nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
$19M over 3 guaranteed years when they will be paying him $3M this year. That’s $16M over 2 years (one of which was going to be a cheaper arb year anyways) when Reed just signed for 2/17.
I don’t see any surplus value added with his deal. They took on all the risk of guaranteeing 3 years for a BP arm in exchange for not having to give him 4 years.
This is a move made by a team that thinks they are ready to compete.
There is also an option which gives the team a chance to realize some additional value while limiting the downside. You may be right about the pricing for the third year being such that it does not increase expected surplus value. But at the same time it doesn't decrease it. It is pretty close to fair value. Where you have an increase is in the value derived from the option. We had a similar disagreement on the extension that the Brewers gave to Chase Anderson.