<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a>, Whit Merrifield nearing 4-year contract extension. Story: <a href="https://t.co/OiQf6nv83C">https://t.co/OiQf6nv83C</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLBNetwork</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLB</a></p>&mdash; Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1089697684871626752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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I wasn't opposed to trading Whit, but I did think we were better off holding onto him than potentially making a poor deal that wouldn't net us even value in prospects.

We can always trade him later if the rebuild doesn't go very well.

Hopefully this causes kcchiefsus to go drink anti freeze.

I think it also signals that they think they're closer than a lot of outsiders do.

Good. Love Whit. No need to trade fun, likeable players if you can’t get value in return

I think there was already zero doubt of that.

This probably doesn't 100% eliminate trading Whit. What we basically did was buy out all the years we already had him under control. Now we don't have to go to arbitration with him and we know exactly what he'll cost going forward. But I always thought it was way unlikely he's traded.

The game has changed. Look at how Harper and Machado are still out there. All these big market teams have totally changed the way they work. They still spend money but they don't blow out the budget on FAs and they don't trade their big prospects away so they can build from within.

well, and he fits the park and the club. We need to quit trying to get these low contact power hitters, it's nuts. We need to run, run, run, play defense and slap doubles into the gaps. Whit's the prototype Royal. I think he'll age well too, he's so fundamentally sound. he'll be good into his late 30's. AND-you're right also, if they DO decide to trade him, it's probably even easier now, as his salary going forward is locked in.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Whit Merrifield’s four-year extension with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> will be worth $16.25 million with $2 million in performance bonuses, source says. <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLB</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLBNetwork</a></p>&mdash; Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1089714027956178945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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That’s a steal!

Wow. That’s peanuts.

I mean, I get why he did it, significant raise, guaranteed money in case of injury, etc., but wow.

He’s even more tradeable now than he was before (if they get a good enough offer). If not, the Royals get to keep a good player for next to nothing during his arbitration years.

Great deal for the Royals.

we gonna steal some bases with a Hamilton, Merrifield, Mondesi top of the order

and blast some dongs.

Wait, that’s 16.25 million over 4 years? Not annually right?

Locking up Whit in his prime for essentially 4 million a year is insane. I almost feel bad for him.

In my opinion, that pressuring the defense with the running game is what PECOTA could never calculate and why the '14 and '15 teams were so much better than projected. It forces the pitcher to throw fastballs, interferes with their location and accuracy, makes shortstops play out of the hole and gets in the head of every defender, forcing them to play everything perfectly and as fast as possible. We got away from that for a couple years for god-knows-why.

it's hard to put a statistic to that, but how often did we see that? Nobody plays that way anymore, it's foreign to most other teams. When I was a kid lots of teams played that way but that was a different era.

On the surface, it has a Salvador Perez ridiculous contract feel to it (before they renegotiated his deal), but in reality he was only getting 500K this year. Maybe $4-$5 mil. next year in his first arbitration year. Would have obviously made more in years 3 and 4 of arbitration, but he traded more money his last 2 years for some security (I.e. injury, etc.)

Still, a great deal for the Royals, no doubt.

Yeah baseball Twitter is flipping out over it, not just Royals fans but all across the board. But he's 30 years old and has probably made about 1 million dollars so far... this gets him financial security regardless of what happens, and he obviously likes KC.