Sure, you don't want to pay market rates for a player years away from free agency, but by the same token when Adames is 6 months away from arbitration where his pay will grow exponentially he has no real reason to sign an extension with the Brewers. He, his agent and the Brewers F.O. know if he plays well he'll likely make 25-30 million dollars over the next three years. What are the Brewers going to do; offer him 3yrs/45 and ask for a club option for a 4th year? That type of deal doesn't make any sense for Milwaukee, and offering anything less doesn't really make any sense for Adames (unless he doesn't believe he can continue to perform at this level, or is afraid of a catastrophic injury ruining his career). It all depends on what Adames is really prioritizing. If his main priority is to get to free agency and break the bank, yes, there is nothing we can do, and we may as well go year to year with him. However, keep in mind that Adames has never made more than close to league minimum his entire career. He's basically playing on one year contracts the next 3 years if he wants to go the arbitration route, and there is risk in that. A lot can happen or change over 3 years. He hasn't obtained life changing money, yet. We can help him with that security if he's willing to give a little. Maybe he'd like to lock in life changing money for security now, and still have a chance to break the bank later? That can be done, too. So if he's open to it, it's all about finding that middle ground that might work for both teams. So suppose Adames is projected for about 3/30 in arbitration the next 3 years. So from a team perspective, what do we want to get out of this? Extra control. If we can just buy out 2 years of his free agency, we've got him for 5 years instead of 3 which has tremendous value. So from Adames' perspective, if he is going to do something where he's allowing the team to buy out free agency years, the team needs to give something. So perhaps rather than start at 3/30 for those 3 years, we may need to go 3/35. That's fair. So at that point, what are two potential team option dollar amounts that could make sense for the team, but decently compensate Adames? Obviously this is where the guessing game comes in, but I would throw out a $15M team option for 2025 and a $20M team option for 2026 as a possibility, both with a buyout of $2.5M. Why does that make sense for the team? They gain valuable control over Adames, and in the worst case scenario, if he tanks, you're only on the hook for 3/40. This hurts, but it isn't going to cripple the franchise. Does it make sense for Adames? Maybe. As I mentioned, he's never made more than league minimum and he just guaranteed himself $40M of life changing money even if he gets hurt tomorrow. If he "only" ends up with the $40M, it doesn't really hurt him because he would have reached free agency at the same point anyway. Otherwise, he ends up with as much as $70M over 5 years. And if he's still playing at this level, he's going to hit free agency at 31 and he's still going to get a huge multi-year contract then. Obviously I'm just splitballing here, but I do believe there is middle ground that makes sense for both sides if the ideas of both the team and Adames are aligned.