No doubt. However, at least some fans wanting YY signed to a massive deal by the Sox also have decried the Sale extension as a crippling mistake. What happens if YY has a dominant first year or two, and then breaks down with eight years left on his deal?
I’m in this camp. Decried the Sale extension, but willing to give Yamamoto 10 years or whatever. Here’s where I am between the two.
1: Yamamoto is five years younger than Chris Sale was at the time of his extension.
2: If you want to sign Yamamoto, you have to give him the years. We still had Chris Sale for another year when we gave him that extension.
3: Chris Sale was showing signs of breaking down in 2018. Yamamoto has no real injury history.
4: The Chris Sale extension came at a time we had multiple key younger players, such as Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts, who were not under contract long term. There was already worry about our chances of keeping our young core together when we inexplicably extended Chris Sale. Right now we have money to spend, and a lot more coming off the books after 2024. Our current core is earlier in their “years of control” cycle than our 2018 core was, with several more on the way. We could also possibly extend guys like Casas and Bello for less now than we could in say 2026.
5: Yamamoto will almost certainly get an opt out after year 3-5, which may (or may not) give the team a second opportunity to decide if we want to hang on to him into his 30s. I’d try to get creative here. Front load years 1-4 at $40M or so per year, then offer an opt-out. Subsequent years at $25M. Team can nullify the opt-out by picking up the next two years at $40-45M per. Repeat every two years.
This almost goads Yamamoto into opting out after year four, so long as he is at least “good” - and gives the Red Sox another chance to reevaluate where they are and where they want to go with this contract. I mean, if he sucks, you eat the whole $150M over the last six years, but you’re going to do that anyway.