One of the most prominent growing trends across Major League Baseball over the last half-decade or so has been teams choosing to sign their best young talent to longterm contracts well in advanced of free agency. Players like Fernando Tatis Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Luis Robert, and more are negotiating big deals far before they reach arbitration or free agency – a significant change from the generation of players before them. The Royals will have more than a couple decisions to make in that department soon, with a half-dozen or so young players set to be the team's new core heading into 2023 and beyond. Speaking to 610's Cody and Gold this week, GM JJ Picollo talked a bit about how the team views that new process.
"I think it's something we definitely need to explore," he said. "It's hard to predict what those outcomes may be, but there's certainly risk on both ends. There's risk on the club side, there's risks on the player's side. The creativity in some of the deals that we're seeing now I think is different than what we've seen in last year, and I think every player thinks about their career a little bit differently. We've had some success in the past extending some of our longtime Royals, and we're proud that they spent the majority, if not all of their career, like Alex [Gordon] did, in a Royals uniform. I think those days are a little bit more numbered than they were at one time. But it's encouraging that players are open to being creative and taking on some risks themselves. But again, we just have to look at each player individually and decide what fits us."
You can listen to PIcollo's entire interview in the embedded player below:
