabathia. Four years, $9.5MM.
One To Two Years
Position Player: Chris Young. Five years, $28MM.
Pitcher: Fausto Carmona. Four years, $15MM.
Two To Three Years
Position Player: Carlos Gonzalez. Seven years, $80MM.
Pitcher: Trevor Cahill. Five years, $30.5MM.
Three To Four Years
Position Player: Albert Pujols. Seven years, $100MM.
Pitcher: Scott Kazmir. Three years, $28.5MM.
Four To Five Years
Position Player: Troy Tulowitzki. Ten years, $157.75MM.
Pitcher: Justin Verlander. Five years, $80MM.
Five To Six Years
Position Player: Derek Jeter. Ten years, $189MM.
Pitcher: Roy Oswalt. Five years, $73MM.
Six-plus Years
Position Player: Alex Rodriguez. Ten years, $275MM.
Pitcher: C.C. Sabathia. Seven years, $161MM.
Commentary…
- In the year since Mike's post, our Transaction Tracker shows 39 extensions for arbitration eligible players. Three of those were record-breakers: Trevor Cahill jumped ahead of Yovani Gallardo and Ricky Romero, Carlos Gonzalez topped Hanley Ramirez, and Troy Tulowitzki replaced Miguel Cabrera.
- No new zero-to-one players signed multiyear deals. If players such as Starlin Castro or Carlos Santana were to sign right now it'd still be tough to top Braun.
- Brett Anderson and Wade Davis signed similar contracts in the one-to-two class, but neither beat Carmona.
- Kazmir's contract seems like an anomaly leading the three-to-four pitchers, with several two-to-three pitchers getting larger guarantees. Kazmir's record was threatened this winter by Johnny Cueto's $27MM deal, though the two contracts cover different slices of the pitchers' careers. Perhaps three-to-four is a no man's land for multiyear pitcher deals, as the pitcher is at that point willing to see what he'll get his first time through the arbitration process.
- The free agent records set by Alex Rodriguez and C.C. Sabathia could be threatened this offseason by Albert Pujols and Sabathia again.
Wow. Forget that Braun had less than a year of service when he signed that deal. Wonder what he would get nowadays.
He got good mone not great but he would still be slowly moving up thru the ranks of arbitration.
Yea they really got a steal IMO, I mean 6 AAV for a player like that and that bought out 2 free agent years to, or maybe 3 depending on when the deal actually started. Anyways if he were to sign nowadays I think he would be at least where CarGo is, maybe more.
Would be interesting to see an “all-time” version of this list. Thinking Mike Hampton would make an appearance.
What about evan longorias contract?
Largest…as in money. Which Longoria did not get.
If you look at those deals, most ended up still being pretty good extensions for the team, except for kazmir.