Over the last few years, St. Louis Cardinals fans have clamored for the front office to extend some of the young core it has developed. While it would have been a mistake to lock up someone like Jordan Walker or Lars Nootbaar to this point, the Cardinals missed the boat on a great Brendan Donovan extension, and players like Masyn Winn and Ivan Herrera are only getting more expensive as the years go on.
While the Athletics aren’t known for showing anyone how to spend money, in this case, they did make the kind of financial commitment that the Cardinals have been allergic to in recent years.
The Athletics just handed Tyler Soderstrom an extension while the Cardinals continue to avoid extending any of their young core
Jeff Passan announced on Christmas that the Athletics had extended their left fielder, Tyler Soderstrom, to a seven-year, $86 million extension, the largest guaranteed deal in their franchise history, with a club option and escalators that can make the deal reach up to $131 million.
BREAKING: Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom and the A’s are in agreement on a seven-year, $86 million contract extension, the largest guarantee in franchise history, sources tell ESPN. The deal includes an eighth-year club option and has escalators that max it out at $131 million.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 25, 2025
Soderstrom, 24, is coming off a breakout season with the Athletics, as in his first full season (third overall) with the club, he slugged 25 home runs with a 125 wRC+, amounting to a 3.4 fWAR season. With over two years of service time under his belt, the Athletics were aggressive in getting him on a long-term deal before he priced himself out of what they were comfortable playing.
The Cardinals have multiple players who you could argue warrant extensions like the one Soderstrom just received, with Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat bringing up Alec Burleson as an example. Burleson is three years older though, so not a 1:1 comparison, but not far off either.
Merry Christmas to all, but especially Alec Burleson. https://t.co/xrTqynPeTg
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) December 25, 2025
Someone like Donovan would have been a perfect extension candidate when he was coming off his second or third year of service time over the last two seasons, but the Cardinals held off, and now an extension with him would be very expensive to agree on. Aside from those two left-handed bats, you could easily make the case for Ivan Herrera to be locked up on a similar deal, as he is 25 years old and coming off a 137 wRC+ and 2.7 fWAR season in just 107 games.
Heck, even Masyn Winn, who has been worth 3.5 fWAR or more each of the last two seasons and could be worth 1-3 more wins per season if his bat comes around like the Cardinals think it should, is very much worthy of a big-time deal if the Cardinals would pony up to make it happen. Extending someone like JJ Wetherholt early wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Do the Cardinals need to do all of those things? No, but man, it would be nice to see them be proactive in extending some of these guys at some point. Maybe Chaim Bloom will break this trend in the near future.