As Christian Yelich neared his impending seven-year, $215 million deal, Jeff Passan compared the soon-to-be extended Brewer to his 2018 Most Valuable Player colleague who forged his own year-to-year path.
I've done the same exercise before with Gavin Floyd and John Danks, but the discrepancy turns chasmic for players at the true top of the game. Because Yelich signed one extension at 23 and another that takes him through age 27, he capped his earnings at $240 million. That's a lot, but it pales in comparison to Betts, who is in position to make $400 million or more around the same age.
You may ask how much money one needs, but you could extend the same thought to the people who own the teams. Players should get what they can, and if you're a White Sox fan adopting that mindset, apparently you can set yourself up for plenty of pleasant surprises along the way.
Which brings us to Yoán Moncada and his five-year, $70 million extension. The official structure has yet to be announced, but everybody agrees that it pays him $65 million over the first five years, and a club option that covers his second year of free agency for $25 million.
(UPDATE: The White Sox made it official and announced the breakdown:
- 2020: $1 million
- 2021: $6 million
- 2022: $13 million
- 2023: $17 million
- 2024: $24 million
- 2025: $25 million club option
Moncada also receives a $4 million signing bonus, and a $5 million buyout if the option is declined.)
Even if you think Moncada mostly maxed out his abilities in 2019, this extension is still a steal. If you think he has a little bit of growth to go -- finding a balance between his passive approach of 2018 and his aggression in 2019, solidifying his gains against lefties, staying healthier -- this is a heist. That moves him more toward Alex Bregman's neighborhood, and Bregman is making $100 million for five years, and no option.
Moncada can find some solace in that this deal pushes him into the nine figure range for career earnings as well. He got a $31 million head start on building his net worth because the Red Sox signed him before the hard international cap. That was the reason I thought the White Sox might find an extension hard to strike.
I found it easier to believe this offseason, once seeing the Luis Robert extension tumble into place, and seeing Moncada switch representation. It's just that this deal also reverses the trend of how much risk the team is required to accept. Moncada does have some volatility in his game, and if he alternates good years with disappointing ones a la Reggie Sanders or Bret Saberhagen, this contract will be merely fine. Locking in sizable salaries indicates the White Sox believe that he'll resolve his unevenness on the high side of things, and if so, they're set up extremely well.
What makes this deal extra exciting for fans is that that Moncada, on his original terms, represented the earliest narrowing of a competitive window. He and Lucas Giolito were set to hit free agency after 2023, and when Moncada seemed likelier to go the year-to-year route, the pissing away of 2019 reduced the margin for error.
With Moncada locked in for longer than required, it means that all foundational members of the rebuild aside from Giolito will be in the fold for the next five seasons. Pair it with an active winter that made an attempt to patch all weak spots on the present roster -- here's Nomar Mazara hitting a monster homer on Thursday in an attempt to convince you he's the guy -- and like watching Robert's spring highlight reel, it's all very refreshing.
The next step is upending the current prism of fan expectations. It hasn't happened yet, because my mentions still have people equating extension spending with free agent spending when they're different pools of money. The presence of a Manny Machado/Bryce Harper/Gerrit Cole contract on the books would make a Moncada-like extension more pressing to get done, rather than impossible to attain. The Sox haven't yet approached even a median MLB payroll, so fans can expect more. Maybe everybody can start modestly by ignoring service time concerns with Nick Madrigal.
The generosity afforded by Moncada, Robert and Eloy Jiménez make such dreaming possible. If they fulfill the bulk of their potential, and if Hahn finally signed more productive free agents than magic beans and smallpox blankets, maybe everybody's sight lines will rise in accordance with a team that really does play in a major market.
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Afterthought:
Back when the White Sox signed Jose Abreu to a three-year, $50 million extension in late November, it seemed like a deal that could not be judged in isolation both due to the amount of winter left, and the way Abreu's renowned intangible contributions could result in detectable benefits.
So here we are months later, with Robert and Moncada in the fold long enough to theoretically survive a whole-team turnover. If the presence of an extended Abreu made such extensions for Robert and Moncada palatable to them, then Abreu's sum becomes a little more trivial. You can't quite transfer $15 million Abreu's getting and pretend it's $15 million Moncada might be forfeiting because of different denominators, salary trajectories and inflation, but as long as the White Sox have room to add, one doesn't have to count every single dollar, whether we're discussing present or future ones.
