6:11pm: Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News reports the breakdown of Crawford’s contract (via Twitter). He’ll receive a $1.2MM signing bonus $5.8MM in 2016 and $8MM in 2017 before earning $15MM per season from 2018 through 2021 — his would-be free-agent years.
4:56pm: The Giants announced that they’ve signed shortstop Brandon Crawford to a six-year contract extension. The new deal will buy out Crawford’s final two arbitration seasons and four free-agent years, keeping him in San Francisco through 2021 — his age-34 season. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that the Wasserman Media Group client will receive $75MM and a full no-trade clause in the deal.
Crawford, 29 in January, was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to receive $5.7MM this offseason in what would’ve been his second time through the arbitration process. If we assume something in the range of $8MM for his final arbitration salary, the Giants are buying out four free-agent seasons at a total of about $61-62MM — about $15.5MM annually.
In locking up Crawford, the Giants will secure one of the game’s premier shortstop defenders as he comes off an offensive breakout. Dating back to 2012, Crawford has tallied 42 Defensive Runs Saved — 19th in the Majors of any player at any position in that time. While he’s long been known more for his glove than his bat, Crawford’s isolated power (slugging minus batting average) has increased in each season of his Major League career, beginning at .092 in 2011 and topping out at this season’s hefty .205. Crawford slugged a career-best 21 homers in his age-28 season and tallied an excellent .256/.321/.462 batting line to complement his outstanding defense. Fangraphs valued his contributions at 4.7 wins above replacement, and Baseball-Reference weighed in at 5.6 WAR.
The Giants will hope that Crawford’s power outburst can be sustained, if not built upon, but it should be noted that Crawford doesn’t need to be a 20-homer bat at shortstop to justify the type of money committed to him in this deal. The average shortstop has been about 13 to 14 percent worse than the league-average hitter over the past four seasons, and Crawford’s bat exceeded those levels each year dating back to 2013 (when adjusting for his cavernous home park). Simply delivering better-than-average offense, relative to his positional peers, and continuing to turn in sterling defensive work should be enough for Crawford to justify, if not exceed the value of his new contract.
While Crawford, like any player who signs an extension of this nature, could have potentially earned more money by going year to year through arbitration and hitting the open market at age 30 in search of a five- or six-year deal through his age-36 campaign, he now has the security of knowing that he’ll remain with the only organization he’s ever known for the vast majority of his career. That carries plenty of weight for a player, especially one who was born and raised within about 45 miles of AT&T Park.
As for the Giants, they’ve undoubtedly done their homework in looking ahead at the players who joined Crawford in his service time bracket (between four and five years). Crawford would’ve easily led the shortstop class in free agency that season, as he’d be joined by the likes of Ruben Tejada, Danny Espinosa, Eduardo Nunez and Alexi Amarista. The Giants, with little in the way of big-league ready shortstops in the upper levels of their minor league system — most scouts feel that Christian Arroyo will need to move to third base, while Lucius Fox and Jalen Miller are probably at least four years away — have proactively addressed that need and locked down a fan favorite in the process.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
And here I was, thinking it had actually been a slow day in the MLB off-season. This is more like it.
Looks pretty nice on the surface.
Great deal for the Giants. Crawford must really love it there to sign away his first four free agent years at an AAV of 12.5 million.
Agreed, a guy with his makeup isn’t going to get another chance to get a big payday in his age 34+ seasons. But maybe (for once) its about winning? I mean what’s the difference between $75M and $150M anyway? It’s all money none of us will ever see in our life.
That’s the difference between your children never having to work and your grandchildren never having to work. But in reality most ball players are so competitive they’re looking to get as much money as they can. And they’re welcome to it. They’re the ones that provide the billion dollar product. But really, a guy like Crawford has never had a huge payday before so they hit him up right at the perfect time.
Crawford is a Bay Area kid who grew up a Giants fan. In fact, there’s a well-known photo of Crawford as a young boy, glumly leaning against the railing at a game at the ‘Stick in 1992 next to a sign exhorting then NL president Bill White to step in and save the team from moving to Tampa Bay. So, I don’t think it was just about the money for him. He’s living the dream.
m.sfgate.com/giants/article/Brandon-Crawford-livin…
that’s a crushingly adorable sulking kiddo!
more like great grandchildren… 150m goes a long way.
75M does too though, if invested wisely.
