The Brewers have locked up the face of their franchise for the better part of the decade, announcing a nine-year contract with outfielder and 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich that runs through the 2028 season and includes a mutual option for the 2029 season. Yelich, a client of Paragon Sports International’s Joe Longo, will reportedly be promised seven years and $188.5MM on top of what he was already owed through the 2021 season.
The 28-year-old Yelich was already under club control for $12.5MM in 2020 and $14MM in 2021 — plus a $15MM club option ($1.25MM buyout) for the 2022 season. Those salaries came under the terms of Yelich’s previous seven-year, $49.57MM deal, though; the newly proposed arrangement would obviously catapult him into the game’s elite in terms of annual rate of compensation.
Under the terms of the new contract, those 2020-21 salaries will remain in place, while Yelich will reportedly be guaranteed $26MM annually (with $4MM in deferrals) from 2022-28. The option is said to be valued at $20MM with a $6.5MM buyout. He also receives a full no-trade clause. The contract doesn’t have any opt-outs. In all, he’ll be paid a hefty $215MM over the next nine seasons thanks to today’s extension.
Of course, Yelich has more than proven worthy of that level of investment since being traded over from Miami in a lopsided deal that sent Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Jordan Yamamoto and Monte Harrison to the Marlins. Yelich had cemented himself as a well above-average player in Miami, but the former No. 23 overall pick and top prospect erupted with an MVP season in 2018 and an MVP runner-up in 2019. In two years with the Brewers, Yelich has won a pair of batting titles, posting a combined .327/.415/.631 slash with 80 home runs, 63 doubles, 10 triples and 52 steals (in 58 tries). The 2019 season saw Yelich lead the league not only in batting average but also in on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
That outstanding 2019 campaign ended with an injury — specifically a fractured kneecap suffered when Yelich fouled a pitch into his shin. That might’ve cost him a second consecutive MVP Award — he and eventual winner Cody Bellinger were neck-and-neck at the time of the fracture — but the Brewers clearly don’t have much in the way of concern on potential lingering complications.
In looking for recent comparables, there are some definite parallels with Mike Trout, who also signed what amounts to a career-spanning contract when he was already signed for another two seasons. Yelich’s deal falls well shy of the 10 years and $360MM in new money secured by Trout a year ago, although that’s not really a surprise. Great as Yelich has become, Trout had a superior track record (as he does to everyone else in the game). He was also entering his age-27 season when he put pen to paper, and he didn’t have an option on the contract that his new arrangement was overwriting. Had Yelich played out the remainder of his deal, he’d have needed to wait three years to reach market in advance of his age-31 campaign.
Nolan Arenado, too, bears a quick mention. Like Yelich, he’s an elite talent who inked a mammoth extension in advance of his age-28 campaign, tacking seven years and $234MM onto his previous one-year, $26MM deal. Arenado, however, was only a season away from reaching the open market, so it’s not surprising that his annual value handily tops that of Yelich.
From the Brewers’ vantage point, the Yelich extension should buy some good will with a fan base that grew frustrated by the departures of Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas. Milwaukee spent at a generally conservative rate this winter, eschewing lengthy free-agent deals and high annual salaries alike; the Brewers didn’t give out a free-agent deal longer than Josh Lindblom‘s three-year pact and didn’t promise a larger annual salary than the $10MM rate on Avisail Garcia‘s two-year, $20MM deal.
That aversion to long-term spending surely helped to pave the way for the impending Yelich mega-deal. It’s probably not a coincidence that the Brewers are making a commitment of this magnitude right as the previous franchise-record contract — Ryan Braun‘s $105MM extension — comes off the books. In fact, prior to the Yelich news, the Brewers only had $26.8MM in guarantees on the books in 2022, which will be the first newly guaranteed season on Yelich’s contact. Milwaukee didn’t have a single guaranteed salary on the books for the 2023 season prior to this deal, either. The contract should be manageable in terms of their long-term budget outlook, even if it’s a level of spending which we’ve never seen the Brewers commit to in the past. In that regard, though, it’s clear that the organization views him as a special commodity:
“Christian is everything you could want as the face of a franchise – from his incredible performance on the field, to his leadership as a teammate, to his dedication to the community,” owner Mark Attanasio said in a press release announcing the extension. “This is an exciting day for everyone connected to the organization as we continue our commitment to be a highly competitive franchise and a place that players want to call home.”
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal broke the news that the two sides were closing in on a franchise-record deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan and the New York Post’s Joel Sherman tweeted various aspects of the contract’s structure. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported the yearly breakdown. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the no-trade clause and lack of opt-outs. MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reported on the deferrals in the pact.
oh snap
Totally Worth It. !
29 million a year for his age 31 to 36 seasons. I’ll pass. Have fun with that contract Milwaukee. I would of enjoyed him for his next 3 cheap prime years and let him walk. If they wanted to they could sign him after that. Not like it is a super team friendly contract. Good for him though. 6 years and 172 million would be pretty good for a 31 year old yelich.
Yeah, I agree. You got him for three years at a nice price during his peak years. Paying $29 million for a 36-year-old is never a good idea.
So 9/215M for one of the top 3 players in baseball you wouldn’t do? So how bad are the Rendon, Harper deals then?
If he was on the open market he’d get $350-400 million. 9 for $215 million is a great deal for the Brewers.
Exactly. And I would take Yelich over both Rendon and Harper. Especially Harper.
He’s a year old that Betts who want’s a $400 million plus contract. Betts is better defensively but what else am I missing? What does Betts do that this guy doesn’t?
One of them has a ring, the other doesn’t.
It’s a 6 year 174 million deal. They already had him for 3 more seasons. So 29 million a year for his age 31 to 36 seasons. Not the worst contract ever. Just not this incredible discount that fans think it is. Brewers paid full market value to lock him up.
He is not on the open market though. Was locked up for 3 more seasons. Wouldn’t be free agent until he was 31 years old.
Baseball only for sure. As a business decision Harper worked out great. Just in Sales and PR he has made the Phillies 60 million already. So basically his contract is now 13 years 260 million. Not to bad. Baseball wise it’s Yelich for sure.
I want no part of Betts. Don’t think he will age well. Under 300 million maybe. 250 for sure. 400 no way.
Oh I would of signed him to an extension just a tad bit cheaper lol. It’s a good signing. Not a bad deal at all, but its no amazing cheap hometown discount,its fair market for this type of extension. Its like hey Yelich. Do you want to sign this extension or would you rather play 3 more seasons for us at half the salary, hope you don’t regress or get injured, and then in 2023 hit free agency as a 31 year old?
Just throwing it out there:
There is video evidence of Yelich looking for some type of signal against the Cubs Yu Darvish.
Yelich’s OPS jumped better than .200 points since going from Miami to Milwaukee.
MLB is allegedly cracking down on sign stealing and Yelich signs a “team friendly” extension. Am I the only one putting two and two together? The Brewers know they cheated, Yelich knows he cheated, neither know how much cheating helped… Yelich signs a deal for below market value.. roughly by about 7 million annually.
You may be onto something there. The Yelich extension would be a risk to Milwaukee if he were to get caught, however. Much like the Braun extension.
Obviously, baseball doesn’t care about punishing individual players and Yelich was still an excellent player when he was in Miami.
Is he a top 5 player in baseball like he has been for the past two years is my question…
Other teams would have talked by now. Yelich just went from one of the worse parks for home runs to one of the best. Got more power as he matured. Better analytic and coaching team. NL east might of had some better pitching. And I think I might have heard something about home runs increaseing in baseball?
