On Friday, JJ Wetherholt and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to the most recent in a string of early career extensions. Wetherholt’s deal will last eight years and will buy out what would have been two free-agent years. This deal comes with Wetherholt having played fewer than 90 big league games in his career.
Many teams have looked to gain some cost certainty with their young players and have signed similar deals recently including the Pittsburgh Pirates with Konnor Griffin and the Detroit Tigers
with Kevin McGonigle. Some, such as the Seattle Mariners’ Colt Emerson and Milwaukee Brewers’ Luis Lara signed extensions before having made their major league debut.
The Rockies made a similar long-term deal to a player on a rookie contract in 2024 when Ezequiel Tovar agreed to a seven year extension just after his rookie season. With the surge of new faces performing well in Denver and a handful of prospects banging on the door from Triple-A, it would seem a good time to ask the question:
Are there any Rockies rookies that the front office should be trying to sign to a long term extension now?
There are a decent number of possible candidates:
- TJ Rumfield is fresh off of two straight rookie of the month awards.
- Cole Carrigg has provided a spark to the rockies lineup since his call up in June.
- Gabriel Hughes has had two great outings since his being called up a week ago.
- Charlie Condon and Zac Veen have both been destroying baseballs for the Isotopes all season long.
If you were in Paul DePodesta’s shoes, would you be trying to lock down any of these players beyond the normal six years of service that their rookie contracts would cover? Is there someone else you’d like to see signed for the long-term?
Let us know in the comments!
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