Today marks the one-year anniversary of a deal that looks like it’ll pay dividends for years to come. On April 11, 2019, the Braves and second baseman Ozzie Albies agreed on an extension that could keep the dynamic switch-hitter in Atlanta through 2027.
Albies, who was under team control through 2023 prior to the deal, received a $1MM salary in 2019. He’ll match that this season, take home $3MM in 2021, $5MM in 2022, and $7MM apiece from 2023-25. The Braves hold a pair of $7MM club options (the first with a $4MM buyout) for the 2026 and 2027 seasons. All told, the deal guaranteed Albies just $35MM with a maximum payout of $45MM over nine seasons.
Even at the time, those were shockingly low numbers for a player of Albies’ promise. The former top prospect had compiled a .272/.323/.456 line (107 wRC+) through his first 977 MLB plate appearances. Combined with strong baserunning and keystone defense, Albies had amassed upwards of five wins above replacement before his 22nd birthday.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote at the time, the deal looked exceptionally lopsided in the club’s favor:
“Frankly, this seems like the type of deal that an agent would strongly advise his client not to take. Perhaps Albies simply wanted to take the largest guarantee the Braves were willing to offer; he received just a $350K signing bonus as a prospect, after all, and his career earnings to date may not even total seven figures. From a purely human standpoint, it’s hard for any 22-year-old player without much in the way of career earnings to rebuff $35MM under the guise that he’ll earn more on a year-to-year basis beginning 24 months down the line. Presumably, all of the points made here were spelled out to Albies before he made what amounts to a life-altering decision.”
While the deal already looked like a coup for the club, Albies took his game to another level in 2019. He played in 160 games and hit .295/.352/.500 (117 wRC+) with an NL-best 189 hits. That was enough to earn him the Silver Slugger among NL second baseman. There could’ve also been an argument for him to win a Gold Glove (although Kolten Wong was no doubt a deserving winner). Albies racked up eleven defensive runs saved in 2019, bringing him to 28 runs above-average for his career by that metric. All told, he was worth about five wins above replacement, per both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference.
That marked a welcome step forward from Albies’ previous level of production at the plate. But it was hardly out-of-the-blue. He’d long shown the talent to be a plus hitter with strong contributions as a baserunner and defender. He faded offensively down the stretch in 2018, but it was reasonable to project further growth with reps against MLB pitching and physical maturation.
For the Braves, the Albies extension (as well as the one signed by Ronald Acuña, Jr.) looks like a slam dunk. It’s hard to give the Alex Anthopoulos-led front office too much credit; every team in baseball presumably would’ve signed up for the same deal if given the opportunity, even after Albies’ late-2018 swoon. This wasn’t a front office taking a gamble on an unknown, unheralded player they loved. The consensus was Albies was a high-level talent. Indeed, as Steve explored at the time, a $50MM guarantee would have been more in line with deals signed by comparable players in the 1+ service class, including Christian Yelich and Andrelton Simmons. Some commentators (including Jon Tayler, then at Sports Illustrated, and Michael Baumann of the Ringer) even questioned the team’s ethics in offering the deal.
Albies, of course, was well within his right to value the upfront multi-million dollar guarantee. He hasn’t expressed any public regret since. Yet the extension arguably looks even more team-friendly now than it did at the time. Not only did Albies post a career year in 2019, last offseason’s free agent market was much stronger than the previous two. Whether the abnormally quiet markets of 2017-18 and 2018-19 impacted Albies’ decision isn’t clear, but they no doubt played a role in the high volume of spring 2019 extensions signed leaguewide. (Admittedly, it’s unclear precisely how future markets will respond to lost revenue related to the coronavirus-forced hiatus).
Albies figures to be penciled into Atlanta’s lineup at minimal rates for the next eight years. It’s plausible to project even more offense as he enters his mid-20’s, particularly if he can rein in his plate discipline a bit. Even if he’s already reached his peak, he’d be among MLB’s biggest bargains. He and Acuña should comprise one of the game’s most formidable one-two punches for a good chunk of the next decade.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if the option years had had been something like 14 million a year. Anybody hear of comments by his agent?
