The Chicago White Sox made a major decision on Thursday by extending one of their stars.
On Thursday, the Chicago White Sox made a crucial move for their long-term plans by signing star third baseman Yoan Moncada to a five-year, $70 million extension as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
The deal also includes a club option that would bring the total value of the deal to $90 million if exercised.
Moncada, 24, finally had the breakout season everyone had been waiting to see in 2019 as he hit .315/.367/.548 with 25 home runs, 79 RBI, and a 141 wRC+ which gave him a very good 5.7 fWAR (FanGraphs).
Giving him an extension now is extremely beneficial if those are the types of numbers we should expect from him going forward as even one more year of production like that would have bloated the cost of an extension, especially considering he would’ve been a year closer to free agency too.
As detailed in an article I did earlier this year, extending him now made a lot of sense for both the team and him as they both were taking risks with worthwhile gains.
In that article, I said that the price tag would likely be around a six-year deal worth $100-$110 million.
If Moncada’s option is exercised, it will be close to that number, but nonetheless, this is a bargain to keep a star player in the South Side long-term.
Had he not signed the extension, Moncada would have been set to make roughly the league minimum in 2020 and hit arbitration for the first time after this season as detailed by Spotrac.
This is yet another really smart extension for the team, similar to those of Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez over the last calendar year. The team also extended Aaron Bummer this offseason.
The Chicago White Sox have been one of the most innovative teams when it comes to extending young players very early in their careers and it will be extremely interesting to see if they look to do this with any other players in the organization.