On the newest episode of the Sox Machine Podcast, Josh and I talked about the contract complications that could be holding up any negotiations with Manny Machado.
Andy Martino, a reporter for the Mets' regional sports network, said contract discussions between the White Sox and Machado involve a structure used in the Zach Britton and Yusei Kikuchi deals:
The sides have at least discussed a contract structure that would allow Chicago to exercise an option after year three that would trigger team control for an eighth or ninth year, according to major league sources. This probably accounts for some of the confusion over whether Machado has a seven or eight year offer on the table. He has likely been offered a contract that could be either.
In that structure, Machado would get to opt out after 2021 if the team doesn't opt in. The Yankees and Zach Britton recently agreed to that structure, which Britton's agent Scott Boras called a "swellopt," in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic.
Ignoring what Al A. Peterson would undoubtedly identify as a clumsy portmanteau, it makes sense that the White Sox would pursue this route. It's not because this is a team-friendlier version of the megacontracts players used to lock down on their own, but because it would be a sort of locked-in version of how Albert Belle's White Sox career played out.
After the 1997 season, the White Sox signed Belle to baseball's biggest contract at five years and $55 million. It easily trumped Ken Griffey Jr.'s four-year, $34 million deal and it left Reinsdorf's fellow owners scratching their heads, at least the ones who weren't rubbing the wounds in their backs.
But as Sox fans of that time know, the White Sox only paid the first two years of it, due to a unique clause that allowed Belle to opt out of his contract if he wasn't one of the three highest-paid players in baseball.
At the end of the two years, Belle had been knocked out of the top three, and so he asked the White Sox to tack on a $4.25 million raise over the remaining three years and $35 million on his contract. The Sox refused, so Belle opted out and found more money with the Baltimore Orioles. Another five-year contract, this one for $65 million, gave him the additional money he sought.
It's hard to get the exact figures for a deal in the pre-Cot's Contracts era, but what Belle worked out was basically a rudimentary, DIY version of what Lozano and Reinsdorf might be working on now. While it was officially a player option, and while the the White Sox would've been on the hook for all five years had his degenerative hip set in earlier, Belle gave the White Sox an opportunity to opt in for the remaining three years:
After agent Arn Tellem made the demand, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf had the choice to raise Belle's salary by $1,416,667 per season or allow him to become eligible for free agency.
As it worked out, the White Sox signed Belle for two years and $20 million, and had the option to fulfill an overall commitment for five years and $59.25 million. When the Sox denied that, Belle theoretically had the option to continue playing out the remainder of his original deal, but he instead went back on the open market.
It's not a perfect comparison to Britton and Kikuchi deals because the White Sox were on the hook for the stated original length regardless of what Belle chose. Its final form was similar, though, and this one worked in the White Sox' favor. Belle had a standard excellent season in 1999 with the Orioles, but his hip problems set in the following year while the White Sox were running away with the AL Central, and he sat on the Orioles' DL for the other three seasons to collect the remainder of the contractually obligated sum (although insurance helped cover it).
Should the White Sox and Machado agree formalize this type of deal -- I prefer "choption" to "swellopt," given the latter set low standards for precision -- Machado would own the club's record-setting contract, and it'd represent a massive shift in franchise fortune regardless of the size of the guaranteed initial amount. It'd just probably be prudent to hold off calling him the club's first $100 million man until the White Sox officially issue that much money themselves.