Wouldn’t a deal like this hurt
the agents future prospects?
A mystery covered by a riddle
wrapped in an enigma…..
The way I understand it is basically the smaller agency he was with wanted him to sign anything before he left for a bigger agency.
Well that’s even worse than incompetence. That’s looking out for their agency more than their client. Regardless of their motives, it’s a terrible look for that agency.
A great extension.
That’s what she said
Who is she though? I really wanna know!
Monty’s sister and a half-sister he doesn’t know about.
That’s not very nice.
It’s not a great extension at all. It’s puzzling why he signed it. And it will backfire on Atlanta when the rest if their young talent says “no thanks” to below market extensions. They won the battle but lost the war.
It sucks for Ozzie, and I love the guy. But, the Braves are set up for NO EXCUSEslS payroll wise for a decade between Albies and Acuña.
That can change in a hurry if the Braves miss on a huge money free agent deal.
Earning 45 million dollars is hardly a situation that sucks, unless your ego can’t handle other people making more money (Rendon?). Writers like Adams will harp on him but the life altering decision was going from around 700k to 45 million in life earnings.
The number of extension years seems a bit unnecessary but it’s nice to see players getting paid when they’re younger and more productive. Tampa Bay is fun to root for but it must be a real bummer to be a rookie there.
I Agree Case……
I won’t argue that it’s an extremely Team-Friendly deal. Yes, he left money on the table. So What.
Most people are lucky to earn about $4 million in their entire career (here come the comments from the anti-owner fans).
$45 Million is a TON of money. He probably can take care of his whole family now.
My buddy played for about 15 years. He was an RP… then an SP.
He made under $1 million for 13 of those years, and made $4 million in each of the final 2 years.
When I said “Too bad you left before the Big Money showed up”………
His comment to me was…..”I made over $18 million in 15 years. My Grandkids Are Taken Care Of”.
Have to agree. Albies set himself up for life, and probably helped his parents out, while also helping out future children. If he is even halfway intelligent about his $35m guaranteed, he is better off than probably 90% of the public or more. What’s even more important is that if he has a career ending injury, he is still solid.
His deal was a good one for the team, but it’s ridiculous to state the team was unethical. They are taking a gamble as well. How many prospects looked dominant for a few weeks or months when they came up, only to completely bust once MLB pitchers and teams found their weaknesses? Dozens just in my life span. Add that to the injury possibility and the team was certainly not unethical in signing him.
Albies may have wanted to be a Brave or play with the Braves core as he had developed clear friendships there. In the era of trade, trade, trade, this means he can establish his life in Atlanta and not have to worry about it, as the Braves will almost certainly not trade him.
Good deal for both sides, especially when you realize even Yelich and those guys only got about $10m more gauranteed than Albies. It’s not that big of a difference to risk getting nothing on should he get hurt (and remember, he had already broken his elbow just from swinging at a pitch, so the injury fear had to be in his mind).
Too late to edit/add, but just noticed his top player comp through age 22 according to Baseball Reference is Rougned Odor. Look at how quickly he has fallen form grace after a good first few years. Odor signed a similar extension (a bit more money, but he was also coming off a 33 homer season.
I will bet you dimes to dollars the Rangers wish they hadn’t given him that extension right now.
“Albies set himself up for life, and probably helped his parents out, while also helping out future children.”
That’s great, but he could’ve easily set himself up for life without being taken advantage of on the backend. Those option years are ridiculously underpriced. Either his agent is a complete idiot, or Albies had no idea what he was doing. Either way, the Braves took advantage of the situation.
“Those option years are ridiculously underpriced. Either his agent is a complete idiot, or Albies had no idea what he was doing.”
My first thought was that the Atlanta organization made a low-class move with leveraging a player that really wanted the money and to work in the Atlanta area… but on second thought it’s still risky for the Braves to be handing out 45 million in guaranteed money for such a young player (see all the great examples listed above). Maybe it’s a better ecosystem if young players get paid more early and reward teams more for taking risks on long term contracts. Smaller market teams wouldn’t have to lean as much on exploiting the productivity of 1-3rd year players if those players were paid more while accepting team friendly extensions. I love unions but the MLPA often seems to be protecting the interests of overpriced veterans and agent commissions.
