
The five-year contract extension provides clarity to the future of the Corner
The Cleveland Guardians announced a five-year, $25 million extension of center fielder Myles Straw with club options for the 2027 and 2028 seasons this afternoon.
We have signed OF Myles Straw to a 5-year contract extension with club options for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.
Glad you’re here to stay, @myles_straw!#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/Yz2OH5nXoo
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) April 9, 2022
Straw arrived in a deal that sent catcher Yainer Diaz and reliever Phil Maton to Houston. Cleveland is not a baseball organization that often guarantees money to players. As an interesting experiment, I wonder how many of you are familiar with the other center fielders whom Cleveland chose to extend early in their career.
Examples include Grady Sizemore and Kenny Lofton. Now that it’s cool, it’s not as cheap as it was before everyone was doing it.
It is a short list that Myles Straw joins, and so I am quite interested to see the next few years unfold. I do not suspect that Straw is marked for high-flying greatness, but the team clearly feels like he will provide value far exceeding the contract. They do not offer extensions unless this is the case.
Last season, Straw slashed .271/.349/.348 while accumulating 3.7 fWAR thanks to his superb defense and speed.
If it is true that “one WAR” is worth a certain amount, then it is also true that you can reasonably guess the “excess value” of this contract to the organization. The “ROI”, as it were, may very well happen by October.
And if Myles Straw wants to measure his success in something other than dollars, what do you care?