Reports back in November indicated that the Cubs had initiated extension talks with star shortstop Javier Baez, but Baez himself said as recently as mid-February that talks on that front have been “up and down.” Asked about the potential of signing a long-term deal in the wake of this week’s seven-year extension for division rival Christian Yelich, Baez told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times that Yelich’s seven-year, $188.5MM extension “doesn’t have anything to do with mine.” Baez acknowledged that he and the Cubs are still “working on” a long-term deal, though there’s no indication that talks have gained significant momentum.
Cubs president of baseball ops Theo Epstein declined to discuss talks with Baez or any other player in detail, merely indicating that the Cubs have tried to sign several players long term. “It’s not worth talking about,” Epstein said of his team’s extension efforts. “If we can get it done, we will. If we can’t, then we’ll move forward. But players don’t have an obligation to sign.” Baez is earning $10MM in 2020 and will be arbitration-eligible one last time next winter before reaching free agency in the 2021-22 offseason.
Some more notes on potential extensions for high-end players…
- Mike Minor has previously made his desire to sign an extension with the Rangers known, but the left-hander told Sam Blum of the Dallas Morning News that “nothing’s happened.” The 32-year-old said he’s not the type to “put a hard deadline kind of thing” on talks before immediately contradicting that statement (to an extent) by adding that he doesn’t want to discuss a new contract during the season. Getting a new deal done before Opening Day would be a “best case” scenario, per Minor, who pitched to a 3.59 ERA with 8.6 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 1.30 HR/9 and a 40 percent ground-ball rate in a career-high 208 1/3 innings with Texas in 2019. Minor is owed a $9.83MM salary in 2020 — the final season of a three-year, $28MM deal signed with Texas prior to the 2018 campaign. Minor figures to be one of the better arms available on next year’s market and was an honorable mention on the first edition of MLBTR’s 2020-21 Free Agent Power Rankings.
- The Phillies continue to discuss an extension with free-agent-to-be J.T. Realmuto, writes Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. The desire to get a long-term deal worked out isn’t exactly a well-kept secret, as both sides have made their desire to continue the relationship beyond 2020 known. Zolecki reports that talks between the two sides are moving slowly at this point, however. Realmuto for the first time this spring publicly acknowledged that the two sides are indeed talking but wouldn’t specify beyond that, simply stating that there’s “no update” at this time. Realmuto landed second on the first edition of MLBTR’s Free Agent Power Rankings, wherein Tim Dierkes observed that the 29-year-old is one more strong season away from being the first free-agent catcher to ever sign a deal worth more than $100MM.
Sounds like Theo waited too long, and now he’s trying to lock these guys up to team friendly deals when they’re too close to free agency. It’s not a surprise nothing is getting done.
Well, they’ve always been up against the luxury tax line (which appears to be the Ricketts’ limit) since 2016. Next offseason could be different. I think 7 yrs, $150 million starting 2021 would get it done.
That comes out to about $21.5M/year, which seems well below market value for a player of Baez’s caliber these days.
They don’t have to pay him market value. He’s two years away from free agency. The total $ are more important than the AAV to most players. And the first year would be replacing his last arb year.
Your’re NEVER going to get Baez for an avg of 21M a year. No way. He’s arguably top 5 in all of baseball, certainly top 10. He’s going to want the same as Yelcih – 29M or so per.
And, Theo has to decide which ones to keep and which ones to let walk.
Or you know nothing
If I were the Cubs FO I think I’d move on from this bunch and start over. They could recoup a plethora of young talent and rebuild in a short time. No one seems happy or content on the team and that’s not a good sign. Overpaying for this group will be a big mistake.
More fan fiction. What indicators are there that no one is happy or content?
There are none but “fans” like to play GM and sports reporter on the internet.
Who are you ? You’re doing the same thing, another moron that doesn’t understand baseball
Name one player who is unhappy
What the heck are you talking about. Not one of these guys has said they were even remotely unhappy.
Except it seems they tried and teams weren’t willing to give up what Theo wanted for any of these guys. I believe only Baez wasn’t being shopped this offseason.
Theo should have taken a page out of Rock Hahn’s playbook and locked his players up early. He’s going to end up paying market value for Báez, but I believe that he’s a player that you sign long-term and build around.
that whole south side experiment is not complete. it’s not like that’s the model other teams should be using, it could back fire on them.
It could totally backfire. Everything’s rosy on the front end. Give it 2,3 years and see if it looks so good then. It might. Or it might not.
Exactly. No one knows how anything is going to pan out with the White Sox. Sure, it looks promising, but what if Mondada starts to have a nagging injury, or Luis Robert just can’t hack it in the majors, etc. Believe me, the sophomore slump is VERY real. A lot of big name rookies usually have a good first year, then teams learn how to play them, and they dive into a slump. A lot of guys never get out from the sophomore slump.
