What Would A "Fair" Freeman Extension Look Like?

Here are the 3 contracts Chipper signed: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/atlanta-braves/chipper-jones-25/transactions/

I think I remember Chipper signing a deal that covered the last year of an existing contract, but I can't remember exactly. His deals were roughly:

2000: 6/90M through age 29-34 seasons
2005: 3/37M covered age 35-37 seasons
2009: 3/42M with many games played incentives, covered age 38-40 seasons

Freeman is controlled through his age 31 season. Going down the Chipper path means he takes a deal that covers through his age 34 season, and then goes from there on a series of short deals with incentives. If he wants to do that, I'm on board. If he wants the Goldy extension, no thanks.
 
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Enscheff said:
Here are the 3 contracts Chipper signed: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/atlanta-braves/chipper-jones-25/transactions/

I think I remember Chipper signing a deal that covered the last year of an existing contract, but I can't remember exactly. His deals were roughly:

2000: 6/90M through age 29-34 seasons
2005: 3/37M covered age 35-37 seasons
2009: 3/42M with many games played incentives, covered age 38-40 seasons

Freeman is controlled through his age 31 season. Going down the Chipper path means he takes a deal that covers through his age 34 season, and then goes from there on a series of short deals with incentives. If he wants to do that, I'm on board. If he wants the Goldy extension, no thanks.
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My concern is that a straight 3 year deal that gets him to his age 34 season wouldn't be considered "long enough" by his reps at Excel. B. B. Abbott had a pretty close (and trusting) relationship with Schuerholz and Cox, enough to expect them to be "fair" with Chipper - I'm not real sure that type of trust between an agent and team management exists anymore. It's realistic to expect that Freddie's reps at Excel get backed into a corner where they have to recommend that he doesn't simply bend over backwards to stay in Atlanta since they will be dealing with corporate ownership. I realize Abbott was in the same spot with Chipper, but I'm just not sure the folks at Excel have the same kind of "I can trust JS and Bobby since it's Chipper" warm and fuzzies that make them feel "I can trust AA since it's Freddie". Remember, Bobby was the reason JS drafted Chipper over Van Poppel - AA wasn't part of the Braves' organization until Freeman was already a well-paid All-Star.

That's the reason I mentioned 3 years with two team options starting with 2021 (gets him through age 34) - on it's face that's a 5 year deal as long as he's healthy and productive. After the first 3 seasons, they could tear everything up and see about adding a third year if both sides feel he'll be useful over that period or the team can go year to year with him for his age 35 & 36 seasons. At that point you simply tell him you can only go year to year unless the money is completely contingent on those games played incentives since the team only got 95, 126, and 112 games from Chipper during his last deal.
 
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Enscheff said:
Well that’s the point about Freeman wanting to remain a Brave like Chipper did. He probably deserves the Goldy deal, but Chipper also deserved a lot more than he got.
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Right, that's the thing about Freeman, he doesn't seem interested in just signing with the highest bidder. His own happiness seems most important. So he will make the decision of the options presented that makes him and his family happiest. So if the Braves present him with a fair offer that he's happy with then I'm sure he will take it. He's one of the most humble guys in the game.
 
jpx7 said:
The Braves should've jumped in and signed him when he was still fifteen, to secure the edge.
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It's like an NFL secondary: commit pass interference on every play and dare the refs to call it. Break international signing rules every day and dare MLB to to catch you every time.
 
Enscheff said:
Well that’s the point about Freeman wanting to remain a Brave like Chipper did. He probably deserves the Goldy deal, but Chipper also deserved a lot more than he got.
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Sure - but you make things out to sound like Chipper accepted some vastly under-market deal, and that wasn't the case. He didn't take 20% less than market value at the time, which is arguably what paying Freddie $20 million per would be. Chipper was still the highest-paid Brave during that 2005 season. The only 3B who made more money in 2005 was A-Rod, and Chipper was the 10th highest-paid player in the league that year...

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/topics/payrolls/byYear.asp?Y=2005

http://www.stevetheump.com/Millionaires.htm
 
clvclv said:
Sure - but you make things out to sound like Chipper accepted some vastly under-market deal, and that wasn't the case. He didn't take 20% less than market value at the time, which is arguably what paying Freddie $20 million per would be. Chipper was still the highest-paid Brave during that 2005 season. The only 3B who made more money in 2005 was A-Rod, and Chipper was the 10th highest-paid player in the league that year...

