FanPost

Adam Eaton: The Third Annual White Sox Pre-Arb Extension

Rick Hahn has certainly made a habit of March extensions to lock down his best players. With the news coming today that Adam Eaton has agreed to a five-year extension, this is the third year in a row that a pre-arbitration player has taken the White Sox up on a long-term deal in Spring Training. All three of the contracts for Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Eaton have come at similar points in the respective players' careers, cover the same length of time, and have basically the same structure.

Let's take a step back and look at each of these contracts and their striking similarities.

Chris Sale

Retrospective: Chris Sale extension is Rick Hahn's first chance at long-term fortune

Date: March 7, 2013

Service Time: 2.061; one year from arbitration eligibility

Contract: $850K in 2013; $3.5M in 2014; $6M in 2015; $9.15M in 2016; $12M in 2017. Club Options: $12.5M in 2018 ($1M buyout), $13.5M in 2019 ($1M buyout)

Sale was the first of Rick Hahn's extensions in Spring Training 2013. After spending a year and a half in the bullpen, Sale spent 2012 showing everyone what he could do as a member of the rotation. (Let's just forget that Pissed Sale was ever a thing.) Following that breakout 5.9 rWAR/4.7 fWAR season, in which Sale accumulated 192 strikeouts in 192 innings while holding down a 72 ERA-, Hahn acted fast to keep his new ace at a sale price while offering him the financial stability that a 23-year-old who already had a 3-year-old son was looking for. Over the past two years, this has become a consensus top-value contract, and the best contract for any pitcher in baseball, according to Fangraphs.

Jose Quintana

Retrospective: White Sox sign Jose Quintana to five-year contract extension

Date: March 24, 2014

Service Time: 1.133; one year from Super Two arbitration eligibility

Contract: $850K in 2014; $3.4M in 2015; $5.4M in 2016; $7M in 2017; $8.85M in 2018. Club Options: $10.5M in 2019 ($1M buyout), $10.5 in 2020 ($1M buyout).

After the Chris Sale extension, one had to wonder whether MLB's sneakiest starter might be similarly extendable. Come spring 2014, a year after the Condor inked his talonprint on that beautiful contract, Rick Hahn offered Quintana basically the same deal. Considering the fact that he doesn't quite have the same talent as Sale, and that he was only due to go to Super Two arbitration after the season, it's easy to see why Quintana got just slightly less money than Sale did. Q62 actually got a slight pay bump per the terms of the deal, because his current service time means he would have qualified for Super Two at the end of last season.

This deal also made Fangraphs' trade value list—at #37 midseason, and #44 in the offseason.

Adam Eaton

Date: March 20, 2015

Service Time: 2.030; one year from arbitration eligibility

Contract: $850K in 2015; $2.75M in 2016; $4M in 2017; $6M in 2018; $8.4M in 2019. Club Options: $9.5M in 2020 ($1.5 buyout), $10.5M in 2021 ($1.5M buyout).

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The White Sox's young players seem to be quite amenable to this five-year deal plus two club options structure. With the team having extended both of its star left-handers, Adam Eaton is the next one to sign up for something from the same mold.

Despite being a position player, Eaton might actually come with more risk than the pitchers because of his spotty health record. He only managed to stay on the field for 123 games last year, and that's more than he could say for 2013, when he only played 92 times between the minors and majors. Given that, he took less money than both Sale and Quintana, but he could wind up within striking distance of their production level with a full healthy season. He hit .300/.362/.401 last year, and DRS holds his defense in much higher regard than does UZR, as has been said 1,000 times. If he's closer to the 5.2 WAR 2014 Baseball Reference saw, this could be another steal for the White Sox.

Total

With these three extensions, the South Siders control three very talented players for the foreseeable future. Add in Jose Abreu, another immensely valuable player on a bargain of a contract, and here's how much the White Sox will pay for all four in the coming years, should they decide to pick up all six options:

Sale Quintana Eaton Abreu TOTAL
2015 $6M $3.4M $0.85M $7M $17.25M
2016 $9.15M $5.4M $2.75M $10M $27.3M
2017 $12M $7M $4M $10.5M* $33.5M
2018 $12.5M $8.85M $6M $11.5M* $38.85M
2019 $15M $10.5M $8.4M $12M* $45.9M
2020 -- $10.5M $9.5M -- $20M
2021 -- -- $10.5M -- $10.5M

One interesting thing to note is that over the next three years, the Sox will be paying about the same amount to all four players combined ($78.05 million) that the Tigers will be paying to Miguel Cabrera ($78 million). Cabrera is also still owed a guaranteed $278 million or more, and will be 36 when his salary rises to $30M in 2018. The Sox, on the other hand, have four players here who are currently 28 and under.

*The one caveat to these numbers is that Abreu can opt into arbitration after the 2016 season if he chooses, and he may very well decide to if he keeps up the pace he set last year.

Eaton's extension is just one more step in Hahn's plans to keep the team's talent cost controlled, and with little risk. As each of the three extensions reaches its final two years, the Sox have the option of cutting loose for a small cost via the club options. This means essentially what we saw this offseason: the possibility to augment an inexpensive core with market-value pieces—like David Robertson and Melky Cabrera—to put together as much talent as possible on one roster with a reasonable payroll ceiling. Even if the Sox end up paying their Core Four that $46 million in 2019, that's still a darn good core at a reasonable price. For now, it's an obscene discount.

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