The Cincinnati Reds and extensions have been a hot topic of conversation over the past several months. Unlike most small-market teams, the Reds have not been very aggressive in locking down their young core. <\/p>\n
Hunter Greene’s extension hasn’t worked out according to plan \u2014 namely because of durability concerns \u2014 and the few other players they’ve tried to extend, namely Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz, have rebuffed their advances.<\/p>\n
De La Cruz is the most important player for them to secure long-term, and it might have seemed like all hope was lost after he rejected a deal that would have eclipsed Joey Votto’s<\/a> franchise record 10-year, $225 million contract.<\/p>\n Part of the consternation is the fact that De La Cruz is a Scott Boras client, and MLB’s super agent is notorious for rejecting extensions in order to bleed every last penny out of the open market. That brings us to the Milwaukee Brewers, who just came to terms with top prospect Cooper Pratt<\/a> on a long-term extension. Pratt is yet another player on Boras’ roster.<\/p>\n Reds still have hope to extend Elly De La Cruz, but it won’t be cheap<\/p>\n There’s a big difference between a potential MVP candidate in De La Cruz<\/a> and a young shortstop who is MLB Pipeline’s No. 62 prospect and has yet to take a big league at-bat in Pratt. With that said, it all comes down to value. <\/p>\n Pratt’s deal is for eight years, $50.75 million. That will cover three pre-arb years, three arbitration years, and two free-agent seasons. Overall, the six years of team control, combined with the unknown commodity that Pratt is, brings the price tag down. For Boras and Pratt, it’s a great value because it will give him a decent shot of outpacing his potential earnings over the next eight years had he rolled the dice and waited for free agency.<\/p>\n Where the Reds have gone wrong. Votto’s deal isn’t an adequate comparison for De La Cruz<\/a>. Votto signed his deal in 2012, so accounting for inflation, $225 million today is worth nowhere near what it was then.<\/p>\n