The Red Sox signing both P Garrett Crochet and 2B Kristian Campbell this week to long-term contract extensions further cements the team’s “newfound aggression of playing both for now and the future,” according to Gabe Lacques of USA TODAY. Crochet on Monday signed a six-year, $170M deal with a chance to opt out after 2030. Then yesterday, after playing just six MLB games, Campbell agreed to an eight-year, $60M contract with two club options that “can raise the value” to $96M. The quick strikes “come after five years of stasis, a span that roughly began with the unthinkable trade” of Mookie Betts to the Dodgers and “flattened out” after three straight non-winning seasons. Before signing 3B Alex Bregman this offseason, Boston had “become an utter non-destination” for free agents. The team still is “not quite the Sox” who won three World Series titles in 10 years from 2004-2013 while “sporting a payroll that typically ran second only to the Yankees.” However, the days of “trying to cobble a playoff winner out of a 26-man aggregate of mediocrity are over” (USA TODAY, 4/3). In Boston, Alex Speier wrote the long-term deals help “give the Sox an increasingly clear path forward through the rest of the decade -- and even into the next one.” Speier: “A core capable of sustainable contention is no longer theoretical. It’s taking shape” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/2).
BARGAIN HUNTING: In Massachusetts, Chris Cotillo wrote Campbell’s deal on the surface “looked like a major bargain,” especially on the same day Padres CF Jackson Merrill landed a nine-year, $135M extension from the Padres just one season into his career. The Red Sox “might have gotten a steal” with Campbell that will “allow them to spend big on other areas of their roster for years to come” (MASSLIVE.com, 4/2). Meanwhile, in Boston, Chris Henrique wrote Crochet’s deal is the second-largest in Red Sox history for a pitcher. It also is the “largest for a pitcher with four years of service in MLB history.” The move to sign Crochet “is a risk and one the team needed to make after years of low-risk, high-reward types or dumpster-diving free agent acquisitions.” Henrique: “The extension is risky; the Sox had no other choice but to make the deal.” They now have Crochet, Campbell, Ps Brayan Bello and Garrett Whitlock and SS Ceddanne Rafaela extended for “many years to come” (BOSTON SPORTS JOURNAL, 4/2).
ORIOLES GOING DOWN DIFFERENT ROAD: In Baltimore, Jacob Meyer notes contract extension are “in vogue” around MLB but wonders if that will “ever make its way to Baltimore.” Despite “overflowing with young talent,” the Orioles have not signed any of their stars to extensions. There is a risk that organizations and players take when extensions, yet most front offices “have chosen to accept that unknowable variance to lock down their key players.” Why the Orioles have “yet to do the same remains a mystery.” One hurdle Elias “potentially had for most of his tenure was the tenuous state of the franchise” before owner David Rubenstein took over. Additionally, Orioles SS Gunnar Henderson, 3B Jordan Westburg and 2B Jackson Holliday are repped by Scott Boras, and most Boras clients “choose to pursue free agency.” Meanwhile, unlike Campbell, most of the Orioles’ young stars have “proven themselves in the big leagues and might be less likely to take a low-risk deal that’s seen as team-friendly” (BALTIMORE SUN, 4/3).
