DENVER – Even before the paperwork on Chase Burns’ $105 million extension with the Cincinnati Reds was finalized, the message was sent through a clubhouse brimming with young players vying for their places in whatever form the Reds’ next-gen core takes.
“We aren’t where we want to be right now this season, and you don’t always want to just look to the future, ‘look at how great this young core is,’ “ rookie starter Rhett Lowder said. “But we think with this group we can compete now. So it’s good to see that the team, the organization, believes in this core and these young guys.”
Players from all corners of the clubhouse talked about how deserving the popular Burns of the seven-year extension that starts next year and sets an MLB record for pitchers with less than four years service time. It includes no deferrals or options.
“It’s good for the game, especially for organizations that have done extensions this year, to have players that are going to be the core players, to lock them down,” left-hander Andrew Abbott, the 2025 All-Star said. “It’s going to bode well for them to have the same faces around, that continuity from year to year.
“It also provides a good example of where the game’s at. A lot more teams are doing it.”
Abbott, who recently was elected the team’s union rep going into next season, said the labor-contract uncertainty with the CBA set to expire Dec. 1 almost certainly is contributing to the relative flurry this year of long-term deals for guys with short service time – including rookies Konnor Griffin of the Pirates (9 years/$140 million), Kevin McGonigle of the Tigers (8/$150 million), and JJ Wetherholt of the Cardinals (8/$112.5 million).
“I couldn’t necessarily say it’s because of that,” Abbott said. “I would say maybe the willingness to get something done is higher. … For both (sides).”
Teams see an opportunity for cost control of high-end talent in a potential changing landscape that might involve payroll spending limits – and requirements. Players might see an opportunity to get paid while the getting’s good – or leverage teams’ urgency in this landscape.
For the Reds it puts a second 100-mph starting pitcher under long-term control, with two guaranteed years and an option year left on Hunter Greene’s $53 million deal. It also provides a potential cost-contained, club-controlled backup plan for Greene if the club were decide to trade the more veteran All-Star at some point.
Regardless, Abbott likes the message these deals send: “They’re saying you are our guys, let’s ride with you, and then we’re gonna build around you.”
That’s the message these Reds players seemed to take from this team’s owners from Burns’ signing.
“It probably opens doors,” rookie infielder Edwin Arroyo said. “We’re all different obviously. It’s not that if he gets it we’re gonna get it. But we’re all young. So I feel that it might open doors for us, too.”
So far Burns is the outlier — but perhaps no more so than his stunning success since making his big-league debut in June last year. He’s 11-1 with a 2.54 ERA as he prepares for his first start since his All-Star selection.
Neither rookie All-Star Sal Stewart, nor Lowder — who was drafted seventh overall out of Wake Forest the year before Burns was taken second overall from the same program — has had extension talks with the club.
Abbott said he has not been approached yet at any point in his career, either.
All have said they’re open to the possibility.
“It all depends on the situation,” said Lowder, who missed all of last season with a sequence of injuries that involved a blown oblique when he was on the brink of a return.
“Right now, I’m 100 percent focused on helping this team win,” he added. “And coming off last year, a lost year, I want to just play. That’s my main goal. … It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon.”
Said Abbott: ““There’s a lot of veterans on the team, so you ask, and they say you don’t go chase it. You just pitch and let it come to you. So you just keep going, you build your resumé, and if it’s looking good, you do it.
“And with a kid like (Burns), get ‘em early rather than later.”
“I’ve never gotten approached. At any point,” said Abbott, who’s “always been open” to an extension and “loves” Cincinnati. “There’s a lot of veterans on the team, so you ask, and they say you don’t go chase it. You just pitch and let it come to you. So you just keep going, you build your resumé, and if it’s looking good, you do it.
“And with a kid like (Burns), get ‘em early rather than later.”
Veteran closer Emilio Pagán understands the business side of a deal like few others in the clubhouse, having seen early multiyear deals pay off for Tampa Bay and Minnesota when he played there.
“The thing that sticks out the most to me is that Chase is a guy you feel good about investing in,” he said. “He’s got a simple life, super respectful young kid, works extremely hard, wants to be great — already is pretty great in his own right.
“And Cincinnati being able to get it done when they got it done I think is huge,” Pagán said. “It shows how much they believe in him as both a player and a person, and it sends a message to the rest of the guys in the room: If you’re somebody they believe in, and you put in the work, there’s an avenue there to get stuff done.”
It certainly seems to feel that to some of the rookies in the aftermath of Burns’ deal.
“He’s setting up his family for generational wealth,” rookie pitcher Chase Petty said. “Just keep performing well and hopefully one day I’m able to do the same.”
Petty sized up the especially young parts of this roster and touted prospects such as power catcher Alfredo Duno and sees another message in the Reds-Burns mutual commitment.
“You have Duno, Sal being so young, our two All-Stars two of the youngest guys on our club,” Petty said. “It’s a bright future. And I’m excited to be part of it.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Burns deal by front office, ownership send message to Reds clubhouse
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
