What Could a Royce Lewis Extension With Twins Look Like?

[Jocko87]

I will say, if they can agree on an extension I'll entertain the idea of moving him to the outfield again.  But not until then!

[TL]

Royce is way further away from FA (5 years) than Witt or Riley and has had two ACLs. He should be incentivized to sign, and at right price could be a good risk for the Twins. I'd try to buy out 2 years guaranteed (something like 7 for $80mm) which gets him $40mm through his arbitration years and then $20mm/year for the next two. Then go with 3 team options, Call it 25/25/25. That would max out at $155 for 10.

[HrbieFan]

19 hours ago, farmerguychris said:

Would love it  but his agent Boras would never let it happen.

In the end it is the client's choice and his client has had 2 huge injuries. No guarantees in life, except a MLB contract. 

I just know the number is going to keep climbing if he stays healthy. Even just buying out 1 or 2 FA years gives the team some cost certainty. 

[Whitey333]

Way too early and premature to talk about an extension for Lewis.  OMG he hasn't even played 100 games yet.  While he has shown flashes of brilliance we don't need another Buxton.  Yes he whi milked the Twins out of 100 million dollars to be riding the injury bug for 8 seasons.  Lewis is no Witt.  Let's see what he can do.  Twins don't need to sign him to an extension for a few more years yet.  If he plays and produces then maybe.  But let's let it play out.

[DJL44]

58 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Way too early and premature to talk about an extension for Lewis.  OMG he hasn't even played 100 games yet. 

Other teams are giving players long-term extensions with zero games played.

[saviking]

21 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

IMO, a few years = 3 at a minimum……seems Twins lose leverage each year. I could see an escalating payment schedule but it doesn’t make sense for him to accept less if he has to bare the career risks “the next few years”

Maybe 10 years for $200 with payments of:

$4M - $10M - $16M - $24.25M for 7 more years. Big commitment overlapping ($24M) Correa for 2 years or more. Could give him option to get out each year after year 7.

Discounted to the Twins due to his health concerns and the escalating pay approach. Lewis eliminates risk to him……..flexibility at age 32. Something like this may be reasonable but it’s hard to pull the trigger without at least 3-4 months of steady play/health in ‘24.

I agree. Need to see him stay healthy for an entire season to even think about it ..

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

On 2/15/2024 at 10:47 AM, rv78 said:

Every contract, especially long-term ones, should be loaded with incentives based on games played and performance. I'm sick of watching players getting paid like superstars and performing like average joes or worse. 

Do you want to get a contract signed or be happy with the contract if a player falls off?

Can't have both. 

[Heiny]

For comparison purposes, approximately what would his total salary be through his arb years?  That needs to be taken into consideration.  Let's say he would make approx. 40M through 2028 without an extension through the arb years.  Is that reasonalble?  Then take inflation and the extra inflated way that superstar baseball salaries are going.  I would want to get him for 4 of his free agent years which is going to cost about (40M a piece?) So we would be talking about 9 years for 200M.  I'm thinking that this is what it would take.  Does this sound reasonable?  If you were Lewis, would you turn down this life changing guarenteed money?  Not me!  But, would this be a wise move for the Twins?  We're looking at 22M+ for the next 9 years and he hasn't played a full year yet.  If I'm the Twins, I would have to wait at least another year or maybe two.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Heiny said:

Let's say he would make approx. 40M through 2028 without an extension through the arb years.  Is that reasonalble? 

I think that's low. I see > $40M in his last two years of arbitration as a real possibility.

[rv78]

On 2/16/2024 at 12:25 PM, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Do you want to get a contract signed or be happy with the contract if a player falls off?

Can't have both. 

Why not? A Base salary with incentives would reward the player when he plays a lot and does well and pays him an average salary when he doesn't. Nothing wrong with that for the team or the player. It's a win, win. If a player doesn't like it to the point he won't sign, that would be a red flag to me and I wouldn't want him on my team. It's simple and fair to both. Do you really think Correa was worth $33M last year? I bet if you ask him he'd even tell you he wasn't. 

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

On 2/18/2024 at 8:28 AM, rv78 said:

Why not? A Base salary with incentives would reward the player when he plays a lot and does well and pays him an average salary when he doesn't. Nothing wrong with that for the team or the player. It's a win, win. If a player doesn't like it to the point he won't sign, that would be a red flag to me and I wouldn't want him on my team. It's simple and fair to both. Do you really think Correa was worth $33M last year? I bet if you ask him he'd even tell you he wasn't. 

Because players and agents are smart enough to not sign those kinds of contracts because they know some team is going to be willing to offer a big, fully guaranteed contract. 

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but who can you list other than Byron Buxton who has signed this kind of contract?