Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Best of the Cubs: Pete Crow-Armstrong agrees to a long-term extension

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

In the Best of the Cubs, Mike Mulligan and David Haugh reacted to the news that center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has agreed to a long-term contract extension with the club; Yahoo Sports MLB insider Russ Dorsey joined the Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show to break down what the Cubs locking up Crow-Armstrong means for their future; and Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes discussed how Crow-Armstrong's bet on himself last year at this time paid off for him.

Mully and Haw, 104-3, the score. PCA, PCA Day. Good morning, Mully, happy Tuesday, PC always. He will always be a cub now. Big contract, big news, happened while most people might have been sleeping if you were up right now. Don't sleep on it. Don't sleep on the Cubs because around 10 o'clock-ish, Jeff Passon broke the story that Pete Carramstrong will sign or is finalizing

long-term deal with the team that traded for him and now the team will he will wear the uniform for a very long time. Yeah, and I saw something. Details TBA. I saw something yesterday on Twitter and I don't know where it was from, but it was A.J. Persinski talking about PCA, the player and just saying, I don't care what side of town you are on or what fan of what team you are,

you gotta love this guy. He's really good for baseball. Well, AJ Prisinski's saying what a lot of people felt after the World Baseball Classic, the more people that are exposed to Pete Crowe Armstrong and just his enthusiastic approach to everything.

And just the way that he plays with, he's the igniter, he's the catalyst, he's the guy that can steal a base, take the extra base, or hit the ball. He's a guy that is probably, the best defensive player in the game.

He'll be 24 years old tomorrow when he's already got a gold glove. He became the first Cub in decades to go 30-30 last year. And this is an investment. And frankly, the Cubs banking on the fact that he's closer to the guy we saw in the first half than the second half. But I think you've got to point out that if he's just the guy we saw in the second half, I mean, look, the first 30-30 guy that all the things. he managed to do, pretty extraordinary.

But even he's such a good impactful player, regardless of whether or not he can be like an MVP. Well, I don't disagree with that. But he does have that potential. You're saying that he can affect games with his glove and his speed. And I agree with that. But I don't think that you sign nine-year contracts or whatever the length of this one will be because of guys who affect games that way. But you do it for the whole package.

But what I'm trying to get to is when you talk about upside-downside, like, you know, his floor is still very special. No doubt about it. His floor is all-star caliber. And his ceiling is MVP caliber. Yes, his ceiling is MVP caliber, a guy that can carry you to a championship. And that is what the Cubs are behaving like. And you got to love it as a Cubs fan.

This is the continuation of an off-season where they are going for it. They went out and got Alex Bregman. They traded for Edward Cabrera. And I think when you look at now, the contract extension with PCA in the light and in the wake of all of this talk about a work stoppage that's looming, you got to like it. Yeah, no, I think you got to love it. I just think it's really impressive that they've gotten this done. And, you know, certainly we've seen him around town. We saw him hanging out with Caleb Williams.

couple times. That was really amusing and he's going to be there long term. Caleb will get that big contract and he's going to get that. He's about to sign the big contract. The bromatch will be able to grow. But they can probably

they can probably do that anywhere they want to and they can just travel around the world. I mean it's hysterical. He can afford bear season tickets now. Oh yeah. Wherever they play. No doubt about it. He might be able to chip in for a suite. Yeah. Doesn't have to sit on the sidelines.

anymore. No, he can go sit in the box. Yes, PSLs for everybody. PSLs for PCA. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, that's fun. Because, you know what? He was not in the lineup yesterday while the rest of the Cubs were routing the Yankees and that was fun. That was so much fun. Zach, we'll play those calls.

Those calls were great. Home run after home run. Zach's in midseason form. He was great. He got to love it. And so he was not in the lineup, as Dustin pointed out, cleverly. and Pete Coromstrong, presumably, was finalizing this deal. Yeah. Fun.

Where's PCA? Ah, he's at the bank. He's trying to take care of something. He got caught up at the bank. He just seemed odd, right? I'm listening to Zach go through it. I'm like, wait a minute. Everybody's there except.

But you thought that maybe the cups are down to making some decisions between maybe Dylan Carlson, Kevin Alcantra. And you looked at that lineup. And I thought, It didn't strike me as odd because I don't think that that was on my radar right yesterday. But maybe they were looking at Dylan Carlson and center field. And I thought maybe that was behind it. But everybody homered.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Bregman and Bush went back to back. Let's listen. Oh, and a high-fly ball. Deep right field. If it stays fair, it's gone. It's gone. It hiked the line and left the yard.

Michael. Bush gives the Cubs the lead. A two-run job straight down the right field line. Three to one Cubs over the Yankees here in the third. The next pitch. High-flide ball, deep left field. Forget about it. Cubs go back to back.