Born and raised in the Bay Area and as a Giants fan. He’s living every Giants fan’s dream and is the envy of all the rest of us who didn’t have major league talent. I’m sure he knows he could’ve made more eventually if he stays healthy, but there’s lots of risk in that too.
great sign. Wonder who they might get for Sp and OF. Can they afford the likes of Greinke or Alex Gordon??
Yes. World Series $$ plus ATT park will be paid off in 2 years and the new bill that passed letting ownership develop the land behind McCovey Cove. Giants are a big dollar team
They can now—if those guys want to play in SF
What does “they can now” mean? How has Crawford signing an extension effected the ability of SF to sign Greinke or Gordon?
There’s less money tied up than he would have gotten if he had waited another year where perhaps he may have even outperformed his 2015. He’s locked up on a bargain basement deal for a player of his caliber. Same with Pence, that’s 2 guys they should be paying more money for.
Also, free agents haven’t tended to sign with SF – who have they signed direct off the market other than Barry Zito?
That’s a big IF, and still not enough of a difference in salaries to allow them to sign Greinke and Gordon.
Good deal for San Fran if keeps up being a 3+ WAR player.
Good signing. Love this guy.
Sadly people Twitter thinks it’s a bad deal. I think it’s a great deal, good player and he’s a decent hitter too.
It’s a bad deal for Crawford, arguably. He would’ve been able to command much more in FA if his production stayed at the level it did this year, let alone if he actually improves on this season.
Twitter people are Twitter people. We here at mlbrumors know our stuff. Which is why we all agree it’s a good deal for the Giants.
Didn’t think anyone signed hometown discounts anymore, this has to be the first since Jered Weaver. Great team player – allows them to spend more on free agents. He sold himself short after a gold glove/silver slugger season, but definitely put SF in the drivers seat to fill holes with elite talent.
12.5M AAV over 6 years for Brandon Crawford is considered a hometown discount? Yikes.
He’d get a minimum $15MM AAV in FA.
I know the guy should get paid, but 6/75M isn’t a hometown discount. Its definitely less than what he would get in FA, but not by much.
Yes, by much. He could have gotten $30M+ more if he went year to year. Granted there’s nothing wrong with taking a hometown discount and $75M is still a ton of money, but this was 100% a hometown discount.
Unless I completely misunderstood your first statement, there’s not a person on this planet who thinks Brandon Crawford is a $30M a year player.
He’s saying that over the course of those 6 years he could have made an additional $30MM+ through arbitration raises and an eventual contract in free agency. This is plausible if he improves upon his performance from this season.
He is getting $15m AAV for his free agent years that are being bought out, that is what you have to compare his hypothetical FA contract to. And sure 4/60 is less than he would have gotten had he continued being good. He might have gotten 6/100 or whatever but you give up some to get the deal done two years early.
If he played as well in 2016 as he did in 2015 he’s a $100M man no question.
I think I got too caught up in the $12.5MM AAV overall. With the way the deal is structured financially it’s certainly very reasonable coming off of this season. Both in the cases of the arbitration-eligible seasons and the free agency seasons. That said, if he did go year-to-year and ended up in free agency he could’ve locked in for a few more years at a higher rate. A rate which he may not get when he’s 34 years old re-entering the market in the current case.
So he ‘gave up’ probably 2 years at $15.5MM+ and maybe a buyout of an option/the option itself for fair guaranteed money now.
Elite defender, bat improved – could potentially be above average bat for the next few seasons. FA market is relatively thin on SS for the next couple of years off the top of my head
I guess I’m just not the type to give a guy whos only had 1 great offensive year a major contract. 2015 was his first offensive season that was above average. I’d like to see more before committing major money to him.
We’ve seen the Giants get burned quite a bit when bringing back their beloved players
The article even says he’s been above average since 2013. And bringing back their players is what keeps the fans loyal and packing in AT&TT even during non-playoff seasons
he has been above average almost since he came up for his position – last year was just a major break out
I agree with Brixton. It’s a fair deal for both sides, but not a discount.
It is most certainly a discount over what he’d get as a FA.
Huge discount. In this kind of market, average players are worth $15M. According to Fangraphs, based on current levels of inflation, Crawford’s 4.7 win season last year was worth almost $40M. Even if you assume that Fangraphs overestimates value at the topof the win curve and assume that Crawford will regress, he’s EASILY a $20M a year player right now.