Thats why they’re the only organization paying all their laid off employees during these hard times, they can especially thank ozzie and acuna for taking the sacrifices that most athletes won’t or don’t these days. These 2 fellas will bring a championship back to a-town on their backs, no doubt!
Its only a good contract if they go out and spend while they have Albies and Acuna cheap. AA telling us how they couldn’t match the Donaldson deal was comical.
With his injury history I don’t blame them. Why pay up 25 million a year on someone that may have only one good year out of 4. Cole Hamels for 18 million was the dumb move
Cole Hamels will be to the Braves what Kenny Rogers was to the Tigers, a savvy vet who teaches a beautiful core of youngsters how to be great pros. Hopefully these Braves have the discipline to keep avoiding long term contracts for over the hill vets and keep getting the Hamels type guys that help them mature into perennial contenders.
They never said they couldn’t. They simply said they wouldn’t as they didn’t want to pay for those last two years.
Absolutely nothing wrong with their stance on that. The Twins are taking a gamble with him, as they may have what amounts to almost $50m in dead money if Donaldson is only decent for two of those four years (a legitimate possibility outside of the steroid era where hitters decline rapidly in their 30’s).
The dude was a negative offensive player. The deal was fair, defense doesnt make big money
What are you, an idiot? Albies was in no way a negative offensive player.
I believe Occam’s razor is in effect here and this man is indeed an idiot.
If 107 wRC+ is negative, what’s average?
Let’s see…carry the 2…divide the…crap…I’ll say 100.
maybe the worst take here so far this year, and that’s staying something.
This just in! Southern California to see 5 feet of snow after one MLBTR commenter’s freezing cold take.
Padres458, I think you’re confusing Albies with Wong.
he’s certainly dead Wong
Typical delusional pads fan take.
This is baseballs best contract
That would be Jacob DeGrom
Do you realize Degrom just signed a 5/137 deal and he’s soon to be 32?
That would be Ronald Acuña Jr’s, but Albies’ contract is a very close second.
McNeil is better than Ozzie and we pay him close to to nothing
Ok? McNeil also didn’t sign a contract locking him up long term that bought out free agent years…
McNeil also hasn’t signed a contract extension with the Mets, so…
And he won’t, because he’s 28 and won’t hit free agency until he’s 33.
The Mets would be dumb not to let it ride, which means they’ll pay him.
imagine bragging about anything the mets have done
I just needed to say it. Some Braves page ranked Albies ahead of mcniel is the rankings and that stuck with me.
Age is becoming irrelevant for pitchers so 32 years old means absolutely nothing. Degrom would have got a 300 milliom dollar contract if he hit free agency and he signed for less than half that. Albies is a nice player but the best pitcher in baseball has more value on his deal.
DeGrom is an injury away from making that contract not worth it. Yeah, he’s great, can be best in the show. But pitchers get hurt all the time and when they do, they’re typically out for a long time.
There is literally no risk in the Albies deal. He produced more value in his first season than the entire guaranteed cost of his deal.
The first mention of discomfort makes DeGrom a much riskier situation, one in which the Mets could find themselves recouping less value than the money they committed to him.
Ozzie does have a metal plate and screws holding together one of his elbows that’s not nothing….
Great starting pitchers are the most valuable commodities in MLB. Their salaries reflect that fact.
highway robbery
I hope that guy is not his agent anymore. That’s pretty much flat-out incompetence right there.
Good seeing these types of articles on TradeRumors during these crazy times. They’re putting out a ton of articles, especially considering they’re a free platform.
Paying so many great players significantly below market value, just opened a new stadium and still didn’t pay Donaldson.
And the first ball club to announce they’re paying all employees through at least May…
He signed because he was hurt again.
He broke his elbow in the minors.
AA should get lots of credit for the signing despite what the article says.
