5 teams of MLB contract renewal candidates now have to graduate

CLEVELAND, OH – AUGUST 03: Andres Gimenez #0 of the Cleveland Guardians plays against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning at Progressive Field on August 03, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images)

MLB teams can still take big strides with contract extensions to secure their future, and these five players are the obvious contenders.

Recently we saw Atlanta Braves Star slugger Austin Riley signs a massive $212 million 10-year extension that could prove team-friendly given his performance over the contract while also accounting for inflation.

NL Rookie of the Year contestant Michael Harris II also signed an 8-year, $72 million deal renewal with the Braves on Tuesday night, which gets him a pay rise in his pre-arbitration years that will guarantee him life-changing money while potentially being team-friendly as he will buy out two years of his free agency, which could result in a greatly reduced cost for the team.

Other teams are also taking the approach of renewing players early, offering guaranteed money to young players to give them some stability while potentially offering a discount in the long term.

players like Luis Robert, Fernando Tatis Jr. (although this one doesn’t exactly start well) and Ronald Acuña Jr. are just a handful of players to have struck the sorts of deals that ensure they get paid while their respective teams lock down some of their core for the foreseeable future.

One of the main reasons teams were able to sign these players for overtime so early was so they could buy up referee years and bet on a player staying healthy and not struggling.

The longer teams wait, the less likely they are to sign these types of renewals as players get closer to free agency after potentially building a solid resume. We’re ruling out the likes of Max Fried or even Rafael Devers as they may have passed the point of getting an early, savvy extension.

MLB: 5 next big contract renewals that need to happen

5th guard IF Andrés Giménez

Andrés Giménez has been outstanding for Cleveland this year. He has appeared in 3 different seasons but has just over 1 year of tenure which means he will not be a free agent until 2027.

Giménez currently has a 4.9 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) with a slash of .312/.377/.503, which translates to an OPS+ of 153 (53% above the league average). He hasn’t been sloppy with the gauntlet either, having already accumulated 0.9 defensive WAR (dWAR). For reference, Jeremy Peña leads the AL with 2.0

From a WAR perspective, only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani have accumulated more than 4.9 inches in the AL.

The guards might have a hard time locking him up. We’ve seen the Guardians not shy away from offering early renewals, as they did with José Ramírez. The time is now.