A ring is just another piece of metal though.
i agree! i think this deal is very team friendly especially at the front end! im guessing that being signed for 2 more yrs plus 3rd option year hurt his bargaining
Darvish said something about this already, Yelich responded and from how I saw it everyone seemingly sided with Yelich (and I’m a Cubs fan). Idk I get the feeling that Darvish was being paranoid on that one. Though to be fair I don’t really care much about this sign stealing stuff and am ready for it all to fade away
you must be a cubs fan….every pitcher has a tell tale sign of their pitches, however not every hitter can pick up on it, they are not banging on anything or wired up, the fact is yelich is just a great all around player ..post actual ,true video footage of this “cheating’ and justify your story telling….
Yeah, you’re an idiot.
Yeah because rings determine players value in baseball.
They’re bad. Those teams also didn’t already have the option to only keep those players for 3 years. Your comparison isn’t very apt.
I really like Yelich and have said he’d do very well once he got out of Miami since his sophomore season, but I don’t see the need to do this. It actually reminds me a lot of what they did with Braun.
the stupid coming out of your mouth is top notch, he was looking at the shift.
Harper is making less per year, as he should because Yekich is better.
Yelich. Obviously. Stupid phone.
Yeah Trout doesn’t have a ring nor did his team cheat. Your point being?
Good one Ruben.
drascoo36
“Yelich was still an excellent player when he was in Miami”
Let’s be clear. Yelich was a very good player with Miami. He’s been a superstar with Milwaukee.
Yes, to answer your question, you may well be the only one.
This isn’t a GREAT deal for the Brewers given what the backend of that contract will look like coupled w/ his age, but it’s certainly not horrible. It’s MUCH better than the Harper/Rendon contracts. I actually applaud Milwaukee for this deal especially given how small their market is. Anyone who is extremely on one side or the other with this deal is either a hater or a meatball homer. I think it’s a good deal for the Brewers all things considered.
The point was he was not on the open market and could be in the decline when his old deal would have expired. Can the Brewers sign someone else next off season at big bucks or would they have been better off not extending and signing a couple of pitchers to short term deals to balance out the end of the rotation or to keep the big guy in the pen fresh?
Betts will likely sell three times the merchandise that Yelich will. Will be interesting to see what Betts ends up with.
Baseball cares because of the bed they made with fantasy and gambling companies. They can’t afford cheating but are hamstrung with the current CBA.
That’s a valid point, the biggest allure to Yelich (especially for a small market team like Milwaukee) was his insanely cheap, team friendly contract. They coulda let that play out then let him walk as he enters his decline years, instead they paid a lot to keep him. Yes, those dollars coulda gone somewhere else, but at least they didn’t go back in the owner’s pockets.
Because his team cheated
Are you talking on the field, drasco? Sign stealing, itself, isn’t against the rules in MLB. It’s the use of tech where teams are starting to cross lines now.
Or Manny Machado, Gerrit Cole for that matter. He’s good, real good but only plays 1 game in five.
Drascoo76 What.??? He throws away millions because he’s afraid of being caught (is there any evidence at all? The rest of the team’s average didn’t jump 200 points), And since no player has been punished on the Astros. he was afraid he’d be the first? So signing for less money means the Brewer’s won’t rat him out. Excellent point.
That has nothing to do with how one plays vs the others. To compare the RedSox to the brewers is a joke. One team has unlimited funds and a major tv contract while the other has to develop within or with smart trades and free agents that outplay the contract they sign. Just a very bad comment to say the least!!
He wasn’t. So why are you trying to compare the two? Stop with this disingenuous nonsense.
Eyeroll comment of the day…
It’s baseball. You don’t win championships with one player. Mookie also had the benefit of playing on a much more loaded team with a payroll nearly twice that of Milwaukee’s to help him get that ring. Both players are incredible but the ring is not what separates their abilities.
The “video evidence” you speak of shows Yelich’s eyes looking towards right field, the road team’s bullpen. Are you suggesting that the Cubs are also complicit and in on the sign stealing? Or are you just a troll who has nothing better to do than fling mud at one of the sport’s brightest faces?
He is definitely worth every penny for the great player he is. Now since they spent all their money they can send the Brockstar back to Boston where he belongs and save themselves a little money.
Oh snap is right I’m not looking forward to facing this guy in the central for years to come
“The Brewers are so cheap”
I know right… and only 9 years
Good stuff. He’s earned it.
Good for the player—likely less so for the team in the long run.
LET’S GO
@ DarkChocolateBetter Vamanos!
@ CookiesnCreamDestroysEverything Allons-y!!
@ WhiteChocolateBestChocolate LEEDLE LEEDLE LEEDLE LEE
Party at Christian’s place! Go!
Good for the Brewers to show more guts than some big market teams and actually keep their best player. Nice for Yelich too that his early extension did not kill his chance at a huge payday.
If their best player was asking for over 400 million they wouldn’t have made this deal either
Yes, I wonder what he would have gotten this offseason if he hadn’t signed the extension with the Marlins. Still, with over $250 million in career earnings coming his way, does it really matter?
I suppose you have the Red Sox in mind? They did offer Betts an extension which he turned down. The difference is, while the contract he is discussing with the Brewers isn’t pocket change its still a pretty significant home town discount. Betts wasn’t offering that.
Yeah it’s basically half of what it would’ve taken to keep Betts. Betts also can smell free agency.
They kept him because they had him by the balls on his previous way under salary contract. You can’t really make a correlation to a team like the Red Sox who would’ve had to pat Betts over $400.
Guessing 7 for $225M?
what a move
He should age well with him being 27 , 7 years being in his late prime. It’s a good deal and both ends.
Lol, I’ve never heard the term “late prime”. Prime years sure don’t last to 34 though, that’s a little generous.
The whole concept of “prime” years is arbitrary. Elite players rake well into their late 30s a great deal of the time. Sure, it comes with some “risk” due to injury and bat speed slowing down and whatnot, but saying things like “I dont like the deal, he will be making a lot of money when he’s 35” is just nonsense because the player will most likely be worth the money at that age, and was most likely already worth 100x that when he was a rookie, so its evening out.
(not saying you said any of this though, this is just a side-rant)
Another burst of hot air from Strike Four!
A great deal of your posts consist of mangled up assumptions you like to make! Ones that are not based in any facts! This post is no different!
Huh? Back that up with examples, because I’d say maybe 5% of players ‘rake’ into their late 30s. And that’s being generous.
Signing a slugger into his late 30s is a huge huge huge risk. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a single slugger that got a fat contract and earned a paycheck past 35. I can think of quite a few that bombed (Pujols, Cabrera, Cano, Fielder). Even ARod was pretty much junk the last four years of his deal.
Arod had a 129 Ops +his last full year when he was 39-
33 Hrs 356 obp 486 slug pct
This contract isnt his late 30’s its his early 30’s so your all moving the goalposts here
This is a great deal for Mil,, Congrats Brew Crew fans
I cant believe the level of negativity in these posts……. Cheating/Yu ,2028 sunken value talk; My goodness can nothing be celebrated here anymore
Edwin Encarnacion, Adrian Beltre, A-Rod, and some others would all like a word with you.
Fans make too big a deal out of age some times. Sure, you probably don’t want to be inking a fleet-footed CF into his late 30s, who relies mostly on his legs. Power hitters aren’t a huge risk as they age, though.
And for all those who cite Pujols, he’s surely older than what he’s listed.
“Sell the team if you’re not going to spend money”. -dumb Brewers fans thinking it’s still the 90’s
Brewers are doing exactly what they do all the time and exactly what they did with Braun when he came up. Cutting payrole by letting a bunch of key players walk and giving one guy a hefty extension to give the illusion that they’re “spending money” when in reality, they’re payroll isn’t going to be much different than prior years. I’d be pissed at management too if I was a Brewers fan.
