Hot Stove Update: Extensions for Jose Abreu and Evan White

There were no trades or free agent signings to report today, but there were a couple of interesting contract extensions, interesting for different reasons.

Jose Abreu accepted his Qualifying offer.  A 1 year contract, even at the QO rate of $18 M, is about as low risk as you can get for the club, so you would figure the White Sox would have no interest in signing an extension that add significant risk, right?  Well, apparently wrong!  Today, the ChiSox signed Abreu to a 3 yr/$50 M contract which essentially the same AAV but for 3 years by which time Abreu will be 35 years old.  Abreu had a heckuva year at the plate in 2019, but is a liability in the field and on the basepaths so his fWAR was just 1.9.  By that measure this does not look like a good deal for the Chisox but in fairness, his bWAR of 2.4 feels closer to his true value.  His value may actually go up if he DH's, since that would eliminate the negative pull of his D.  On top of that, he is reportedly a major clubhouse leader, especially for the young fellow Cubans, Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert.  From that perspective, this looks like a win-win for both player and team.

You may remember Evan White from our Scouting the 2017 Draft series.  He's the B-R, T-L first baseman from Kentucky who some scouts thought was athletic enough to play CF.  He was drafted in the first round by the Mariners, #17 overall, so got a signing bonus of $3.125 M.  White spent his entire 2019 season in AA where he put up a line of .294/.350/.488 with 18 HR.  He has played exclusively 1B where he has a reputation of being an elite fielder.  White has not played above AA and still has a year to go before he would have to be added to the 40 man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.  So this is very early for him to be signing a longterm contract. In fact, I saw one report that he is the first AA player ever signed to a long term extension.  The basic contract is for 6 years/$24 M.  If he makes the 25 man active roster early in 2020, that buys out all of his pre-arbitration years.  Now we get to the controversial part:  The contract calls for 3 team options which are extremely team friendly which extends the contract to 9 years/$55 M if all options are exercised.

There are opinions out there that the Mariners are taking advantage of a young player's desire for financial security.  I would point out that this is far from risk-free for the Mariners and it does give White financial security.  OK, maybe when he is 60 yo, $24 M won't be worth what it is now and maybe the $24 M won't last a lifetime, but it sure is a heckuva start!  If he plays well, then that $24 M becomes $55 M, maybe not what he would make in those 3 years from free agency, but still a very nice sendoff to the rest of his life.  He'll be 33 by the end of the 9 years, so again if he's good he will have the opportunity to add to that total.  In the non-zero chance he's a complete bust, he's still got that $24 M of financial security.

Another player benefit here is it not only preempts potential service time manipulation by the team, it incentivizes the team to get him to the majors and keep him there as soon as possible, possibly as early as Opening Day 2020!

Again, it's a win-win for both the player and team.  Personally I would like to see more of these contracts which give young players financial security at a time they are still at significant risk of never cashing in on arbitration let alone free agency.  More of these types of contracts are good for players, teams and fans.