The Rays and top infield prospect Curtis Mead have had some discussions regarding a possible contract extension this spring, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). There’s no indication a deal is likely or imminent, though the talks add an interesting storyline to Tampa Bay camp.
Mead, 22, has still yet to make his major league debut. Initially signed by the Phillies as an international amateur from Australia, he was dealt to Tampa Bay over the 2019-20 offseason for left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. Mead hadn’t even reached full-season ball at the time, but he’s appeared a strong find for the Rays’ scouting department. The 2020 minor league season was scrapped due to the pandemic, but Mead has mashed since returning to game action in 2021.
The right-handed hitter combined for a .321/.378/.533 line across a trio of minor league levels that season, topping out at Double-A. He split the ’22 campaign between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham, putting together a .298/.390/.532 mark with 27 doubles and 13 home runs in only 76 games. The bulk of that work came in Double-A, with Mead only playing in 20 games at the top minor league level. That’s in large part due to an elbow injury that cost him almost all of the season’s second half, perhaps dashing his chances of reaching MLB last year.
Tampa Bay made the obvious decision to add Mead to their 40-man roster this offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He can still be optioned to the minors for three consecutive seasons and looks likely to start the 2023 campaign back in Durham. If Mead continues to hit at the level he has the past two years, however, he’d get a big league look before long.
Mead heads into this season ranked between 20th and 40th on top prospect lists from Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic and FanGraphs. Evaluators are effusive in their praise for his bat, though there are a number of questions about his long-term defensive fit. He’s played primarily second and third base in the minors; however, there seems to be a fair amount of risk he’ll eventually have to move to left field or potentially work primarily as a designated hitter.
Regardless of Mead’s defensive outcome, the Rays are clearly enamored enough with his bat they’re open to tacking on their window of club control. Tampa Bay already controls him for at least six seasons. Sending him back to the minors early in 2023 — a reasonable enough decision considering Mead’s lack of Triple-A experience and an infield mix that already includes the likes of Jonathan Aranda, Brandon Lowe, Wander Franco, Isaac Paredes, Yandy Díaz and Vidal Bruján — would likely delay his path to free agency by an additional season. Mead does have the prospect status to potentially “earn” a full year of service time even if he’s not in the majors for 172 days as part of the prospect promotion package in the collective bargaining agreement, but he’d need a top two finish in Rookie of the Year balloting to do so.
There have been a handful of extensions for players who hadn’t yet made their big league debuts. Jon Singleton, Scott Kingery, Evan White, Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert have all signed such deals since 2014. Singleton was guaranteed $10MM, while White and Kingery each locked in $24MM. Jiménez secured $43MM. Robert holds the record for such deals with a $50MM guarantee.
Robert and Jiménez were generally viewed as higher-caliber talents at the time of their deals than Mead is now. Jiménez had ranked as Baseball America’s #3 prospect at the time of his contract; Robert was ranked the sport’s #2 minor league talent when he put pen to paper. Kingery (BA’s #31 prospect in 2018) and White (#54 in 2020) fit more into the bucket in which Mead now finds himself: excellent prospects but a bit behind the game’s truly elite minor league talents.
Neither Kingery nor White has met their clubs’ expectations thus far. Both teams would surely like a do-over on those contracts, though even the misses have had a fairly modest effect on the teams’ books. White is making $3MM this season and will secure $7MM and $8MM, respectively, over the next two years. Kingery is due $9MM this year, including a buyout on a 2024 club option.
The Rays don’t spend anywhere close to Philadelphia’s level and are even a ways back of Seattle, so a deal for Mead would be a little more risky than the White or Kingery ones were. Still, the potential payoff of locking up a high-end talent at below-market rates is enough for teams to have interest in this kind of arrangement. Tampa Bay hasn’t reached any extensions with players before their MLB debuts, but they’d made out exceptionally well on early-career pacts for Evan Longoria and Brandon Lowe before either had reached 50 big league contests.
18 years/$264.15M take him through his age 40 season and assume he’d be a $50M a year player in 10 years, offer him just under half that guaranteed for his free agency. Just do it. Why not? These insanely early extensions with little to no track record and a massive guarantee are getting ridiculous. Just out ridiculous everybody else and themselves.
Brockmire is a little disturbed by this.
I am just waiting for someone to sign Ronald Acuna III to a 34 year/$1 billion extension that will cover his T Ball and Little League years as well.
Seriously, if Acuna has another injury ridden season in 2023, the Braves will explore his value on the trade market.
I think you missed the joke man. Check the number after the name.
Paying someone a lot of money doesn’t automatically translate in having a higher quality employee but I agree being able to offer a higher income will attract a higher caliber of employee.
Higher salaries yes, but also increasing the quality of training, continuous education and training, constant fair evaluations, shorter hours, and so on are all steps in the right direction.
Cops ain’t stars that fans pay to see. They’re just cops. Other professions out there around the world pay even less and are even more dangerous on a day-to-day basis. For starters, military servicemen & women are grossly underpaid – all over the world, not just in the U.S. But again, they are not in showbiz. Professional sports is a form of show business. That is why they get the big bucks.
As much as the armed forces appreciate your support, we/they are not underpaid. Many may think so but simple fact of the matter is they are not.
Kids, 18-19 years old join the military and get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of training, in some mos’s, millions of dollars of training. Free housing, free healthcare, meals provided or paid for, experience infields they would never qualify for otherwise, paid higher education.
I stepped right out of the military into a six figure job at 23 years old and never looked back. Military personnel are far from under paid.
No way he signs for that AAV for that long.
