In giving top prospect Colt Emerson a contract extension, the Seattle Mariners secured a couple extra years of club control for a player they believe will be a massive part of their future.
Dipoto: Emerson checked all the boxes for Mariners extension
But it wasn’t the contract extension many expected to see happening early this season.
After catcher Cal Raleigh signed an extension with the club just before the start of last season, there was a belief that one of the homegrown arms on the Mariners’ pitching staff could follow suit with an extension this spring.
Will the money from Emerson’s deal, which is reportedly worth at least $95 million over the next eight seasons, impact any extension talks the M’s have with others? President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said that won’t be the case when he spoke with reporters at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday.
Dipoto said Emerson’s deal was structured with being able to retain more of the organization’s in-house talent in mind.
“The distribution of the salaries, again, is we loaded more money in the front end of this contract than would be normal for this type of deal. Usually they’re a little bit more back-loaded.” Dipoto said. “And while (Emerson’s salary) does increase as time goes along, it’s more subtle than others of its kind and that was intentional. We’re trying to make sure that we can continue to manage these types of agreements with our players as we move forward…
“This is part of our roster-building plan. We draft them, we develop them, we want to keep them with the Mariners, and that goes for everyone down there. If there is mutual interest and we can find something that works for both sides, we are happy to continue to engage our players and use this as part of our long-term roster building plan.”
According to MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer, Emerson’s new deal includes an $8 million signing bonus and the following yearly salaries:
• 2026: $1 million
• 2027: $2 million
• 2028: $9 million
• 2029-33: $12-18 million per year
• 2034: $25 million (club option)
Dipoto didn’t hint at any other extensions happening during the season, but he didn’t rule it out either. In recent years, Julio Rodríguez, Luis Castillo and Victor Robles signed extensions in August or September.
“It’s up to the player, really,” Dipoto said. “If the player deems it a distraction, then we choose not to engage. Similarly, if we just see things entirely different from an economic standpoint, we choose not to antagonize. We’ll just unplug pretty quickly if we just don’t see things eye to eye. But our goal is to continue to find ways to meet at the table with our group and keep them together.”
As for if there has been any progress with contract extensions outside of Emerson’s, Dipoto declined to go into any details.
“I would never really talk about that. Talks are talks,” he said. “The good thing is we have had those discussions, will continue to have those discussions. And I can’t tell you that there’s any likelihood we’ll get anything else done in this season, but it won’t be because we’re not interested.”
See Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto’s full conversation with media members in the video at the top of this post.
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