Overpay.
are you serious! team friendly deal for sure! easily top 10 talent got much less than harper , machado , arenado & rendon, but is a better talent. good deal for brewers unless he gets hurt! i know he will be old towards the end but thats the price you got to pay!
Ok so when Braun came up tell me who the key players they let walk, outside of Prince Fielder. I’ll wait.
And let’s be realistic. They could only sign one of those two and we all know what happened with Prince.
CC?
CC’s agent and the players union basically blocked him from signing a pretty good deal with Milwaukee. So that’s not on the brewers.
Contagious conjunctivitis
Your what hurts?
Nah not really. Was a mid season trade knowing full well he possibly could’ve just been a rental.
Crew did offer him 5/100 and CC did say “Milwaukee felt like a glove” according to SI, but like Hail said the players union wanted him to take the best deal he could possibly get.
Shallow Hal wants a gal.
They offered Sabathia 5 years, $100 million. That’s not exactly letting him walk. But I bet they would’ve crapped their pants if he had taken it.
@robray The Brewers have been maintaining a 100 mil payroll team for the last few years and are showing signs they’re still willing to going forward with a small market team. Saying they’re not spending is laughable. They’re not ever going to be a 200 mil payroll team but at least they’re not a 60 mil spending team
What was that about the Brewers trading him in the final year of his contract? Good on him and the Brewers! Love it~
Source? Don’t ever remember them shopping Yelich in any capacity. Hader? yes.
People’s speculation. They didn’t think we’d extend him. I wasn’t talking about the Brewers.. *Picard face palm*
I think it is smart for both sides.. Yelich will be set for life and he enjoys it there already and the Brewers have the face of their franchise for the next decade.
He was already set for life! Guaranteed something like $50m. This is actually quite a deal for the Brewers, compared to recent signings of similar value players.
Not really. They already had him locked up at an insane rate for the next 3 years. This adds a ton of risk overall and takes away from the massive surplus value they would’ve gotten the next few seasons. The Brewers are taking on a lot of unnecessary risk for a small market team.
And they probably saved 100M plus in new money by signing him now for the next 9 years
It made a lot of sense on both sides to do this now. Yelich doesn’t have to fear injury ruining his 2 year run, Mil doesn’t pay anywhere near market rate
I would’ve rather had Yelich for the next 3 yrs at $41 million until he’s 31 vs. having him for 9 yrs at $215 until he’s 38 that’s all I’m saying.
You’re really really undervaluing how valuable his 31-33,34,35 seasons will be. But you’re a cubs fan
@bush right on. Basically 6 years 172 million extension. 29 million a year for his age 31 to 36 seasons.
The Cubs suck and are idiotic. But nice job bringing up irrelevant insults. If anything as a Cub fan we know about being stupid with money and regrets. I’m done with this conversation. Good luck with it.
the DH will be in the NL anyway…..
i agree totallt team friendly deal for franchise type player!
No-brainer. Will be a Milwaukee icon for the rest of his life. His lifelong association/appearnces etc will net the Brewers far more value than the $2XXM they pay Yelich in this deal. Win-win.
5 more years like last 2 and he’s HOF
He’s a good guy and great ball player hate it when he goes off on my Cards!
I was at the game April 15th when Yeli hit those 3 homes at Miller Park against the Cards. Was an incredible game. Cards usually play the Brewers really well, so it was nice to be there for a Brewers win against the Cards. This move could really cement some very competitive baseball in the NL Central for the next decade. Cubs and cards always seem to be contenders.
I think you sir have been bitten by the recency bias bug if you think the Cubs always seem to be contenders. Four years is a pretty short term memory for that, there’s a LOT of lost years behind that.
Hopefully Giannis isn’t far behind!
Nice for him. This is a huge commitment by Milwaukee and I hope he lives up to it.
They should try to use some money on a pitching staff, guess this is why they don’t….
6 yr 75 mil woodruff extension in 3…2…
Teddy Higuera 6/2
Brewers have been to playoffs in back to back years without paying much for pitching, particularly starters. They have an ace now in Woodruff,.who isn’t a FA until 2025. They’ve ;proven you can get decent 3-5 starters on the cheap. If they have one young arm emerge as a number 2., they’re pretty well set.
Not to mention locking up Peralta who’s been looking outstanding this spring.
Yelich: 9 years, $215 MM
Gerrit Cole: 9 years, $324 MM.
That the kind of spending the Brewers should do?
No matter how good a player is, I’m beginning to think that unless you can sign a guy early before age 26 or so – I’d let him finish his deal and walk away at 30/31 years old. Having guys on the books for 30+ million hamstrings teams and you pay more for what they’ve accomplished rather than what they’re going to accomplish. And in addition to decline years, as an player gets into his 30s the injuries start to mount. It has become a young man’s game. Get what you can until age 30 and then let him go. Maybe not in all cases, but as a general rule.
But this is Christian yelich were talking about
I agree with Coop – but I also don’t disagree with him getting the extension. I would understand both points.
I understand and respect both of y’alls opinion. I just think he is about as elite as it gets besides trout. Plus its not like the contract last untill he is forty. But yeah generally I agree with you. But if you got the chance to lock up an elite player for lower then market value I think you do it!
he will likely be overpaid towards the end of the deal but thats price you got to pay for this kind of talent! hes a steal @ the beginning of the deal!
Completely agree. They had Yelich at such a bargain with surplus value. Why through that down the toilet to guarantee he’s on your team at 31 and beyond?! Stupid
Because if they waited til he was a year from free agency, or let him get to it, they more than likely would need to fork over $35-40 mil/year or let him walk, and we brewer fans would have to listen to the “your team is so cheap” narrative..again.
Or deal him next offseason for good prospects. He’s cheap and would’ve commanded much more than Betts because of his salary and double the control.
He wouldn’t be a free agent until 3 more seasons and would be 31 years old. Let some other team pay him 35 to 40 million. Paying him 29 million a year isn’t safe but even so it’s not like they saved much money with this extension. What would yelich get as a 31 year old fee agent? Maybe they saved a little but is the risk worth it?
One of my favorite trades of all time.. congratulations to Yelich as well as the Brew Crew on such a savage deal! Well deserved
Yelich is a monster and if that 7yr/$200m number is accurate…the Brewers are getting a steal. The guy hits well over
.300…100+runs 30-40hr 100rbi 25+sb
Obp close to .400 slg .550+ and his defense is above average. Honestly an extension should look more like 7yr/$263m
Do you think that 30 mil a year for his age 35-38 season would be a good idea for a small market team ? I’m not trying to be a complainer at all, but I was thinking the Brewers would trade him next year and load up high end prospects for cheap while getting out of a large contract.
Happy for him though, great ball player !
This is a steal for Milwaukee, under market. If he plays like he has for three more years he could get the largest contract ever for a 30+ player. Yelich doensn’t want to risk it so a good move for him. He already took a team friendly extension with Miami so the Brewers probably knew early on he’d be willing to sign to guaranteed a big payday. If they acted sooner they would have gotten an even better deal.
30 mil in 2029 will not feel the same as it does now.
If you look at this as a 9 yr $215 million contract it looks like a great contract. But you can’t look at it like that. They had him the next 3 years at such a bargain and that’s gone now, with considerable risk added.
“You can’t consider all aspects of reality when assessing a deal”
What the hell
I’m saying HE WASN’T A FREE AGENT, and you can’t look at it like a free agent deal. He was a Brewer the next 3 years regardless. I’m not sure how I can spell it out for you more. They flushed his surplus value contract down the toilet to ensure owning him when he’s in his late 30’s.
But you are working on the assumption that he will be so bad during those last couple of years that it negates the surplus value.
You are also assumong that he doesn’t perform up to value in ANY of the extension years.