You mean Rick Hahn took a page out of Theo’s playbook… Check out the extensions to Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro.
Not everybody want to get extended early and I’m sure guys like Baez, Contreras and Bryant will all gamble on their talent wait for better offers.
How do you know he didnt offer, genius?
I’ll answer for you…YOU DON’T.
There’s no one in baseball crossing their fingers and praying to their deity of choice more than Rick Hahn. The White Sox have accomplished exactly ZERO with this group. No one in professional sports should be taking the page of from the book of any team owned by a Reinsdorf.
I love how Sox fans are always on Cubs articles, bc we wouldn’t be caught dead on any (the few that are written) on yours. Hell ChiSoxFan literally stalks every Cubs post like a crazy ex girlfriend.
I hope u and the other 500 people that will show up to a game enjoy your 75 win season and the fireworks…oh, and the “take your dog to the park day”.
You’ll are thirsty for success.
Time will tell , you could be locked up with a team of underachievers, overpaying people that haven’t even played at MLB level is a roll of the dice …. I can see them winning about 80 games, good enough for 3rd place … moving on up
If I were Realmuto I’d make philly pay big time for the arbitration hearing. That 2.5 mil should cost them big time
Good thing you’re not Realmuto
I just don’t understand how Philly gives up 3 very good prospects for him and then doesn’t immediately attempt to sign him long term? Just doesn’t make sense.
They made no secret about wanting to sign him long term , but the extension would start with next year’s salary for luxury tax concerns. Realmuto will get Arrietta’s money…..
Unless……he leaves
With two years remaining on his contract at the time of the trade, there were more pressing objectives to address.
Maybe they also have a desire to assess where the team is at come July.
If they’re a mess, trading him might not be 100% out of the question.
How do you know they didn’t try?
1. An extension takes two to tango
2. The Phillies traded those prospects for Realmuto’s last two years of control. If they weren’t ok with the idea of him leaving after that they wouldn’t have made the trade.
I think Theo wants to see how this team plays……..then decide who gets a new contract and who gets traded…….
if Cubs go South…….Baez, Bryant, Almora, Schwarber, Contreras, Quintana, Kimbrel all are out the door…….and 2023 will be a good year !
Good luck moving Kimbrel……
A Minor extension could just be a flat 13.
Minor extension needs to get done 2/36 and 3rd year team option of 20 m seems like fair value. If they have good years this season 2 of Lynn, Liles, Gibson traded for ? To free up slots for Palumbo Allard and or Hearns in 2021
I am liking what I am seeing from Hearn this spring, he has a ton of upside, and I see him as a mid rotation – high rotation guy now. I actually like him more than Palumbo or Allard at this point. His mid – high 90’s fastball with some break, plus his slider is really nice. I’d like to see maybe Lyles traded to make room for Hearn next season.
I keep wondering if one of the shortstops scheduled for free agency after 2021 might take an extension just to avoid the market. Lindor, Baez, Correa, Storey and Seager all will be there. At least a couple of them are going to end up disappointed.
With every passing day it looks more and more like Realmuto is headed for free agency after the season. He should have no problem exceeding the $100M total barring injury or complete collapse. PHI must see something they don’t like or else this would have been done already.
even after a bad 2020 JT should still top 100 million. he’s that good.
Jim Hendry would get it done, he’d wait til his walk year then pay him market value.
Good thing Theo gave Bote an extension before Baez, Bryant and Contreras. Descalsco must be next.
Bote was a tiny deal. He likely outplays that contract if he gets to arbitration anyways.l so the Cubs save some money there. Bote wanted some money right away and probably loses some later one as it he seems likely to remain in the MLB past his first arbitration year.
Why does Theo have to wait on extend Bote? It is pretty insane to think that is holding up any other extension
I’m very hesitant on extending Minor before the season starts, but I know why he wants it though. Because Minor is a very steady person, he likes being stable with one team, and he also likes knowing (way beforehand) that he’s going to get traded. He didn’t like all of the trade rumors last deadline because he just didn’t know where he was going to go.
If I was Jon Daniels I would just be very hesitant to sign him, and if he wants to base his deal off of the Ryu deal, all talks are off. I’d go 3 for 50 and see what he says.
And one more thing, if they don’t come to an agreement with Minor (because maybe they are low-balling him) , they will have to deal with a full season of an angry player…
Baez $200 Million ? ? ?
Baez is delusional if he thinks the Yelich extension has nothing to do with him. He can either accept that market or risk injury and try to play at a 4-5 WAR level for two seasons. That ain’t easy. He knows the risks and could be in for a huge payday, but could also lose a huge chunk of that money if he doesn’t keep up his production. His low walk and high strikeout numbers mean if he doesn’t make hard contact constantly he’s in for some regression back to his 2015-16 days. I’d take the money since he’s has a much higher risk of production regression than other guys close to free agency in his tier.