The Brewers offered a long-term contract to shortstop Jean Segura about a month ago, agent Joe Klein told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. No deal is close at this time, however.
Klein told Rosenthal, "They contacted me. Right now, I guess it’s in my court. But with a guy this young, it’s hard to figure out what the right numbers would be. It would be good, be nice if it was possible to do. But I don’t know. It’s way, way on the drawing board."
Segura, 23, has only 80 big league games and 314 plate appearances under his belt, almost all of it with the Brewers since coming over from the Angels as the centerpiece of last summer's Zack Greinke trade. He has around 110 days of big league service. As MLBTR's extension tracker shows, two position players have signed extensions with less than one year of service: Evan Longoria in 2008 ($17.5MM over six years) and Salvador Perez in 2012 ($7MM over five years). Those two deals were/are considered extremely club friendly, and each contained a trio of club options. So you can understand Klein's hesitancy.
Perez's contract gave him some extra money up front, so perhaps Segura could be paid $3MM for 2013-15, his three pre-arbitration seasons. His three arbitration years might be valued at $12MM or so, and buyouts on option years could bring the total close to Longoria's $17.5MM over six years. As a power hitter, Longoria's arbitration years would be valued more highly, but his contract is five years old, so it's fair to suggest Segura could be in that range for 2013-18. Perhaps Klein could at least bring the Brewers down to two club options rather than three. Segura is under the Brewers' control through 2018 regardless, so those free agent years may be the key to a potential deal.
The Brewers have locked up many key players over the years, but never one with less than a year of service. They signed Ryan Braun in '08 (1.008 in big league service), Yovani Gallardo in '10 (2.112), Corey Hart in '10 (4.157), Rickie Weeks in '11 (5.131), Braun again in '11, Jonathan Lucroy in '12 (1.136) and Carlos Gomez in March (5.141).