Yes, Yelich might not be worth $26MM in seven years. Its also quite possible by that time $20 MM for a free agent is chicken feed. The players reaching free agency at that time would currently still be in the minors.
And don’t forget there will be a new CBA.
That’s not at all what I’m saying. I think his new contract is fine and Yelich is great. What I am saying is that his old 3 yr $41 million deal was much better for the Brewers. Sure, they’ll probably lose Yelich in his year 31 season and beyond, but usually losing guys in those years actually is a good thing.
They don’t get it. They are just excited their team gave out a so so at best contract to their star player.
You had Yelich for 3 seasons already in his prime for less than 15 million a season. Now you locked him up for his age 31 to 36 year old seasons at 29 million a season. Not the worst contract in history for sure, but nothing to get excited about. Also remember he gets 5 to 10 home runs extra a year because he plays in Milwaukee.
Yeah man, they clearly don’t get it. It’s like banging my head up against a wall. Some of these guys are clueless and apparently haven’t seen the other 50 longterm deals of guys in their 30’s. It literally almost never works out well. Even slightly well in a deal like this extension.
It’s now a 9 year, $215m deal. You’re saying it’s a bad move to sign an arguably top 3 player in the game to $23.8m per season average? At the end of the deal he’ll be a few months shy of his 37th birthday. If he was a free agent this offseason he’d get $300-400 million. How is this a bad contract again? Trade him prospects? Yeah how are those prospects working out that the Marlins got? This deal is way under market for a player of his caliber. Great deal for the Brewers. Get some perspective man.
But that is EXACTLY what you are saying. Again, you are assuming that the team will be overpaying him for all of those years. You are also assuming that replacing him and his production can be done for less than what he signed for.
It’s only way it’s worse for the Brewers is if this limits what they can spend on others.
Yelich was locked up this season for 12.5 next season for 14 and 2022 for 15. This is a contract extension for 6 years after that for 173.5 million. 29 million a year for his age 31 to 36 seasons. At age 31 would he of gotten that or gotten more? I dunno. Not saying it’s a bad deal. It just isn’t a great discount for the Brewers. They paid full pop to get him for 6 more years. It made fans happy and that is a good thing.
Some get it, at least somewhat. I don’t think they want to hear it won’t work out from you. I usually don’t like huge long term contracts because they usually don’t work out. I liked the Scherzer Lester Grienke Harper deals. Cole was a lot of years and $ but I can see why they did it. But Sale Machado Rendon I don’t see working out too well. Stanton obviously won’t. Betts will be terrible. This one isn’t bad. He will be mid 30s when it ends, not late 30s. Should age well. Not like Votto Cabrera Pujols etc, that’s what makes these huge contracts have such a high fail rate. YES let’s give this guy already in his 30s 30 million a year for the next decade.
cubs fans never know when to stfu!
No, it’s a 7 year extension. 2022 for 15 million no longer exists. I still haven’t seen the specific year by year numbers, but the Brewers site states he’ll earn $26 million per season with some deferred money.
Can you please explain what a small market team is? If you say population, fine, Milwaukee is a small market team. If you are talking attendance and revenue, they are not and haven’t been for quite some time. It’s mind boggling that you would trade Yelich next year for some “high end prospects” considering the brewers literally stole the second best player in baseball for the same “high level prospects” you’re referring to. Trading away premium talent, in this case, one of the best talents in the game for a bunch of unknowns is absolutely ludicrous and has really never worked in the history of baseball. I have an excellent idea after this signing, keep it going and draft some “high end talent” and you can keep these guys forever.
Who knows. Pittsburgh and St Louis are almost the same size and a small market based on population and tv market. Milwaukee is even smaller. But people is St Louis love their Cardinals, over other sports even. No NFL in St Louis so that is huge. Only a 2 sport town. Big stadium 3.5 million attend their games each season if good or even average. Pittsburgh 3 sport town, Steelers will only be number one, small stadium can only put 2.5 million people in a season they 3 years out of 30 that they are good. So both are same exact size small markets but what one would you choose? The one with no NFL and bigger ball park and of course they win. But even if pirates start winning every year they are a million behind on attendance. Milwaukee has better attendance than Pittsburgh as well and they don’t have Packers in the city.
Now Tampa and Oakland are not small markets. Way larger then the 3 mentioned but both play in dumps. Tampas dump isn’t even in Tampa. Florida has a lot of people relocated from other states and they root for their former city teams. Oakland has the Giants next door. But basically based on not only population but surrounding tv market and attendance numbers.
As far as MLB is concerned, it’s media market. That’s why St. Louis gets a Competitive Balance draft pick. Those go to bottom 10 in revenue and bottom 10 in market. But that doesn’t take into account how far the Cardinals territory is.
Southern Illinois. The whole state of Arkansas. Memphis and east Tennessee. These are all solidly Cardinal areas. Heck, I grew up in Mississippi near the Alabama border and we got Cardinal games on TV.
“Can you explain what a small market team is” The amount of revenue they generate and spend vs other major league teams. It’s not complicated. Have the Brewers ever been close to the teams that spend a lot? No, they haven’t. I’m not bashing the Brewers at all, I actually respect them, but there’s zero doubt they don’t spend whole lot traditionally.
I would agree with you saying traditionally but last year they opened up with the 14th highest salary in baseball. To correlate media size with payroll has literally zero to do with anything. I just laugh at Brewers fans losing mentality when it comes to trading good players for unknowns. Never works and never will. Especially in this case, Yelich is a generational player.
That’s a hometown discount right there!
its lit
was a no brainer. Great move by the brewers. now get some pitching lol.
Happy for Yelich and the Brewers.
Brave man – huge money, he’s earned it . But will the Brewers put pieces around him or will he waste away every year as the Brewers try to make the play in wildcard team … hard saying.
Good for the Brewers and good for him though.
the Good and the Bad…..
the Good…….lots of money…..
the Bad…….you are stuck in Milwaukee !
……… ……. ……..
Milwaukee is beautiful in the summer. The lake makes it like an oceanside city, and there is a ton of stuff to do. As far as baseball goes, Mark Attanasio has clearly shown that he wants to win, and money is becoming less of an obstacle to building a winner, and David Stearns is an excellent GM. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I would surmise that four playoff appearances since 2008 has to rank among the top 10-12 in MLB during that timeframe. This is fantastic for Wisconsin, and I think Christian realized very quickly after he arrived that this is a great sports area where he will be cherished and respected.
Milwaukee is actually a decent spot if you don’t mind the cold. Lots of hate from coastal elitist types.
Milwaukee and Wisconsin, in general, is such a terrible place to play and live. So bad that Aaron Rodgers, now Yelich, and presumably, Giannis want to play their entire careers here. Such a terrible place to play.
It’s quite obvious that God told them all to play in Green Bay. Can I get an Amen!
AMEN
Namaste.
@2id explain to me why Wisconsin is such a terrible place to live? I ll wait for you idiotic comment.
You might want to go back and reread my comment. After you’ve reread it, google a word spelled SARCASM and then reread my comment again. Particularly where I mention previous MVPs playing in Wisconsin.
Right over your head.
Miller Park is one of the best places to catch a game in the country. Affordable tickets and you have the Dome so there is guaranteed to be a game. Much more customer friendly than Wrigley Field will ever be now that they have the Ricketts.
Homer nonsense.
Ok Einstein what part are you going to dispute? Or are you just going to spout utter and complete jibberish with no point?
One of Cashman biggest mistakes trading for Stanton instead of Yelich
Cashman didn’t know Yelich would be this good.
Yeah, but to be fair, no one really did, even though he was expected to improve on his already very good offensive numbers as he moved to the more hitter friendly Miller Park.
