Freddie Freeman, Braves, close to announcing multi-year extension

[NAHSTE]

BTW I think it' a good deal for the Braves given the state of things.

After the numbers were released, it looks even better. He'll get 12, 14 and 16 through his remaining arb years ('14, '15, '16), then starting in 2017 it will jump to 20, then 21, then 22 and 22. 2017 coincides with the new stadium opening up, plus all the revenue generating shops around it. Oh yeah, it also marks the final year of BJ Upton's contract.

So Freeman is essentially is getting a 5 year, $110 million deal tacked on to his arb years, starting when he would have hit free agency at age 27, but also starting around the time the team will be able to expand payroll around him. There's little chance this deal could handcuff the Braves down the road, and if Freeman really is a legitimate 5-win type player as he was in 2013, it could even end up as a nice bargain given the current rate of inflation.

Edit - fucked the numbers up trying to go off memory. From Cots:

14:$5.125M, 15:$8.5M, 16:$12M, 17:$20.5M, 18:$21M, 19:$21M, 20:$22M, 21:$22M

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I hate making another Oriole related comment, but Frank Wren has inadvertently helped his old employers and undercut Chris Davis' leverage for his extension. Thank you Atlanta :howyadoin:

EDIT: Really great work by Atlanta here, but how does this affect possibly extending Heyward as well?

 

[NAHSTE]

EDIT: Really great work by Atlanta here, but how does this affect possibly extending Heyward as well?

Don't think the two are mutually exclusive. I know a lot of people are speculating that this is the Braves "choosing" Freeman instead, but Wren has said he wants to keep Heyward around long term as well if he can. Sounds like both parties wanted to take another year or two to establish a clearer market price. He is repped by the same agency as Freeman so I am sure there have been fairly extensive discussions, there's just a lot more uncertainty on both sides of the negotiating table for Heyward than there was for Freeman.

Ideally Heyward is able to stick around with a similarly backloaded long term deal, but there are still so many variables up in the air given his extreme youth (he'll be just 26 when he hits FA), his inconsistency and injuries. He could put up a monster 8 win season between then and now that would price us out completely, or he could settle in as "only" a solid 3-4 win player which then I guess puts him in the Hunter Pence 5 year, 85 million range.

As of now the team would certainly love to keep him and I think Wren believes it can. There's also the matter of Justin Upton, who will still only be 27 when his contract runs out in two years. There will probably be an Upton-or-Heyward decision that needs to be made at that time, but I don't think Freeman's deal will be a factor.

And considering they are BFF's since the day they were drafted, Freddie being around might even make it more likely Heyward stays. Who knows.