Morosi’s assessment of Mariners’ Colt Emerson extension

In signing an eight-year contract extension with the Seattle Mariners earlier this week, shortstop Colt Emerson became one of the latest in a growing trend of young players inking long-term deals early in their careers and even before playing their first major league game.

Mariners top prospect Colt Emerson delivers web gem in Tacoma

The deal Emerson signed will keep him in Seattle through at least the 2033 season and reportedly included $95 million guaranteed, making it the richest deal ever for a player without any MLB service time.

MLB Network insider Jon Morosi shared his thoughts on the extension when he joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Thursday.

“The first thing when you sign a deal like that, you’ve got to know the person and the player,” he said. “Obviously it’s not quite as big as Julio (Rodríguez’s) deal, nor should it have been, but Julio was a very young man when that contract was signed, and Emerson is a very young man right now. The common thread is he’s one of your own and you’ve known him since he was a teenager. You don’t sign a player to this kind of a deal unless you know what makes him tick.

“There’s risk on both sides, but your assessment of this player is that he’s gonna be a starting middle infielder for you for a long time. Now, is he gonna be as good as (Baltimore’s) Gunnar Henderson? If he’s even 80 or 90% of the player that Gunnar Henderson is, then you look at this deal as being something of a great contract for the Seattle Mariners.”

An MLB trend

Just two days after reports first came out about Emerson’s deal, ESPN’s Buster Olney reported the Pirates and top MLB prospect shortstop Konnor Griffin were working on finalizing a nine-year, $140 million deal Thursday before making his MLB debut Friday. And on Friday, the Brewers announced they signed touted shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt to an eight-year, $50.75 million deal. Pratt has yet to debut in the big leagues and hadn’t played above Double-A before this season.

Morosi expects to see teams and prospects to continue to try and work out these sort of deals due to uncertainty stemming from MLB’s collective bargaining agreement negotiations and a potential lockout in 2027.

“There’s no accident for me that it’s a lot of these infielders who have a high ceiling. There are comparables out there from other recent players, and we don’t know what the next CBA is going to be,” Morosi said. “So when you look at where we’re at with that, when you look at the unknown, when the unknown is waiting for you in 2027, one way of hedging a bit is to say, OK, I’d like to have a contract that depending on whatever the future looks like, I might be grandfathered into (the new CBA).

“So it’s not the worst idea if you’re a young player to get these contracts signed and on the books because it at least protects you a bit. If contracts are grandfathered into a new structure, it helps to have a contract.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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