He had 18 HR the year before he went to Milwaukee. 18.
Ok, Mr. Hindsight.
One of your biggest mistakes is being you
Cashman didn’t want to deal good prospects. Stanton was only about taking on money. At the time of the deal the Marlins got several top prospects. It has t worked out but still..
No surplus value though…
There’s massive negative value at this point in Stanton’s deal for sure.
Marlins are stupid. Everyone knew Brinson was trash except them. Brewers stole Yelich. Yankees could have gotten Stanton for ptbnl. Marlins had to trade him and NY is where he wanted to go.
At the time everyone including you was complaining that the Marlins should have gotten more than Castro for Stanton. NO ONE believed the Marlins were getting a good deal. NO ONE.
“The former No. 23 overall pick and top prospect had cemented himself as a well above-average player in Miami, but he erupted with an MVP season in 2018 and an MVP runner-up in 2019.”
Who are you talking about? No. 23 pick?
Christian Yelich.
Who else would they be referring to? The guys name is in the title of the article….
Dan Marino. They just got the dates wrong.
I’m baffled as to how you could be confused by that sentence.
He’s away at vamp week.
Danny DeVito.
Brewers getting a home town discount. Not a criticism. It demonstrates that the Milwaukee culture is attractive. Could also be an explanation why they didnt resign Grandal or Moustakis. They couldn’t afford them and extend Yelich. The contract may be a home town discount but it’s certainly not chump change either.
No home town discount. They paid Yelich top dollar. 29 million dollars a year for age 31 to 36 seasons, how is that a discount? Please explain.
Because nationals just gave rendon 38M for his age 33-36 season (36 for age 32) and rendon isn’t that same level as yelich.
LAA*
Rendon is ONLY 35 million not 38 let’s get things straight haha.i don’t care what years they pay him, his first 6 years they can give him a million a year then 230 million or whatever year 7 it still comes out 35 million a year. He was a free agent though. Would he of gotten 35 million a year if he was 31 years old? I am not saying the Yelich deal is bad. I just don’t see why people think it is this huge discount. The Rendon deal is bad, add it to Machado Sale and soon to be the Betts deal. Yelich is just the fair going price.
And Rendon plays a premium position and hit free agency after having a post season of a lifetime with half a dozen contenders bidding for his services.
It’s a very good deal for the Brewers, especially in comparison to Rendon.
Trade hindsight back in 2018, there were rumors of A’s being interested in yelich, ozuna, piscotty etc. I wonder if at the time Marlins wouldve taken some package of Franklin barreto, austin beck etc. But my guess is they wouldve wanted an AJ Puk or luzardo type. Of course, eventually settled for piscotty who got to play closer home, had a very good 2018 although struggling 2019 with injuries. Also I bet A’s didnt want to take on yelichs higher contract
No!!!!!
well deserved
I dont get how the cubs cant do this with 3 or 4 of their core players.
They have the money if they go over the stupid threshold tax they should just pay the penalty fee or whatever its called. Ricketts are greedy cheap jackaninnys
(I think that was ned Flanders )
Because you can end up with a team like the early 2010s Phillies or the current Giants. Aging, under performing players eating up 2/3 of your payroll.
A lot of is the Cubs players/agents way overvaluing them. If Yelich is getting this deal at the same age as Bryant with a much better track record then why would the Cubs meet Boras asking price? Baez similarly has put up a career WAR of like half what Yelich has and the Cubs are expected to pay him like Yelich?
You can overpay for better players on the open market. I’d rather overpay for Lindor over Baez for instance.
Simple solution is to just get rid of the luxury tax or raise it a ton. Player contracts are getting huge, 30-35+/yr for top players and you need to fill 25 other roster spots as well.
Sure just go over the threshold and pax the tens of millions in tax every year. Billionaires don’t like paying taxes.
Neither do 60 thousandaires.
Or 15 thousandaires.
I still would of liked Yelich over Stanton better defense and left handed
You already said that. Yelich hit 18 HR’s the year before he was traded to MIL. NOBODY foresaw him becoming an MVP. Especially not YOU.
I’m sure most people would HAVE.
Wow 26M/yr is a steal for a perennial mvp candidate. This contract might not look great during his age 35 and 36 seasons, but for the next 7ish years the Brewers have the face if their franchise, at a great price.
This is a great deal for them both. The Brewers have some pretty good players for the next 4 plus years. Young pitchers are starting to come around. Could be looking at a rotation of Woodruff, Houser, Peralta, Lauer, and Burnes for years to come. Not too mention Williams, Bickford, Knebel, Wahl,Hader, Rasmussen, Perdoma and Supak. Now the question is Huira, Urias, Ray, Naveraez can be to there high ceilings. Stern will really earn his money to tweak this roster to a world series .
Thank God the Cubs and their players dont try to work together and get reasonable contracts.
It would be great if they all took a hometown discount. And all signed new deal in the next 3 years. Of course they wont. And theyll only be able to sign 3 of 5 of their remaining core players. My guess would be Baez, Rizzo and Schwarber. They have 3 years to extend Contreras though. Plenty of time to extend them
wow, that’s a great deal for the Brewers
GREAT STEAL
OMG! What!!!? Yes!!!!
Seems kind of light for a top 5 player. I wonder if he signs this if he doesn’t get hurt last year.
Maybe he knows something we don’t.
being already on a friendly deal for next 2-3yrs had to hurt his value! very friendly team deal imo! He will likely be overpaid at the end but a steal for the first 5 yrs or so! even if the brewers fall on hard times such an team friendly contract makes him a better trade piece if need be! tho i dont know what his no trade clause is
Wow! Well I guess Stearns will offer money to an MVP, at least. Shame he couldn’t do that for some solid pitching help. At least Yelich is going to get paid well for a long time
Why do people keep assuming Stearns is cheap? Starting pitchers usually are overpaid in free agency due to a constant lack of quality options available and this offseason the price was even higher. So I’m sorry if Stearns is disciplined enough to walk away once the bidding goes higher than his valuation for specific players. I give him credit for piecing together rotations every season which always outperform their projections and keep the Brewers in contention.
Yelich: 9 years, $215 MM
Gerrit Cole: 9 years, $324 MM
I love hearing from Yankee fans about how money should be spent properly.
As if the Yankee’s are stacked with their Starting 5? An unmotivated Gerrit Cole, followed by several #3’s or #4’s, ALL w/ serious consistency issues…
IMO, Gerrit Cole put all that talent together to GET to his $300+ million dollar deal; now he’ll regress back to his Pittsburgh days of being better than average, but nowhere near the ERA, K’s, WHIP — the motivation is gone now, just like Stanton. Also, he should send Verlander 10% of the deal for teaching him how to turn elite talent into elite production, motivation & to turn up the work ethic 1-2 years before hitting Free Agency… If any team got played this offseason, it was the Yanks.
This is what i call loyalty compared to Mookie Yelich knows millions are millions
Oh how stupid thee sounds
Becuase yelich signed a contract with a team he’s no longer with and has shown has zero regard for player morale…and had his earning potential locked up for 4 more years vs Mookie (27 vs31 FA timeline)
It’s little to do with loyalty and all to do with economics. Cmon
first it was 7 yeas for $200 million……
now it is 10 years for $215 million……
it went from $28.5 million per year to $21 million per year.
is there some Coors/Miller Beer involved with this package ????
Yes. All they need to do it not change the name of Miller park. Theres already a stadium in the NL Central no less with the name American in it.
I would guess some sort of intoxicant went into your post.
This a good extension. As a Cubs fan I dont like the brewers but I respect yelich he’s a great player. Maybe he can use part of it to keep the name Miller park as their stadium name. American Family Field is just horrible.