??????
I can see a 7 year extension but it won’t be anywhere near $100 million. Think along the lines of Brandon Lowe give or take some millions if it happens.
Maybe just maybe they should see him take an AB at the major league level before giving him 100 million. Phillies are still paying Scott Kingery this season.
Man what a rough trade for the Phillies.
This is what’s wrong with baseball… And on the opposite end, the Padres, of course
Fans that think the way you do are what’s wrong with baseball.
Yeah these fans who hate to see other people making a lot of money.
Quick question, why are you all invested in how much money someone you will never know makes?
What’s wrong with MLB is the anti-trust exemption. It blocked Mark Cuban from buying the Pirates and has kept the A’s in Oakland for over 30 years under poor economic conditions.
Can’t blame the anti-trust exemption for the A’s not moving. After all, they have moved twice before from Philly and KC and the anti-trust exemption was in place for both those moves.
Probably related to why the Rays didn’t do much to the offense this off-season. Mead and Manzardo both look like future studs.
Why not move him to 1B?
Because Manzardo.
A rough deal for Philly…and I’m a bucs fan so I know about rough deals to the rays.
Man, as an Aussie, massively excited about this guy, hehe:) Go Curtis!:) Go Rasy! 😛
It would be shocking for the Rays to make a long term commitment to a guy with no discernible defensive position he can stick at. The kid would have to lock in a tremendous discount just for his controlled years, nevermind free agent ones. This contract must have some ideas about performance bonuses to keep it fair for player and team to lock in term without too much risk either way.
Keep it fair?? were the Phillies fair to KIngery? if Curtis signs a KIngery type contract is that unfair? he can decide not to sign, is that fair to the Rays?
Lowe played the outfield, 1B and 2B when he was extended. Diaz plays 3B and 1B, Franco played some 3B for Tampa and played a little 2B in the minors.
Tampa covets players with positional flexibility, just like the Dodgers, even if some ultimately play one position most nights. Parades has played all over the infield, and though he hasn’t been extended (and they may not be interested in extending him), he still represents that same type of flexibility. Not a great defender, either.
It doesn’t matter if he has a discernible position he can stick at. They will always find a place for players who can, you know, hit.
That’s kind of the point. Tampa doesn’t worry about having just great defenders at fixed positions. If they can hit, and aren’t restricted to just one place defensively, they’ll make it work.
6/30M sounds fair.
Its more abt TB’s aversion to arb risk than anything else. Never heard of this guy, but a postion-less, defensively challenged minor leaguer with bat potential isnt exactly unique. They guarantee this guy is a multi millionaire in exchange for payroll certainity over his arb years plus a FA yr or 2. Interesting strategy, if they are really concerned his arb #’s potentially blows apart their self imposed salary cap. But also an odd risk for someone who can as easily end up in indy ball 5 yrs from now.
If you haven’t heard of someone who’s ranked in the top 40 on every major prospect list then I don’t know what to say. And he’s very unlikely to end up in indy ball, come on.
21 year old who dominates AAA while seldom SO, are likely to become superstars.
The guy had 85 plate appearances in AAA and batted .278. That’s not bad, but not exactly dominating.
Yeah, I understand he has a nice bat but where is all this hullabaloo coming from that makes him seem like he’s going to be a no doubt silver slugger?
He might hit well, and has some chance at being exceptional. But how much can the Rays bet on him before he even gets one season to prove himself, let alone a week or a month?
These are the Rays. How much can they invest in this kid before he proves anything? Not even the money, but extending a term beyond the team control they have? What kind of special bat has this kid got? It doesn’t jump off the page by the numbers. Countless young players put up numbers like this and fail miserably in the Show. He has so much to prove, and taking a heavy discount is hardly in his interest. To lock him into guaranteed money for years and years, he would have to take a heavy, heavy discount.
So what contract becomes fair? 9 years for a total of $33M? How much can TB commit to a guy far from certain will pan out? Forget extending term, just give him 7 years for $22M, so they can save on arbitration years, and eat the cost if he doesn’t pan out?
Seems odd to commit to a likely DH. He must have incredible bat control they feel confident projecting if they are going down this road.
Perhaps there exists people that don’t follow minor league baseball and don’t care about the opinion of prospect lists that are wrong just as much as they are right.
Going back to 2016, about half the top 40 MLB prospects are either out of the league or lost on a bench somewhere. The assumption of indy ball might not be as outrageous as you think.
I dont memorize top 40 lists in minor league baseball or pop songs for the same reason- that 95% will soon be forgotten. I hope this guy has a HOF career, or short of that, can make multiple tens of millions having a solid career, and that TB can find a contract that works for eveyone. But the probability of flaming out is high. This contract strategy is just an interesting way of playing both ends against the middle. If it was me, Id take a guaranteed “win the lottery” type of contract and see how it plays out. I say best of luck to all involved.
Wine from honey.
7 years sounds about right in regards to a extension. Similar to what Brandon Lowe got (say $25 million guaranteed/$25-30 million in incentives/option years) from the Rays.
So interesting looking at the stats of the comparable situations listed in the article, and realizing every one of them spent more time hurt than on the field after being guaranteed millions in their physical primes..Kinda makes you wonder..
Free SCOTT KINGERY
Oops. Wrong thread.
Just get a needle with a bigger eye.
Klentak was such a great GM!!
Complaining that coffee use to cost $.05 and bread was not sliced
Coffee still costs a nickel if you make it yourself and bread is not sliced if you make it yourself.
GDAY MATE LETS PUT ANOTHER SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE