On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates made it official.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, they extended former 2021 All-Star Bryan Reynolds to an eight-year, $106.75 million contract extension. The deal should ideally keep the 28-year-old in Pittsburgh until the 2030s.
But the prospects of Reynolds’ extension had the Pirates finally making some franchise history. He will be their first-ever player to sign a contract worth at least $100 million.
After Pittsburgh broke this new ground, that leaves just three squads who have never rostered a player of at least $100 million. Three squads who may have made the occasional offer but couldn’t quite seal the deal and who otherwise have perhaps never put themselves out there long enough.
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The Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and Kansas City Royals.
While I’d like to say it’s wholly unrelated, it might not be unrelated that the White Sox, Athletics, and Royals own three of the four worst records in all of baseball right now. From this respect, Kansas City and Oakland are more understandable — they have two of the lowest total payrolls in the MLB.
The White Sox, however, are in 14th, despite not having a player with a minimum $100 million contract.
Who’s going to break the $100 million seal next? Maybe it’s about the franchise that will first have a player actually worth that kind of money. On that note: Let’s not hold our breath.