I dont like at all the name changes of these classic statiums
I will always call the new stadium names by their orignal names
Comiskey Park
Jacobs Field
AT&T Park
Safeco Field
Enron (lol)
AT&T Park was originally PacBell Park
Brewers are a better ran franchise than these NL teams….in order:
Marlins
Pirates
Rockies
Reds (My team)
Phillies
Mets
Padres
diamondbacks
Cardinals
Braves
Yelich will finish as one of the best players of all time when it’s all said and done.
The idea that the Brewers are “cheap” is absurd. While I don’t buy Attanasio’s claim that he lost money “operationally” (“operational” loses are just a tax dodge), it’s pretty obvious that they spend on a yearly basis about what they can afford. If other small/mid market teams spend like they do on payroll, the entire landscape of the sport would be different.
In that regard, they’re pretty much a model franchise. As for Yellich, good for him. Like many others (too numerous to mention) he didn’t sit on his last extension, and continues to go full tilt. There’s no reason to think he won’t do the same with this deal.
And oh ya, and he’s a pretty good player. And seems to blend in with the community. Outstanding move all around.
Very smart of Milwaukee to extend him now as the Betts deal next offseason is going to be record breaking. To get Yelich for 7 years and under $225M is going to look like a ‘bargain’ once Mookie gets his money. So glad to see a player willing to stay in a place he likes and take somewhat of a discount to do so, but Milwaukee is taking a gamble here too. I hope it works out for both sides.
Brewers going to be dangerous when they get pitching. Luckily there are a lot of pitchers who are about to be free agents and would want to be on a team with Yelich.
Milwaukee might not be a serious contender this season, but next year, look out.
So they still MIGHT be a serious contender this year too?
Nicely done on both sides. Yelich got his payday, and not a bad contract at all on the Brewers side, compared to the jaw-dropping deals the last couple years.
Wonder which team will be taking on that contract in 5 years.
Wherever Brodie Van Wagenen is at.
Yelich is leaving a lot of money on the table with this deal.
Rendon just signed for seven years with an AAV of 35 million covering the same age seasons as Yelich.That’s a 57 million dollar hometown discount right there, that’s a lot to give up for security.
His initial deal with Miami was hugely team friendly and now this contract will make him one of the best bargains in recent memory.
Good for the Brewers,but this is an outlier of a contract that’s for sure.
Yelich’s initial contract with Marlins was so bad that it effected this deal greatly. If Yelich was a free agent he would’ve made more than Rendon. But he’s not really even close to free agency at 3 full seasons away. The Brewers had him by the balls. I like this deal for Yelich. Sure, he’s underpaid, but that’s because of the previous deal. I think the Brewers are taking on a lot of risk. I would’ve rather had him with what was left of his previous deal at 3 yrs for $41 million vs worrying about paying him a large amount to keep him at 31 to 38.
agree totally but still like the deal for the crew! the first years will look like a steal! by the yr 6-7 contract inflation should help the late yrs look better lol! id love him to come to my stinkbag pirates on that deal!
If only he signed this earlier in the offseason Mookie may have been more inclined to take the 10/300mil extension offer from the Sox.
This deal has no effect on Mookie’s market whatsoever.
Nah, Mookie can smell free agency. Yelich was 3 years away. Big difference.
If you look at this as a 9 yr $215 million contract, it looks like a great contract. But you can’t look at it like that. Because they already had him the next 3 years at such a bargain and all of that’s gone now, with considerable risk added. I think riding him out the next 3 years at huge surplus value would’ve been so much smarter than worrying about paying him a fairly large amount from 31 to 38.
It’s asinine to NOT consider that
He wasn’t getting 25M a year for 7 years unless he was signing 3 years before free agency
Harper got 25M for THIRTEEN. Why would Yelich take 7 if he wasn’t at a lesser bargaining position?
What? I’m saying they had him for 3 yrs at $41 million which was a much better deal than his new deal for the Brewers. What on Earth are you talking about? He wasn’t close to being a free agent, so comparing this deal to free agent deals is idiotic. He had 3 Full seasons left until he was 31.
I said it in another reply. You are assuming everything around baseball would be the same in seven years as it is now. And THAT is idiotic.
Top players could easily be topping $45 MM by then.
You are basically saying that because there is value in his current contract, there is no need to sign him to more years (where the first few years will also likely be under value) due to a risk of being over value at the end.
Not a surprise you are a Cubs fan.
What the next CBA says is completely irrelevant to my point. I’m simply saying that having Yelich at 3 years for $41 million is much much better than the next 9 years. I really don’t care if you think I’m hating because I’m a Cub fan. I crush the Cubs all the time, and they’ve done a terrible job I’m recent years. That has nothing to do with what I’m saying here. But congrats on bringing up irrelevant crap.
Touched a nerve with calling him out on being a moron Cub fan. Easy there cowboy.
More than three years of one of the best players in baseball at under/equal to market value is better than three years of that player at under market value. It’s better for the team to have that top player on the roster rather than off.
inflation should help the back end of the deal! good point
You didn’t touch a nerve. Your comment was silly and assuming I’m only talking badly about this deal because I’m a Cub fan. I simply pointed out that I crush the Cubs ALL the time. They’ve been stupid the last few years. I’ve got nothing against the Brewers, unlike you judging others based on the team they follow. I simply pointed out that it was an unnecessary extension. Congrats on being a judge-mental dbag. I like many other Brewer fans.
It’s about the owners’ federal tax situation. They anticipate a Bernie win so they’re all lining up contract obligations that reduce their taxable profit.
congrats to him, even though I’m a Reds fan lol, he’s an easy guy to like! More appropriately, congrats to Brewers fans
“It’s probably not a coincidence that the Brewers are making a commitment of this magnitude right as the previous franchise-record contract — Ryan Braun‘s $105MM extension — comes off the books. In fact, prior to the Yelich news, the Brewers only had $26.8MM in guarantee on the books in 2022, which will be the first newly guaranteed season on Yelich’s contact. Milwaukee didn’t have a single guaranteed salary on the books for the 2023 season prior to this deal, either. So, while the overall weight of the contract is unlike anything we’ve seen the Brewers spend before, it should also be plenty manageable in terms of their long-term budget outlook.”
In theory, this should allow the brewers to not be weighed down from Yelichs deal, now real test will be building around him. They can choose their deals in real time which is great, but as Cubs and Rockies and others have shown, only takes 1-2 bad deals paired with a massive deal like this to hamstring a club
7 for 187 seems a decent deal for the Brewers …. as much as 26M/yr can be a good deal at least
With Yelich under control for three more seasons, this is a dumb idea for any reasons.
-They will eventually regret the deal when there is at least 4 years remaining.
– The window is now. As early as 4 months from now they might want to consider trading Yelich if they stumble to start the 2019 season. It’s another Arenado situation.
– Due to the fact that the Brewers don’t spend how will they surround Yelich with a fairly weak farm system?
Brewers have 3 years of control over Yelich. No need to turn it into 9 and hold him until he’s 38. Braun all over again minus the PEDs. Extension isn’t necessary, especially with the penny-pinching Brewers.
“Due to the fact the Brewers don’t spend”. “Penny pinching Brewers”. After essentially signing Yelich to a lifetime contract? And after 2019’s highest payroll in club history? You’re all sorts of stupid aren’t you?
The Brewers farm is awful. Like any small market team there’s only so many payroll dollars to go around. He’s not wrong on those two points.
However, the penny pinching adjective was meant to cause a rise from Brewers fans. An argument was the desired outcome from his post. You have given him the desired outcome! Nice work.
This Brewers organization knows how to build bullpens out of cheap parts. Signing a guy who sells jerseys to a long term contract while they make the playoffs nearly every year, doesn’t sound too bad to me.
