2 contract extensions to help Pirates raise salary floor that would excite fans

While most of the offseason focus has been on external options that the Pittsburgh Pirates can spend on, there's something else they should be using their newfound financial might on.

Stingy small-market teams have faced pressure in recent years to maintain a minimum baseline of spending. That's led to a number of these teams handing out extensions to players, even those in their pre-arb years.

Some have been huge, like the deal the Kansas City Royals gave to Bobby Witt Jr. that will at minimum be for 11 years and $288.7 million, with the possibility to balloon to 14 years and $377.7 million via a series of options. Others have been on a lesser scale, like the seven-year, $86 million deal the Athletics gave Tyler Soderstrom.

These deals are advantageous for a number of reasons. For one, it allows the team to control salary, having it slowly escalate through the team control years, without having to worry about the whims of an arbitrator blowing up the payroll should a young star truly blow up.

For another, it allows the team to buy out a free-agent year or two, keeping the overall price reasonable, and ensuring they can lock up a foundational piece for nearly his entire prime, versus having to overpay for the decline years in free agency.

Lastly, it presents an air of legitimacy in the free agent market. Other players want to play in stable environments where they know they have a chance to win. These types of extensions can send the message that a team is serious about competing, even if they don't have the deep pockets of the big market behemoths.

Two Pirates the club would be wise to lock up with long-term extensions

Paul Skenes

File this in the "no duh" category. All due respect to Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes is the most dominant pitcher in the sport, and more Skenes is better than less. Skubal's situation with the Detroit Tigers is exactly the type of situation the Pirates want to avoid with Skenes.

Skubal will be 30 when he hits free agency after this season, and the Tigers will want to keep him around. They'll likely need to shell out $400-ish million to do so. While he'll have a few more years of dominance in the tank, the backside of a contract like that will be quite grim.

By extending Skenes now, the Pirates can avoid all of that headache and ensure that they keep him through his prime years, without having to overpay for the decline phase on the back side. Beyond that, Skenes' record pre-arb bonus foreshadows just how much his salary will balloon once he hits arbitration. Better to pay him now and keep the salary increases steady, than be hit with a balloon payment once an arbitrator decides that he's worthy of breaking more salary records.

Bubba Chandler

The Athletics have been one of the teams at the forefront of the extension revolution, and they've historically been right alongside the Pirates as one of the game's biggest penny pinchers. Throughout the last couple of seasons, they've followed something of a pattern with their extensions.

Unlike Pittsburgh, the strength of their team lies in the batters' box, and the formula they've used is to extend position players following their first breakout campaign. In doing so, they have typically bought out at least one pre-arb year, all of the arbitration years, and a couple of free agent seasons.

The Pirates don't have anyone who completely fits the bill. Their young hitters haven't blossomed to the point where you can say they're absolutely deserving of an extension (looking at you, Oneil Cruz), but their young arms, aside from Skenes, haven't put together a full season of greatness yet.

But if Pittsburgh is roughly going to follow in the A's footsteps, leaning into their starting pitching strength and extending Bubba Chandler is what they should do.

Chandler logged only 31.1 big league innings, and while he posted a decent 4.02 ERA, his 2.66 FIP and 3.20 xERA indicate that he was even better than his results. Currently MLB Pipeline's No. 14 overall prospect, he's long been one of the very best pitching prospects in the entire league, and should take the leap this season.

Giving him an extension before he's fully broken out will keep costs low so that the Pirates can continue building, and imagine what it would do for the organization to have a one-two punch of Skenes and Chandler locked up long-term. Not only would the rotation be more-or-less set for years to come, but it would send a clear message to future free agents that Pittsburgh is a place where you could win.

There are drawbacks to these early extensions, but the pros far outweigh the cons, and if the Pirates follow this path, they'll prove that they are truly trying to win, rather than simply enjoying a temporary uptick in spending to get the heat off of Bob Nutting's back.