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/topics/payrolls/byYear.asp?Y=2005

http://www.stevetheump.com/Millionaires.htm
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Chipper accepting those short deals was a vast underpay. He could have gotten much longer deals as a FA.

I wasn’t aware of anyone suggesting Freeman take $20M over 3 years. That’s obviously not happening.

A short Freeman extension is something like 3/70-75 with another $25M option with a $5M buy out. That is right around Goldy money for fewer years.
 
I love Freddie, but they have to be smart with his deal. He can ask and get whatever he wants, but that extra he makes...might be the difference in him having more money or a WS ring. I don’t feel like he will give the Braves a hometown discount, but AA might negotiate with “Do you want rings or the most money you can possibly make”?
 
Anyone concerned this Freeman extension hasn't been completed yet? We have about one month until spring training and that's probably the cut off.
 
Enscheff said:
The only position that ages worse than 1B is C. Freeman is likely to be a 2-3 win player by the time his contract runs out. Those types of hitters (or a close approximation) are available every single off-season for almost nothing.

There is very little reason to extend Freeman. One only has to look at the Goldy contract to find yet another example of why it's foolish to lock up 1B into their mid-30s.

I'm guessing AA is too smart for that.
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Just pulling this back up to get a head start on off season jibber jabber.
 
It's interesting, I was watching the Mets broadcast of our game yesterday, and even they were surprised an extension wasn't completed yet, since he's the face of our franchise.

This really hasn't turned out like I had expected, especially since both sides initially said their goal was to work out a deal.
 
I dont think it comes to it but hypothetically, what's the backup plan if we dont sign him? Rizzo is like the only other FA 1B, move Riley to 1B and go for Bryant? I still think we sign him to an extension, just hope it's something good both sides like.
 
Heyward said:
I dont think it comes to it but hypothetically, what's the backup plan if we dont sign him? Rizzo is like the only other FA 1B, move Riley to 1B and go for Bryant? I still think we sign him to an extension, just hope it's something good both sides like.
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I think moving Riley to 1B and going after a 3B would be the move. Riley is a poorly rated defensive 3B so it wouldn't be the worst idea.
 
Heyward said:
I dont think it comes to it but hypothetically, what's the backup plan if we dont sign him? Rizzo is like the only other FA 1B, move Riley to 1B and go for Bryant? I still think we sign him to an extension, just hope it's something good both sides like.
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Putting his current injury aside, Brandon Belt is a viable 1B option. He's 33 so I expect his contract would be shorter than Freeman's but he'd still have a relatively high AAV. But question is whether he can continue his same level of 2021 production over the next ~2 years (unlikely but could still be an above average bat for the position).

Obviously Freeman remains the preferred path forward, IF he's willing to accept a 3-4 year high AAV deal.
 
i think the precedent AA has set is a good one...market value for short term deals....team friendly terms for longer-term deals

in terms of Freddie, i would define a short-term deal as 3 or fewer years....and a long-term deal at 4 or longer

3 years or less an AAV of around 35M

4-5 years an AAV of 25M

make two offers along those lines...if freddie decides to walk then we move on
 
JMO and means little but I doubt we will see any contract with AAV of $35M any time soon. That much cripples a mid market team from making other moves.
 
nsacpi said:
i think the precedent AA has set is a good one...market value for short term deals....team friendly terms for longer-term deals

in terms of Freddie, i would define a short-term deal as 3 or fewer years....and a long-term deal at 4 or longer

3 years or less an AAV of around 35M

4-5 years an AAV of 25M

make two offers along those lines...if freddie decides to walk then we move on
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So 4 years at 28-30 might be about right Slight raise from Goldy, one fewer year.

If payroll is in 150 range should be ok.
 
PawPawMaxwell said:
JMO and means little but I doubt we will see any contract with AAV of $35M any time soon. That much cripples a mid market team from making other moves.
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Considering Will Smith will be off the books soon, as well as Ender's deal. Plus Acuna/Albies deals would allow us to overpay FF a little bit. I dont think it would be totally crippling.
 
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