The Brewers are all sorts of stupid for this extension. Yelich won’t be surrounded (thing Braun post-Fielder), and that highest payroll in history is, what, $120-125 million?
WOW.
Using what I said to make a silly comment without thought makes you, 2ld, all sorts of stupid. Please come with an actual argument if you can think of one.
There really wasn’t much thought needed to point out that you’re wrong on your original post. There’s talent on this team now, players who are under team control for a few more years. Woodruff, Hiura, Hader, Hauser just to make a few off the top of my head. Braun’s contract comes off the books after 2020 and Cain’s comes off in 2023. There’s money to go around as soon as next year. So the window isn’t necessarily NOW like you so eloquently stated.
As far as the 120-125 payroll diss goes, that’s the reality of small market ball in Milwaukee. They’re never going to be an LA or NY and most fans, smart fans, realize that and realize Stearns knows what he’s doing. The only losing season they’ve had since Stearns took over was in 2016 and they still won 73 games. Most experts predicted them to lose 100.
So yeah. Carry on you fine troll and keep doing what Fine trolls do. I hope you put on some clean, dry white socks and promptly step into a muddy puddle with no opportunity to change your socks for the next 8 hours.
Spike?
If the window isn’t now, why extend him? Might as well deal him if the window isn’t now.
If the team is a small market, a reality you mentioned, then why should anyone believe Yelich will be surrounded by talent down the road? The money coming off the books will go to Woodruff, Hader and company when they are arbitration eligible.
Stearns has been in Milwaukee since 2016. Why is Milwaukee’s farm system ranked either last or near-last in 2020? Shouldn’t that be a concern to anyone? Yes, his draft position hasn’t been strong as of late. Still, close to the bottom and he’s doing a great job? If he’s not going to spend, he’ll need prospects. And he doesn’t have prospects.
This isn’t trolling. This is an honest look at a small market team extending a player who had 3 years left on his current deal and a farm system that is still bare. My opinion, the Brewers and Stearns do not care about winning due to the signings this offseason. The last part I could be dead wrong. I don’t think I’m that far off with the other stuff.
Your last paragraph and analogy was a big reach, much like the Brewers’ chances of winning a World Series.
The pic above is the actual photo of when his agent told him the news.
He’s 28. Sign him to a seven year deal. Hope he stays healthy and keeps putting up all star numbers. If I was running the Brewers I would trade him to the highest bidder. I would rather have 3 top 10 prospects ( preferably pitchers)and a few other pieces then sign any super star to a long term contract.
And you show why you aren’t, and should never, run an MLB team.
It’s just my opinion. He’s a great player but he’s not going to be able to single handling win a WS. Trade him for some top pitching prospects. Give me a great pitching staff and average players and I’ll show you a WS ring.
You mean like the Mets?
No I think he’s referring to the Dodgers.
if you really feel like trading seems to me hes pretty much worth more with this long team friendly contract! not sure what his no trade power is tho
I understand taking a discount if you like the Brewers, but this is crazy. On the open market Yelich is worth $30m+ per year.
Mookies all about the money
Can’t take reading anymore of these comments about how great of a home town discount this is. It is not. They are paying 29 million a year for his age 31 to 36 seasons. That is the cost of a extension like this. Not a discount.
He was already under team control for this season at 12 and a half million. Next year for 14 million and 2022 for 15 million. So after all that he would be a free agent at 31 years old. How much would he get as a free agent? Brewers gave a 31 year old Yelich 6 years 172 million. Is that a amazing home town discount?
Exactly, what I’ve been saying. This extension made zero sense for a small market team.
Right, the Brewers should’ve saved that money for the top tier free agents they’re never in on… What do you think Cody Bellinger will be signing for if he gets to free agency in a few years? $500 million? Juan Soto? Lindor? Brewers can’t play in that stratosphere. They got a steal and Yelich got life changing money. I’d rather possibly overpay the last year or two than not have him at all. Any team in baseball would be ecstatic to have Yelich at this price, small market or otherwise.
my thoughts exactly
@bush I am not against the deal. It made some sense for them to lock up a fan favorite franchise player mvp. They can even afford it. Even small market teams are owned by billionaires. They just not only choose not to spend their own money but also choose to make 50 million in profits. It’s a business for them. I am fine with the move. Of course there is always risk in a long term contract but they locked up their guy. It was just for the going rate though. Not a home town discount at all.
I’m not against it at all either. I’m a Cub fan. I’m glad the Brewers did it. Could it work out? Sure. It was just unnecessary.
Considering Rendon got 7/$245, yes, more than $6 million a year is a nice discount.
Rendon was a free agent though and still under 30. Yelich would of been over 30 when hitting free agency. Of course third baseman are in more demand than a corner outfielder and this year I dunno half a dozen contenders needed a elite third baseman. Let’s compare things on a even level here. Not apples to oranges. I like the extension. But if there was no extension he would play 3 more years for roughly 14 million a year. Hope he didn’t get injured and hit free agency as a 31 year old corner outfielder. So Brewers now take all that risk and hope he is still elite in his mid 30’s. I am open minded so please explain to me where the huge discount is. Seems market value to me. 31 year old 6 years 174 million 29 million a year.
You’ve outed yourself right in your comment. You want to know where the “huge” discount is. I don’t think you’ll find anyone that says he gave a “huge” discount. Is $29 M a year for a player of his caliber for those age years under market value? Yes. So a discount was given.
Everybody also never thinks about what the new CBA might look like. Moron Cub fan dismissed it out of hand. But the players ARE going to go hard for earlier free agency for the players. Reading between the lines and I think they’ll strike unless they get it after four years. That will drive up all salaries.
Will the Brewers regret it in the last couple of seasons? Probably. But I suspect that Yelich will continue at the level he’s at now for at least 3 of those 6 years of the extension. Which also keeps the window to be competitive open longer.
It also gives the Brewers a face of the franchise for the next decade. My only real worry is does that leave enough for an extension for Hiura. Two years from now he’ll be dwarfing Yelich’s numbers.
I read a lot of comments not only here but elsewhere fans raving about how cheap they got him. He should of gotten 300 million etc. I think he will age well. Now if he is just as good at age 32 33 give the man another 200 and lock him up into his 40s. Its a fair deal, I have a couple brewers friends on here I gotta mess with. Win win for team and player.
If players are free after 4 or 5 years instead of 6 I don’t think it will effect salaries. Now I do think salaries will go up but only because of higher league profits. Owners will take their share of revenue no matter what. If profits don’t go up but guys become free agents faster its not like the owners are going to be like, oh players get expensive faster now, I guess we are just going to have to take in smaller profits to pay them all. It’s a business. They will find away to deal with it. Keep guys in minors longer to have them even more proven and polished so they won’t waste their fewer years of control or something. I think less control will hurt the small markets though. Pirates will have a guy for 2 years and trade him. Rays will only have a guy for a season. Every year their triple a team will be their major league team. Low payroll teams don’t win the world series anyways except one. To contend for playoffs they need a lot of low pay talent to hit in same time frame. Hard to do with 6 years of this low salary control, how are they going to do it with 4 years? How many prospects are going to sign team friendly deals if they can just become a free agent in 4 years.
hes dirt cheap likely for the first 6-7 yrs ! got to pay up somewhere!
When you compare two different things and act like they’re the same, it’s pretty easy to delude yourself.
Compare Betts to Yelich.
Betts was reportedly offered $300M in Boston and turned it down.
Is it any wonder why Boston traded Betts?
Is Betts worth twice what Yelich is reported to receive?
You tell me?
All I can say is that’s it’s too bad Yelich was traded to MIL and not BOS.
