Chuck Nazty is locked into Colorado now for the foreseeable future after agreeing to a six-year extension with the Rockies. The deal is slightly backloaded and heavy on incentives, but could end up paying a max of $116 million when its all said and done. It is also reported that Blackmon will have multiple player options throughout the deal. Blackmon, who is a quiet superstar, tried his best to keep the contract discussion out of the media. He told reporters, “I didn’t want to create distractions,” throughout spring training. Blackmon has been putting up stupid numbers the past couple of seasons and is slotted to be in the MVP conversation again this year. And after a tough offseason for free agents, Blackmon is smart to get his money now. This move speaks to a bigger trend in the MLB. Big time sluggers had a hard time getting big paydays this offseason with a handful still not playing. Next year is slotted to be tough again with many teams planning on spending huge on a few big names like Harper and Machado. With more and more teams adopting the “tanking” strategy and accepting bad seasons, many players find themselves caught in between being can’t miss superstars and veterans that teams can’t justify giving the salary they deserve. It just isn’t worth paying an above average veteran if you are a team that is trying to rebuild. There is no more pride in competing to be .500. It is much more valuable to fully commit to not contending and trying to speed up the rebuild process. Now Blackmon does not find himself in that twilight zone, he’s a bonafide superstar, but you can’t blame him for wanting to sure up his future. And if he can keep up the production we’ve gotten used to seeing from him, those incentives will all pay out and his future will be very bright.
