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Comments
I'll give management credit for being proactive and having a plan. You never know how these things will play out, but having both Albies and Acuna deep into their prime years at a total average of 17 million a year seems like a good situation.
Sounds like a good deal for the Braves, surprised at the difference in money between his deal and Acuna’s.
With these "cheap" contracts, maybe Liberty will go after a big name in the offseason... Haha, funny right?
coastaldawg
Sounds like a good deal for the Braves, surprised at the difference in money between his deal and Acuna’s.
Can't say that I'm surprised. Different kind of players.
coastal. I'm not at all surprised Acuna's per season rate is much higher. He projects as a likely top 10 position player in MLB. Look at what those guys are commanding now. If he puts together seasons like Mookie Betts is he'd likely be a 300 million dollar man after his rookie contract expired had he not extended it.
Right after they cut ticket prices and the cost of concessions.
Cmon man...the right way to run a team is not to sign free agents but to have the "flexibility" to do so!!! Just ask the Braves brass..they'll school ya!!! /s
No doubt Acuna’s a special player and worth his new contract, but Ozzie is pretty talented also and him signing for 7 years at $5 million a year (with the Braves having two yearly options at $7 million a year) doesn't seem like a great deal for him. One of ESPNs baseball guys, Jeff Passan, says it might be the worst contract a player has ever signed. Ozzie is getting financial security with his $35 million guaranteed money, but if he stays healthy and puts up the numbers us Braves fans hope he will, he’ll regret this contract.
Acuna and Albies were not free agents or guys in contract years signing deals. Their contracts must be viewed completely through the lens of the fact that they both still had two pre-arbitration years and then three more years of club control before free agency. They were effectively already under 5 year contracts.
Ozzie signing for two more years does come with some downside if he continues to excel and rise but comes with a lot of upside if he gets severely injured or can't sustain his early success and fizzles out.
Three other thoughts:
1) There's a good chance Albies is negotiating a long-term extension 1 or 2 years before this deal ends, around the time he would be eligible for free agency
2) Maybe Acuna and/or Albies think about it the way I (and many others) would - your first $35M/$100M is worth a lot more than the next, and locking it in when it's in front of you is a smart way to guarantee financial security
3) I wouldn't assume that you know more than these guys' agents
4) Aside from Acuna being a player who warrants more $ than Albies, it must be considered in comparing their contracts that Acuna signed on for five years after he'd be eligible for free agency whereas Albies only did for two - huge difference
I saw some people on Twitter comparing it to the Altuve deal, but those two deals are completely different because they were in different situations. Altuve and Ozzie are about the same size, but their resumes are different. Altuve had an MVP, 5 all star appearances, 4 silver sluggers and a WS ring. Ozzie has a Jekyll and Hyde season between his hot start and cold finish. I think Ozzie decided to make a decision to get money now and set himself up to get paid on his next deal.
Watching the play Acuna and Albies appear to be having a fantastic time together in the dugout and on the field. They now have officially set themselves up for life. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Are there a lot of other guys who signed long term deals with 2 years to go before they even reached arbitration?
Here's some food for thought:
With arbitration years, when Manny Machado had 2 years of "minimum MLB wage" salary left until he signed his most recent deal... it was 6 years.
In that 6 year stretch he made 39 million. Albies will make 30 million. In the first 7 years he is due to make 69 million (including 1 huge year). Albies will make 35 million.
Acuna in 8 years gets 100m. Machado in his first 8 years (which includes the 2 years of his new mega deal) will have made 99m.
Mike Trout (the best player in baseball) made 81 million in the 7 years that align with Albies deal and 117 million in the 8 years that align with Acuna.
Both are smoking good deals for the Braves.