Red Sox: Ranking the top five bargain contracts in Major League Baseball
Production usually equates to compensation, though that isn’t always the case. There are some great bargains across MLB, one of whom plays for the Red Sox.
The Boston Red Sox have one of the highest payrolls in baseball, yet even this large market franchise has a few bargains on the roster.
Getting down to it, some of baseball’s best emerging stars have some of the smallest contracts. Due to club control and rookie deals, some players play for pennies on the dollar in terms of value to the qualify of stats produced.
Whether the amount of runs produced or the lack of runs given up, there will always be bargain deals throughout baseball, not only around young guns but around quality relievers and one-year guys trying to parlay a good season into a larger deal.
Nonetheless, here’s a look at what are some of best bargain deals all throughout baseball.
Francisco Lindor
The Indians’ best and most exciting player to grace the shortstop position since the days of Omar Vizquel, Cleveland fans sure do get a quality return for the little amount of money they pay Francisco Lindor to reign the shortstop position.
In 2017 the young Puerto Rican will make only $579,300. Lindor was an All-Star reserve for the AL last season, finishing the year hitting .301 with 15 home runs, while winning the Gold Glove at shortstop and winning the Platinum Glove, given to the best defender in the entire American League.
Lindor was second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2015.
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He also finished just outside the top twenty in WAR leaders for the MLB, finishing just behind Anthony Rizzo with a WAR rating of 5.72
Above all, the bargain of Lindor’s deal is really invaluable in the young leadership the shortstop provides. The spark in the middle of the infield and the ability to have the flare and fun while playing the game was infectious for his Indians teammates in the 2016 postseason where they entered as complete underdogs in each series before taking the Cubs to seven games.
In Cleveland being a small-market team, you’d have to hope that Lindor be willing to take a homegrown discount somewhere down the line, but if not, Lindor is due to cash on a $100 million-plus contract in the coming years. Good on the Indians side was their willingness to give Edwin Encarnacion big money for little time. Odds are they’d be more than willing to through the necessary money at Lindor.
Anthony Rizzo
The first of two Chicago Cubs on this list, the young first baseman’s contract is the largest on the list, but heavily the most team-friendly.
A now three-time All-Star in the NL while wearing a Cub’s uniform, Anthony Rizzo‘s seven-year, $41 million contract with the Cubs is both formidable for Rizzo but also extremely valuable for the organization.
Amongst first baseman, Rizzo’s contract based on value is the seventeenth-best in the majors, and similar in terms of financials to that of the one-year deal Mitch Moreland signed with the Red Sox.
Last year, Rizzo hit .292 with 32 home runs and 109 RBIs, his third straight year of 30+ home runs and his second year in a row with over 100 RBIs, winning the Silver Slugger Award as the National League’s best offensive first baseman amongst the likes of Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, and Freddie Freeman among others.
A catalyst in the middle of the Cubs lineup and clubhouse, Rizzo also won the NL Gold Glove at first base, his first overall Gold Glove Award win.
As the 2017 season approaches and the Cubs look to defend their World Series title, Rizzo will make a base contract of $7,000,000 in what will continue to be a bargain for the response of production, and a masterful deal by Theo Epstein in building the young core of major league’s best team.
Corey Seager
In a market in which the player’s ownership has zero problem giving large sums of money to free agents and internal players, perhaps their best player makes the least amount of money.
At $575,000, the Los Angeles Dodgers are getting some of the best production in baseball, let alone at the shortstop position.
The NL Rookie of the Year hit 26 home runs at the ripe age of 22, finishing with 193 hits and a .308 average in the middle of a Dodgers lineup that advanced to the NLCS before losing to the Dodgers.
Going forward, Corey Seager will not only have this year’s worth of minimal salary, the young shortstop is due another team-controlled salary for the 2018 season as well. Seager’s first arbitration year doesn’t come until the 2019 season, though with Seager being part of the Scott Boras empire, the Dodgers may want to open up their checkbooks now anyways.
Mookie Betts
All of Mookie Betts‘ baseball career, the young outfielder has seemingly come out of nowhere until getting to the majors, where he took it by storm.
Betts’ sophomore campaign was much of the same for the Tennessee native, as the then-23-year-old hit for 214 hits, 18 home runs and 113 runs batted in, while only making $566,000.
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Betts’ stats in the middle of the Red Sox lineup were good enough to garner Betts enough attention in the MVP race, finishing second only to Mike Trout. Although Trout won the award, I’m still under the understanding that Betts should have won. Though Trout finished with a higher war and the highest overall war (10.55) to Betts’ second-place finish and WAR (9.55), it is in my opinion that Betts should have won the award based on what losing both players would have done to their respective teams.
Without Betts, the Red Sox lose the division and likely miss the playoffs entirely, whereas with Trout suffering an injury or something else hypothetical — you pick — the Angels are still a basement dweller in the American League West division.
Flash forward to the 2017 season, and Betts will still only be making $950,000. $950,000, which at the time of its signing, was the second highest contract ever awarded to a player in a non-arbitration eligible setting.
This signing came after the Red Sox and Betts were unable to agree on a contract-extension figure before the spring really got going. Time will tell if that inability to get something done foresees future contract difficulties for Betts and representation with the Red Sox.
Kris Bryant
No, this isn’t fake news, the National League MVP for 2016 only made $652,000 for the entire year.
Kris Bryant‘s contract with the Cubs is about as sweet as it gets. Bryant’s play is about as sweet as it gets, too. The ability to hit for power at a young age while still being in the scratching surface of the prime of a career is about the same story the Cubs can use for about five players it seems like, give or take removing power for hitting for average, for defense, for speed and a combination of all of those.
Bryant made $566,000 to hit 39 measly home runs, drive in a dull 102 and hitting .292 at 24. Not bad.
Shortly after Mookie Betts was awarded $950,000 by the Red Sox in his one-year deal, the Cubs rewarded Bryant, paying him $1.05 million in what is now the record for highest contract given for second-year service players, previously set at $1,000,000 by Mike Trout and the Angels in 2014.
For comparison, the gaudy comparison’s that Spotrac lists for Bryant’s current contract are quite laughable to think of. Conor Gillespie of the Giants and Ryan Flaherty of the Orioles are two comparable players.
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At least for this season, Bryant will be the 27th highest paid third baseman in the entire major leagues.