Albies grew up as poor as hell, sometimes with no shoes. He took the contract so even if he could never play again he could support his family
League minimum is over 500k. If he was as poor as hell as you state I am pretty sure they would know how to spend wisely two or three years of league minimum wage to make sure the family is settled for life. GDP in that country is around 22,000$.
$500,000 for one FULL year in the bigs, isn’t great. Even less so if you have no safety net or other fungible skills from which to earn. After taxes he’s looking at less than 300K which as a 20/21/22 years old, is great yes, but if he’s injured or cannot earn more, wouldn’t even be enough to live off of through his twenties. He’d be bagging groceries by age 32, that’s no bueno.
Now, in the real world, Ozzie is set for life, regardless of what happens from here on out. Smart move for the kid!
It’s not like Albies did something that any other GM wouldn’t have done. It was such an enormous no brainer for the Braves. A High Schooler could’ve done as much as AA did in this case.
AA not Albies.
I believe Alboes explained it himself a few days after the extension.
Albies fractured his elbow on a fluke injury in the minors. He realized how easily everything could be lost. He wanted to secure his future and wanted security now for him and his family.
As someone who feels the owners do the players wrong far too frequently, I don’t take huge issue with this for that reason. Both sides gambled a bit on this extension. Albies really didn’t have a lengthy pedigree in the Majors when he signed it, and easily could’ve resembled Ozzie from the 2nd half of ’18 moving forward, as opposed to the 1st. Then it becomes a very player friendly deal. As it went, it obviously looks much better for the club now. He left some money on the table, but he got a nice guarantee. He’s young, and he’ll make more. It usually bothers me more when teams lowball guys who’ve been doing this for closer to a decade because they’re “older”, or whatever else excuse they have.
The MLBPA should have blocked it
I’m sure thematically the strongest union around did their part ti make sure it is what Albies wanted! If the union felt it needed to be stopped they would have done it.
Why? That’s life changing money for a 21 year old. Lots of risk on Atlanta’s part by locking up a youngster to such big money.
ATL and Albies felt the reward outweighed the risk, and it has just a year in. It took two to tango, they agreed and it’s been a boon for both, but lets see how it plays out.
Or just made the option years $14M each.
Pretty sure the MLBPA couldn’t block it. It’s a deal between the player and the team.
He’d otherwise be earning peanuts, by comparison to his talent, the first several years as a pro.
How do we know the pressure of not having to worry about an eventual arbitration process or counting stats, to earn a better living, didn’t contribute to his success?
He has no contractual pressure now, just play baseball. All I’m saying is less distractions could have contributed to his solid showing in 2019 over what he showed in 2018 and perhaps if he went year to year, with more things to worry about, 2019 would’ve looked different.
At this juncture, it looks smart as one errant pitch could end someones career. Smart for both the team and player, in my opinion. Now PLAY BALL, in May!
If he’s happy that’s all that matters. He gets to play in Atlanta with his best friend. No amount of money anywhere else would probably be worth it.
Zero is any amount of money, and that probably would not be worth it, being homeless just to play baseball with your bestie.
“No amount of money would be worth more more than playing with your best friend in Atlanta”. Uh ok, if you say so..
I’m not trying to be an insensitive jerk, but when you’re an adult choosing to take way way way less to play with your “best friend” seems silly at minimum. But whatever floats his boat.
Those option years are so bad money-wise the Braves should double the money on them just to be nice to him.
It’s not like paying prime Albies $14M is going to hurt the team or take money from somewhere else, they’re owned by billionaires.
Such a dumb deal for Albies. But apparently he doesn’t care and wanted it. Even if he really wanted an extension it’s still hard to believe that terrible extension was the best available.
I think Jeff Passan said it best: If the Braves don’t win at least one championship while Acuña and Albies are under these extensions, something has gone horribly wrong.
Jeff Passan ignoring history again.
Albies has defied all the odds all of his life. When he got hurt he said he realized that anything could end his career. Anything could take this all away. He has money to take care of his family forever. He will be in his late 20’s when he’s a free agent. He said if he is still playing he will make a lot more money then, too. If the Braves paid him 200 over the next 10 years i think he would be worth it. I hope he is a brave for life and I hope they give him another extension before the option years.