This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SEATTLE -- Immediately after Colt Emerson signed an eight-year, $95 million contract extension last week, Jerry Dipoto was asked in various iterations what everyone always thinks when these get done.
Who’s next?
Obviously, the Mariners' president of baseball operations isn’t going to divulge details to such private negotiations. But he was adamant that the club would like to lock up more core players.
“We engaged a number of different players during the course of Spring Training,” Dipoto said.
MLB.com has reported that the club has approached Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo about what an extension could look like. Yet, with the way that this front office operates, this clearly extends to even more core players.
“This is part of our roster-building plan,” Dipoto said. “We draft them, we develop them, we want to keep them with the Mariners. And that goes for everyone down there. If there is mutual interest, and we can find something that works for both sides, we are happy to continue to engage our players and use this as part of our long-term roster-building plan.”
Indeed, Emerson became the latest among a litany of players that have signed contract extensions since the club emerged from its rebuild in 2021:
• Luis Castillo: 5 years, $108 million (sixth-year vesting option)
• J.P. Crawford: 5 years, $51 million
• Colt Emerson: 8 years, $95 million (ninth-year club option)
• Andrés Muñoz: 4 years, $7.5 million (fifth, sixth, seventh-year club options)
• Cal Raleigh: 6 years, $105 million (seventh-year vesting option)
• Victor Robles: 2 years, $9.75 million (third-year club option)
• Julio Rodríguez: 12 years, $210 million (including five-year player option OR eight-to-10-year club option)
Notably, other than Robles, each among that group was still at a distance from free agency.
“We're always trying to do deals where the player never feels like he was taken advantage of,” Dipoto said. “And that's not always easy to do because the deal might work in the other direction. And what we can't ever do is lament the fact that we did it. So it's a risk on both sides.”
Seattle structured Emerson’s deal to help mitigate longer-term payroll as the club’s No. 1 prospect (No. 7 overall) enters his anticipated prime. He’s earning $20 million over the first three years of the deal, then $75 million over its final five years, or $15 million per.
That average annual value is much lower than what other premium shortstops have earned on the open market recently. Bo Bichette, for example, just signed a three-year, $126 million deal with the Mets.
This isn’t to say Emerson will turn into Bobby Witt Jr., Francisco Lindor or Corey Seager. But the Mariners view him as a centerpiece of this era, joining Raleigh, Rodríguez and Josh Naylor, as all four are locked up through 2030.
“We were willing to pay what you'd have to call a premium,” Dipoto said. “And the way we distributed the salaries through the course of the contract allows us to continue to do things like this in the years to come. Because we're not going to be about three or four guys who are here for a period of time. We want this to be a continuous part of what we do.”
The Mariners entered this season with an Opening Day payroll around $160 million, per Cots Baseball Contracts, which was up from around $145 million last year. It could climb even higher at the Trade Deadline, and longer-term, it’s expected to continuously increase -- even if not in the echelon of the Dodgers or Yankees.
Because what these extensions also do is give the club cost certainty over multiple years, allowing the front office to forecast what it can spend elsewhere and when.
By next year, Randy Arozarena ($15.65 million), J.P. Crawford ($12 million) and Rob Refsnyder ($6.25 million) come off the books, which will allow Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander to reallocate that money elsewhere -- perhaps towards more extension candidates.
“We're built to be good for a long time, and a lot of the guys down in that clubhouse are going to be here for many, many years,” Dipoto said. “And the sooner we can secure the contracts to make sure that that's a reality, I don't think you're going to encounter too many guys down there that say, 'I don't want to be a Mariner.' They love it here. They want to be here.”