SF Giants now feel like the odd team out after J.J. Wetherholt extension

While not that long ago it seemed somewhat odd for MLB teams to hand out huge extensions to their young players who had less than a year of MLB experience under their belt, now it has become commonplace and the SF Giants look like the odd team out.

The St. Louis Cardinals are just the latest team to extend a young player as they gave shortstop J.J. Wetherholt an eight-year, $112.5 million contract extension. Wetherholt is hitting .265/.363/.408 with 13 home runs and 36 runs batted in on the season. He’s also been excellent defensively and it’s not a surprise he is the current favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Wetherholt joins other MLB Rookie of the Year candidates to sign long-term deals like Kevin McGonigle, Konnor Griffin, and Samuel Basallo not to mention other young players like Colt Emerson and Cooper Pratt.

The thinking behind these deals is to buy out a few years of a young player’s free agency so they don’t go to another team when they hit the market. It’s an interesting strategy and it makes one wonder if the Giants would do something similar with their young slugger Bryce Eldridge.

He is proving this year so far that he’s the guy the Giants hoped he would be. While he's had a bit of a slump as of late he’s still got a signature moment with his walk-off grand slam and has looked like he belongs at the big league level.

Maybe the Giants could sign the 21-year-old to an eight-year extension in the $90-100 million range to ensure that he won’t depart for a while. 

Giants already have long-term deals they are trying to move

The question is whether the front office and ownership would be open to a deal like that when they already have so much money tied up in Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Rafael Devers. Do they really want to commit themselves to another infielder longterm when they’re already trying to move off their big contracts?

It’s different with Eldridge since he’s a rookie whose best days are, one can only hope, ahead of him while the Giants have money tied up with veterans who will probably decline the rest of their careers.

With each team that signs a rookie to a long-term deal like this it will only lead to more speculation about a similar sort of deal for Eldridge. We’ll have to see whether or not it happens and my gut says it probably won’t, at least not this season, but it’s interesting to see how more and more MLB teams are employing this strategy with their young players. 

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