I don’t care what wacky formula Fangraphs uses, no team on any planet would pay $40M a year for a .256 hitter with a sub .800 OPS…even if he had Ozzie Smith defense.
This must be a hometown discount or something, because Crawford could do much better than $12.5MM AAV on the open market if he keeps up his production. One of the best (and only) two way SS in the league. Great deal for SF and good for Crawford since it’s clear this is where he wants to be.
You can’t just divide the total by the years and call it a day, though. The Giants aren’t going to pay free-agent dollars for his arbitration seasons. Those would’ve been priced around $13-14MM, meaning Crawford’s FA seasons are going for about $15.25MM to $15.5MM per year. That’s less than he’d get on the open market, but he’s also signing this contract two years in advance, so there’s going to have to be some concession in terms of annual value.
Just seen his ceiling and it’s decline from here, which is why he jumped on it. It’s back to the common thread on here for the last week- do you want to pay / is there value in: Kimbrel for 12 mil per, Simmons for 12 mil per, B Crawford 12 mil per. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t like ANY long term contract or extension unless it’s like Sale. Until the CBA is changed to reward players in years 1-6.
If Simmons can hit .250, hes absolutely worth 12M/yr.
I’ll take a (insert scrappy unknown latino here) and/or drafting a Seager, and use the money to extend a stud young SP. And it’s not meant to be racial, but c’mon Tejada, Escobar (2), Iglesias etc. Catch the ball, let the corner fielders hit.
You mean years 1-3. Because there’s a thing called arbitration for 4-6 that just let David Price earn $20m in his year 6.
Duly noted but you’ve brought up the most extreme example. Under the current system I wouldn’t have any past-6 unless it’s a useful vet on the cheap. Heck, my ticket prices might even be lower so a family of 4 doesn’t spend 2 Hundy for the day (gasp!).
True true but then your team will probably stink though I guess the Royals and Pirates are sort of putting something like that together in a way that works. You just need good management and coaching and a lot of lean years.
I always raise an eyebrow at the notion that if salaries were lower, ticket prices would go down. Owners don’t set ridiculous ticket prices because they have to in order to pay salaries, they set ticket prices high because the demand is there and the market has shown a willingness to meet the rising costs of going to a game. It’s unfortunate for those of us who are hardly wealthy, but decreasing league-wide salaries doesn’t necessarily indicate that anything will become more affordable.
Perhaps it is your perceived value of players that is skewed, rather than the executives whose job it is to study these players and their numbers and try to sign them to contracts based upon their observations.
And the Giants aren’t really thin on options at SS – they’ve got two more of them at the major league level, but they’re playing 2B and 3B because of how good Crawford has been. Good long-term signing – now let’s see what they do with Belt.
Y’know if they’re starters at those positions, then they don’t really count as depth for SS, unless literally everyone gets injured
He definitely deserved it. He is a gold glove SS who hit for power. Giants got a good deal.
That infield is going to be awesome for a long time with Posey and Crawford locked up, Panik and Duffy not even arb eligible, and at least 2 more years of Belt, who is usually comfortably above average.
Not to mention in RF Pence is fairly team-friendly under-market value for the production he provides.
Good deal for SF.
Back to back years with an OPS+ of over 100 and broke out in 2015. Excellent defender as well, plus a key piece of the Giants franchise. This is a great deal on both ends. If Crawford were to hit the open market today, he’d get well over 75 million.
He is a top defensive SS and rightfully earned an extension.
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Solid move by the Giants.
This is a hometown discount, but Crawford also has a no full trade clause. And if he’s ever extended, as a 5 and 10 player, he can reject any trade. He can now retire as a Giant if he chooses to do so.
This is easy. The money for the two arbitration years is spot on. Probably very close to what it would have been; fair for both. The 4 additional years of free agency were bought out at 15MM each. Since the qualifying offer this year was 15.8MM, (was 13MM three years ago), the Giants got him for less, and eventually far less, than the qualifying offer for those four years. Seems like a great sign on that basis. Couple that with stellar defense and a bay area guy, looks good all around.
Anyone who is saying Giants got a “huge discount” doesn’t really understand how arbitration works. He was not going to make $6M in 2016. He was probably in line to make about $9M in 2017. Take out $15M from the $75M and you get $15M AAV for his free agent years, which is pretty reasonable for both sides. Sure he would have gotten more than $75M over 6 if he was eligible to be a free agent… but he wasn’t. That’s the key piece of the deal.