Cubs has eliminated one of the top upcoming free agents on the market. Chicago announces 3-year extension with midfielder Ian Happ covers the 2024-26 season. According to the report, it is a $61 million security and has a full trading ban clause. Happ gets a $3 million bonus for signing the contract, a $20 million salary in a row 2024-2025, and a $18 million salary in 2026.
It’s actually a surprising deal for players, given Happ’s proximity to the open market. He is ready to approach freelancing this season and will do so at a relatively young age, as the 2024 campaign will only be his 29-year-old season. Recent open market deals for outsiders in the freelance corner suggest that Happ has a solid basis for a longer and more lucrative deal than the one he signed to stay in. Chicago. Kyle Schwarber (four years, $79 million), Nick Castellanos (five years, $100MM) and Andrew Benintendi (five years, $75 million) have all topped that mark in the past two seasons alone. Michael Conforto received a $36 million guarantee and conditional opt-out clause last season after not playing a game last season.
Happ was younger than Schwarber and Castellanos while at the free company, healthier and younger than Conforto, and had a superior offensive record to Benintendi. It is true that he hits more often and has a lower average, but Happ also hits base more often and has slightly better power than Benintendi. As of the 2019 season, he is a 0.254/.341/.461 player with 66 home runs, 84 doubles, 5 triples, 22 base steals, walk rate 10.9% and 26% hit rate in 1608 discs.
As measured by wRC+, Happ was 18% better than the league average over that period and 20% better than average in three of those four individual seasons. He has dramatically reduced his offensive propensity over the course of his career, from a sky-high 36.1% in 2018 to a much more pleasant 23.2% in 2022 (and 24.4% until now in 2023). Happ also enjoyed a career year with the glove in ’22, scoring 13 defensive runs saved on the left side of the field. That earned him his first Golden Glove, and the overall strength of his 2022 performance also led him to his first All-Star Match last summer.
In addition to recent contracts for corner kickers and Happ’s overall strong performance, the extension comes as a surprise in the context of next winter’s free class, which is widely seen as a group of heavyweights. Afterward Rafa Devers And Manny Machado having signed huge nine-figure extensions, Happ represents one of the best racquets expected to hit the market, joining names like Teoscar Hernandez And Matt Chapman.
Happ’s contract certainly gives him a market-commensurate annual value for a player with this skill set, but it was a surprise to see him sign a short-term deal that made the first trip His first move to freelancing was delayed until the end of the season at the age of 31 . Happiness certainly values staying with the only team he has ever known, in the city he calls home and with teammates he considers family. In the end, all contract renewals of this nature are life-changing money that will help players for generations, and even if the market is likely to yield a larger payoff next winter, It is easy enough to understand the attraction from the purely human point of view.
From a team vantage point, the Cubs are certainly delighted to be able to retain a popular, productive core player without having to conform to longer market standards. Happ was the second core member of the team to delay the path to becoming a freelance agent with an unusually short deal, joining Nico Hoerner, who has a three-year, $35 million contract that recently bought out just one season of free agency. In either case, the Cubs are buying the old years outright.
The Cubs already have about $127 million on books in 2024, so Happ’s extension will likely push them to about $147 million in total commitment — assuming an even distribution of wages over three years. will be a free agent. The majority of those commitments will be taken off the books next season. By 2025-26, the Cubs will now have around $100 million committed to a pool of players: Happ, Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, Jameson Taillon And Seiya Suzuki. For a team that previously topped $200 million in player payrolls and claims one of the most lucrative revenue streams in the sport, that creates plenty of opportunities to add more. that core through the free agency market, the commercial market or by expanding on homegrown players in much the same way they did with Hoerner and now Happ.
Michael Cerami belong to bleaching country was the first to report that the Cubs and Happ had agreed on a three-year, $61 million extension. Joel Sherman Later New York Post Office was the first to offer non-commercial terms and a specific salary structure.
