Don\u2019t forget, there\u2019s more on the way. Grabbing Leo De Vries for Mason Miller at last year\u2019s deadline was a fantastic move that gives the A\u2019s a ton of upside and some insurance. If Wilson\u2019s defense plateaus they could shift him to second or third and allow De Vries to man short. The pressure on Wilson to be the long-term shortstop no matter what is lifted.<\/p>\n
Perhaps what I like most about this extension is spreading out risk. Lawrence Butler\u2019s extension was riskier, but worth it. Now, you lock up a player who has an extremely high floor and comes with minimal risk. We all know he\u2019s going to hit so no matter how the rest of his game develops you will still have a near guaranteed high floor bat. <\/p>\n
Look around the league. Shortstops do not come cheap and good one\u2019s often never hit the market. Paying an average of $10 million a year for one that fits your teams culture, aligns with the team\u2019s life cycle, and still has room to go is a great deal. <\/p>\n
The A\u2019s have a ton of work to repair fan relationship after what has transpired over the past two years and the past two off seasons have been clear steps in the right direction. Investing money into the team was necessary and starting with securing your own players, something fans never trusted would happen, is already making people notice. <\/p>\n
Final Thoughts<\/p>\n
A question that usually follows these discussions is who\u2019s next? Kurtz? Shea Langeliers? Which player will get the next extension and cement themselves as part of the team that welcomes the Athletics into their new home in Vegas?<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s not always that simple. Some players would rather wait and test free agency and there\u2019s not much you can do about that. However, getting a number of players to sign these extensions helps the front office understand exactly what their team looks like and where the budget stands now and into the future. Cost certainty has value. <\/p>\n
Of course, this is step two. Step one being drafting and developing, step two finding players who are core pieces, and step three is surrounding them with proven talent. Step three might be the hardest for the A\u2019s and they still have a ways to go in that regard. But for now, soak up the good vibes knowing one more piece to the puzzle is in place. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t forget, there\u2019s more on the way. Grabbing Leo De Vries for Mason Miller at last year\u2019s deadline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[537,5,4,3226],"class_list":{"0":"post-547938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athletics","8":"tag-athletics","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-athletics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115990985732669479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}