The White Sox have signed Jose Abreu to a 3 year, $50M deal. Last week he signed the $17.8M QO, then parlayed that this week into the extension. Good for him. Good for the ChiSox too; the 32-year-old has played his whole six-year MLB career on the South Side, was the RoY and has been an All Star three times.
The White Sox are appearing ready to spend to try to contend this coming season. Earlier this week they also signed All Star catcher Yasmani Grandal away from the Brewers for 4 years and $73M. It was their largest FA deal ever.
Abreu was the second of two free agents to take the QO, along with the Twins’ Jake Odorizzi. It remains to be seen if he’s going to sign an extension too—he portrayed it as betting on himself. I really think more players should do this. If you’re Gerritt Cole or Stephen Strasburgh, it doesn’t matter—some team is going to pay big bucks for you and won’t blink at giving up a draft pick too. For players not in the upper echelon of free agency, that draft pick can act like an anchor, especially if the player also appears to have unrealistic expectations of contract length and/or money involved (cough Keuchel cough Kimbrel cough). Players can only get QO’d once in their careers, and a lot of them would realize a higher AAV or encourage their current teams to offer a multi year deal by signing that QO.
Fan Interference 