Boston would have given Yelich that deal in a heartbeat.
I wouldn’t want Betts for over 300 million. I don’t believe he will age well. I am fine with the Yelich deal. He should age better and is only under contract for mid 30’s. Betts will be paid into late late 30’s and at 5 to 10 million more a year. Every fan is going to want their team to sign him. Well large market fans. Sorry Tampa Pittsburgh but he isn’t coming there. I don’t want him. It’s not my money but when he is old and washed up its not like ownership is just going to ignore his payroll and keep spending. Mookie Betts #McCutchen2.0
sorry, this extension is a complete joke — yes complete joke — for the Brewers.
Ask the Angels about Puljos. Talk about tying your hands….
Win with Yelich for 2 more years, then trade him. Duh.
Not even close. They are paying him till age 36. Not into his 40’s.
exactly ! not even near the same deal!
Most Idiotic thing I have ever heard.
Hurry up! Trade Yelich now!
Brewers have him at the top of his value and can unload him now and get a grip. During the season in 2020 signs of decline and injury prone label will be attached to him and then the Crew will be screwed. Any team that pays 30+ million for any player for over 6/7 years are foolish. Like the Cubs, the Brewers will struggle to play 500 baseball. Fire sale coming here!
Should be higher average salary but I think it’s great for both sides. Take the money. Take the certainty. Add a no trade clause. And spend the next 9 years focused on baseball.
That’s a steal! Good for the brew crew!
I wouldn’t call it a steal, but I still like the deal a lot.
Respect to the Brewers for zigging and trying to win when half the league was zagging by tanking. They put together a very good team in a couple of years and making a commitment like this to a great player just makes me respect them even more as an organization.
No opt-out? Really surprised
Very good deal for both Yelich and the Brewers. I love it!!!
Signing stars to mega contracts does a lot for the team in terms of revenue. Yelich is elite and that’s what they’re paying for, but they’ll also sell a ton of jerseys, tickets…etc. People will scoff at the years, but I love this move for the Brew Crew.
I agree. The only way this goes south is if he becomes brittle.
Teams don’t get their Jersey sales
Most Brewer fans already had bought their Yelich Jerseys
Yelich is an idiot for accepting this renewal and probably cost himself a good $10M a year by doing so.
Maybe he likes playing for Milwaukee and didn’t want to deal with free agency.
Maybe he thought locking up a guaranteed few hundred million was a good idea. Suppose he gets hurt.
Yelich gets an 11 million dollar raise in 2022 over what his option salary would have been and accepts 26 million for the next 6 seasons in return(162.5 million total).
That is quite a bargain for a top ten player even factoring in his decline years.
Of course the Brewers had him by the short hairs because of the super team friendly extension he signed in Miami.
As an age 31 free agent three years from now, he was still probably looking at a five year 35-40 million per year deal IF he kept playing as well as he is now,So it’s not egregious,but it’s still a bargain for the club.
Plus he is eminently trade-able, with only the 2 million kicker to get in the way of a deal,if the Brewers go belly up at some point.
Whether you like the numbers or not, GOOD DEAL for both. Yelich makes a decent living for the next 9 years doing something he loves and The Crew has a groundswell of fan support and excitement that will translate into millions for the organization. Could he have gotten more in 3 years? Maybe. If he stayed healthy and performed at or even near MVP level. Maybe not if either or both came to pass. As it is, the player and the team are putting something in the pot for the good of the other. Nothing wrong with that.
The funniest thing about the comments:? All the Junior GM Cubs fans and the “he could have been in pinstripes” Yankee fans. Their misery if fun to read.
This deal isn’t going to look too good when Yelich gets busted for steroids. His HR totals went from 18 in Miami in 2017 to 36 with the Brewers in 2018 and then 44 the next year? Yeah, he’s a cheater.
Carl hit 44 in ’67 after not hitting over 20 in his first six seasons.
You have some proof of this, of course
I’ve really enjoyed watching Yellich mature into the great player he is, even when he is pounding the hometown Pirates
I just don’t understand why the Brewers, who appeared so close, haven’t spent a little on some starting pitching and players to put around him
Because you can’t spend “a liitle” on starting pitching. A team has to either go big or get inventive. The Brewers went inventive.
It’s not like the brewers recent history shows their offensive philosophy is getting guys who hit for power, or coaching them to do so.
Or that Miller Park is a sliiiightly better HR park, particularly for left handers (not sure how long you’ve been here, but the 1 of arguments against Yelich for mvp the last 2 years was that he hit a ton of them at home and few on the road).
Or that the trend in baseball for years has been “hit for power or strike out”
Or that the ball was juiced last year (and probably the year before that).
Or that with Stanton, Realmuto, and Ozuna (I’m probably forgetting someone else) he wasn’t asked to hit for power in Miami.
Or that when the trade went down, a LOT of people said then his HR total would easily go up (Miller Park).
Yet again, Stearns is proving to be one of the best GMs in baseball. This deal obviously makes Yelich happy and shows that he loves playing in Milwaukee under Stearns & Co. It’s refreshing to see a player take a fair deal to stay where he is comfortable vs. holding out for the absolute most money in free agency. The next 3+ generations of Yeliches are set for life; now he can go out and play the game he loves for a franchise he loves. Win-win if you ask me.
but he couldnt have held out for the absolute most money in free agency for another 3 years-
sure, if he’s still playing at near this level after 3 more seasons, he could get more than 6 x 26 at that time, but if gets hurt or starts decline over that time, could get significantly less-
hope that knee is all good to go.
He must really love MIL if he’s settling for that much less then he’s worth
I’ve never met anybody that doesn’t want win and play in the middle of nowhere at the same time lol
Just go to the Mets dugout. You’ll find all sorts that don’t want to win and play in a sewage- filled cesspool at the same time.
Lol someone is salty
Idiot idea: Yelich didn’t give much of a discount.
Only if he stops producing in the next three years. Are people seriously saying that if Yelich continues to perform at the same level, if he had hit free agency teams wouldn’t have given him a far better deal? A perennial MVP candidate? Just because he’s 31?
If he had hit free agency, he would have still gotten seven years (if not eight). And the AAV would have been $35 M plus. Even at age 31.
Goldschmidt got $26M a year, Yelich would have crushed that. But, he’s 3 years away.
I hope this works out well. Yellich is a great player, and seems like a good dude.
One thing I’d like to point out about Trout: in terms of WAR value, he’s already earned the value of his extension without playing another game. That is so freaking absurd.
Brewers are rather stupid
Any other team would jump at that deal
At first I thought it was unwise. Now with the additional details I’m sure it is, given the Brewers essentially gave away the enormous value of owning Yelich’s age 30 season for just $15m.
The deal starts out at $173.5m over 6 years for his age 31-36 seasons, versus what the Brewers had Yelich under contract for–meaning they gave a great deal of value away in Yelich’s age 30 season, where they had him for 15m with a 1 point 5m buyout as a hedge against total collapse. So how much did the Brewers value the enormous surplus value they were giving away here?
Call it about $30m they gave away (a 6-7 win player signed for 15m), making the deal more like $203.5m for 6 years. That really carves into the potential surplus value. In addition it appears they gave away the $1..5m buyout for 2022, which is essentially a club opt-out, and is something that has significant value.
Btw, not even counting that significant value, how many players have been worth $33.9m per year for their age 31-36 seasons, and does Yelich have more in common with the players who were worth it, than the vast majority who were not?
It’s easy to see how the pact might hollow out the Brewers, while it’s difficult to see how Yelich will significantly overperform the value of this contract. He’s good, but he’s not Trout or Betts good.
Given the incredible value they already had in having Yelich for 3 seasons at around $41m, this feels like a mistake.