Atlanta Braves should offer Freddie Freeman an extension now

Extension fever is in the air and with this flurry of contractual activity, it might be time to go ahead and lock up the unofficial captain of the Atlanta Braves ship.

Would it not be nice to see Freddie Freeman get a contract to stay with the Atlanta Braves for the rest of his playing days?  Maybe the time is nearly right to get that done this year?

The model may already be on the board as of Thursday:  Christian Yelich‘s extension with the Brewers.

Yoan Moncada picked up an extension, too, but his is in a different category in terms of service time and age… never mind the different size of the checks.

Yelich is 28 years old, holds an MVP trophy and was close to getting a second one.  He has a gold glove and three silver slugger bats as well.

Milwaukee had 2 more years of cheap control available to them, plus an option year:  the paycheck numbers were $12.5 million, $14 million, and $15 million.

That’s pretty cheap for a guy at the top of his – and virtually everybody else’s – game.

So yes:  Yelich was woefully underpaid an could have remained so for the next three seasons.  However, both sides had an interest in this new deal.

Milwaukee wanted to retain the player – clearly.  Yelich will effectively be the replacement for Ryan Braun, whose own deal finally expires after this up-coming season (there’s a chance that the $15 million mutual option gets picked up… but not a great chance).

Yelich, for his part, will see his big payday coming sooner than it might have before… and who knows what might have been the result in another 3 seasons had he gone to free agency at the age of 32?

So the sides have come together on a mutually beneficial package that will start during the prior contract’s option year and jump his rate to $26 million for each of the next 7 seasons.

A mutual option of $20 million in 2029 has a $6.5 million buyout clause:  so it’s a total of $188.5 million of guaranteed new money with the chance for $13.5 million extra with the option.

Yelich would turn 38 during the next December after that option year (if exercised).

There’s some extra details and some rumblings about the possibility of deferred money… we’ll ignore all those details for the purposes of this exercise.