Article: Why the Brewers Need to Sign Willy Adames to an Extension Now, and What It'll Cost

[Fear The Chorizo]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

Historically the Brewers have actually done a nice job retaining their own star players: Ben Sheets, Yovanni Gallardo, Jenkins, Braun, Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks, Lucroy, Carlos Gomez, Yelich, etc. 

I think the landscape and it’s harder to come to an agreement with players on contract extensions than it was years ago, and there are always some players who simply want to exercise their right for free agency after six years (Prince Fielder for example) no matter what. 

Agreed, and I also think the Brewers need to focus on retaining core players through their age 30 season while avoiding paying them going free agent market amounts too many years beyond 30 - that means finding players to extend and buy out a couple free agent seasons most of the time, not trying to extend multiple veterans into their mid and late 30's for huge sums of $$.  And it also means being willing to move on from core players before age starts leading to diminishing returns on the field.

The trio of Burnes, Woodruff, and Adames IMO should not be extension candidates for Milwaukee due to this approach - particularly when they already have 1 veteran player (Yelich) locked into a longterm contract way into his 30s.  Burnes will hit free agency after his age 29 season, and both the length of a free agent contract and annual amount he's going to get elsewhere make zero sense for Milwaukee to even offer.  Woodruff will hit free agency after his age 31 season, so any sort of longterm contract for a pitcher already on the wrong side of 30 makes little sense.  Adames will be 28-29, so that might be an option if he'd accept a 3-4 year contract, but the recent contracts signed by FA shortstops are much longer than that so I don't think that contract framework is a realistic scenario.