March 10 : The As made it official today, announcing they have signed Butler to a seven-year extension plus a club option for 2032. March 7: Butlers deal will pay him a $3MM signing bonus and $2.25MM in 2025, Evan Drellich of The Athletic . Hell then earn salaries of $3.25MM, $5MM, $8MM, $10MM, $14MM and $16MM from 2026-31. The Athletics option checks in at $20MM and comes with a $4MM buyout. The contract also contains escalators that can push the option value north to $26MM, per the report. In all, Butler can max out at $87.5MM over eight years if he hits all those escalators and the option is picked up. March 6: The As are in agreement with right fielder on a seven-year, $65.5MM extension, reports . Theres a club option for an eighth season. The contract buys out at least two free agent seasons, while the option covers a third would-be free agent year. The team has yet to announce the signing, which is pending Brook Lopez Jersey a physical. Butler is represented by CAA Sports. A sixth-round pick out of high school in 2018, Butler struggled over his first couple minor league seasons. Things clicked for him in Low-A in 2021, and he continued to hit his way up the ladder. The lefty hitter reached the majors in 2023 and hit .211 over his first 42 games. While he got out to another relatively slow start last year, a monster second half demonstrated his potential. Butler raked at a .300/.345/.553 clip with 13 homers and 32 extra-base hits after the All-Star Break. Among qualified hitters, he ranked 10th in wRC+ over that stretch. The nine more productive batters in the second half are stars: , , , , , , , , and teammate . Its impre sive company, though its worth noting that and were among those closely behind Butler in second-half production. Three months is still a relatively small sample size. Butler went into last years All-Star Break as a career .205/.260/.337 hitter. He had fanned in almost 30% of his plate appearances to that point. He sliced the strikeouts to a tidy 19.8% clip in the second half. The whiffs began to creep back up in September, though he still managed a .280/.330/.409 in the seasons final month. The As believe hell build off that strong finish. Butler ended the season with a .262/.317/.490 slash acro s 451 plate appearances. He hit 22 homers and went a perfect 18-18 on stolen base attempts. While most of his playing time came against right-handed pitching, he more than held his own in unfavorable platoon settings. Butler hit .291 with five homers in 89 plate appearances against southpaws. Butler led off for Mark Kotsay throughout the second half. He has sufficient on-base skills to hit atop the lineup or the power to slot into the orders middle third. Hes an effective baserunner wholl play every day in right field. Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved each graded him as a league average defender over 955 1/3 innings. Butler has solid speed and arm strength, so he probably has the tools to be an above-average corner outfield defender. He started 32 games in center field as a rookie, but he only played four MLB innings there last season. will play up the middle on most days. The As had Butler under club control for five seasons. He wasnt on track to reach arbitration for another two years. There have been a few recent extensions for hitters in that 1-2 year service bucket. The Pirates inked third baseman to an eight-year, $70MM guarantee in 2022. The Rockies signed a seven-year, $63.5MM extension with shortstop last spring. The Nationals hammered out an eight-year, $50MM agreement with catcher two seasons ago. Butler has shown a higher offensive ceiling than all those players had at the time of their deals. Theyd each been top prospects and played more valuable positions, though. Tovar and Hayes were already plus defenders. Butlers deal puts him alongside the Hayes and Tovar contracts. Thats a reasonable landing spot. Butler locks in a significant sum that hedges against injury or regre sion. The As buy into his breakout relatively early. If theyd waited until next offseason, another strong season would probably have pushed Butlers asking price beyond nine figures. The As have now signed three of the four largest contracts in franchise history over the past few months. Their three-year, $67MM free agent deal with stands as their biggest ever. They signed Rooker to a five-year, $60MM extension with a sixth-year club option. As shown on , this is the first time the As have extended a pre-arbitration player since their $10MM deal with in April 2014. The spike in spending has coincided with the franchises three-year move to Sacramento. Theyve reportedly needed to get their competitive balance tax number to $105MM in order to avoid a grievance from the MLB Players A sociation regarding their use of revenue sharing funds. Theyd already achieved that between deals for Severino, Rooker, and reliever , as well asthe trade for starter . Butler joins Rooker as the only players under contract through at least 2028, the scheduled opening of their Las Vegas ballpark. The option extends their control window through 2032. Butler would hit free agency after his age-31 season if they exercise the option. Its po sible this is the first of a handful of spring deals for the As. General manager David Forst told Evan Drellich of The Athletic last month that the team had opened talks with multiple players. MLBTR highlighted a few of their in a post for Front Office subscribers last week. Image courtesy of Imagn. Bryn Forbes Jersey
As Sign Lawrence Butler To Seven-Year Extensio
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