Every season, a few MLB teams lock up some of their young stars on multi-year contract extensions, which is generally mutually beneficial for both the player and team.
The Chicago Cubs became the latest to do it, signing Pete Crow-Armstrong to a six-year deal worth $115 million. That also delayed Crow-Armstrong from becoming a free agent for two more years, pushing his timeline back from 2030 to 2032.
The Dodgers could look to do the same with Andy Pages after his breakout season. However, they have not started those talks yet, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic:
The Dodgers have not broached any extension talks with him, league sources told The Athletic last week.
Although Pages is not eligible to become a free agent for five more seasons, it would make sense for the Dodgers because it would allow them to sign him below market value for multiple years when he would have become a free agent.
It would also give them cost certainty for multiple seasons, rather than having to go through arbitration in future years. An extension now could also save them some money compared to potential arbitration talks down the line.
It would make sense for Pages to avoid risk and guarantee himself life-changing money. Although he could ultimately make more by going through the arbitration process and reaching free agency sooner, there is an inherent risk to that approach.
If Pages gets injured or struggles, he could end up losing significant amounts of money compared to if he signed an extension now. The Dodgers have already seen that play out with Walker Buehler and Cody Bellinger.
Signing players under team control to an extension is not something the Dodgers have typically done, and more often it is used by small-market teams to keep their stars a little longer than the six years of team control they have.
The Dodgers may prefer to pay more down the line rather than guaranteeing money to a player still under team control.
Had they signed Buehler to a massive extension early in his career, they would be regretting that decision now. However, that strategy could also have led to Corey Seager remaining with the team at under-market value.
There’s a risk and reward for both sides, which makes the deals a bit rarer given that it takes both to agree to that risk-reward deal.
Notable pre-arbitration contract extensions
Other notable players to sign a contract extension while still under team control with more than four years remaining on their contract include Jackson Merrill, Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler and Ezequiel Tovar.
The Milwaukee Brewers also just signed their top prospect, Cooper Pratt, to an eight-year extension worth $51 million despite him not yet making his MLB debut.
In 2014, the Houston Astros signed Jon Singleton to a five-year, $10 million deal, making him the first-ever player with no MLB experience to be signed to an extension. It also had the ability to reach seven years and $35 million.
That deal did not work out for the Astros, but other teams later adopted that concept.
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