First Bush, now Bregman. It's four-to-one Cubs here in the third. The pitch. Breaking ball, cracked in the air. Deep left, racing back, Bellinger at the track, looks up. It's gone. Third home run of the inning for the Cubs. This one off three-run job by Matt Shaw.

And the Cubs have broken it open. A 7-1 lead over the Yankees here in the third. I really like the Bush-regman segment of the program. I think that is something you could see on a regular piece. Killer B's. Don't you love that? Yes, I do love that. Yes, Zach was a great inning.

I was listening at the time. Nothing wrong with Shaw hitting home run. No, Shaw's great. I mean, look, if you want to hit a home run, nice that he's playing right. field. I don't think that he committed an error. I need to double check this. Yeah. And so that's a good day in the outfield because you'd like to see him make some progress out there. Not so crazy about that as a regular. But say a Suzuki, not going to be there for opening

day. No, finally announced it. Finally put him on aisle. Finalize that. And you're like, okay, fine. Take your time. He can be back by April first. That's good. That's not a joke. But the the manager, Craig Counsel, said maybe between the third to fifth. So a couple good things happened yesterday besides the offensive onslaught. Shoda, five innings, two runs. So I'm strikeout judge. Did not give up a home run. Judge might not hit another one after what happened in the world base.

He's pretty down. Yeah. You look at him and he looks a little defeated. Or is that just the rest of us looking at him and seeing defeat. Speaking of, how do you think he felt? looking at the mound in the sixth inning and oh there's gasillencia oh boy daniel palencia a perfect sixth and it was weird to see him like hit the ground and try to crawl his way to first because of the horrible flashback he went through he's a beaten man yes that didn't happen the judge

should have recused himself from the lineup brought back too many bad memories nice see Daniel Police in his last outing of the spring. Next time we see him might be Thursday. Saving the game against the nasty gnats who are in town to open the season, provided the weather agrees. I'm pretty sure you don't need him

on Thursday. You don't know that. You don't know that. I think I just said it. No, I don't think you can tell you that. I think the parade of home runs needs to continue and you need to have a very comfortable opening day. That'd be fun if the Cubs become this home run hitting barrage

just for a day anyway of a lineup. That would be great. That would be great if they could, but I mean, I'm just saying, I'm not sure you're going to need your clothes. They scored 15 against the Yankees without PCA. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

15 against the Yankees. The Yankees are never going to recover. Yankees play again tonight. I think Garrett Cole's on the mound for them, and then they open the season tomorrow on Netflix. On Netflix. Congratulations to Netflix. that unbelievable

group. Yankees Giants Interleague matchup, extraordinary. Yeah. It's great to see a good money grab payoff. Well,

it's got to play a subpoly. I'll be watching. I think it'd be fun. Are we allowed to watch that game? Depends how late it goes. Yeah, I guess that's... Everything's about how late things go.

I'm just so worried about Thursday. I'm trying to... Planning ahead, pacing ourselves. Where is the best place to sandwich a nap? a nap in there or to nap a sandwich in there. One of the two. Yes, Thursday's going to be a long night.

That sounds like, that just sounds like a lot of cleaning if you're napping a sandwich. It might be. Got Eitho. I rolled over onto pastrami. So this PCA thing, though, we don't know the terms, which is interesting. We know that they're finalizing the length of the deal, which is to take him anywhere between, according to the various reports. Six is the least amount.

Six and nine years north of $100 million. That's good. Probably plenty of incentives. What we can go on are previous deals to guys who were similarly aged and I think as high as ceilings. Jackson Merrill, the Padre Centerfielder a year ago, April of 2025, signed a nine-year, $135 million deal. That's nice. He was 22 when he signed it. That's nice.

Jackson Cheerio of the Brewers back in December of 23 before the 24th season was even younger when he signed. I think he was 19 and he signed an eight year, $82 million deal. That's a lot of dope. So the incentive with these players, I think, is to provide the kind of financial security before they've actually accomplished too much in the game. And from the team standpoint, I guess it gives them cost certainty. They're buying out arbitration years. And it's very appealing for a guy like Pete Carr Armstrong. who you could envision being one of your foundational pieces.

And he is 24? 24 tomorrow. What a birthday present. How about that? Give me the pen. Let me sign. Give me the cake. Let's say he signs the deal tomorrow, but you forgot to get him a gift.

Do you give him a belated present or do you ask for one? You don't need to give him a present. You ask. Just say it. Do you demand one from him or do you, go ahead and get him pretty generous guy. You don't know. He's going to do a lot of good

in the community. You know that he's going to be a guy that is as visible as he has been. This offseason as you alluded to, he has been everywhere before spring training. You imagine that given his roots in the area, I think his father's from Naperville.

Right. So he does have some family here. This is great for Chicago. It's great for the Cubs. And because of the way, it's not just a player that's productive, it's the person that comes with that. And he's definitely somebody that embraces all that comes with being a cub and a visible part of that, that organization. I remember one time having a conversation with the late Michael McCasky, and he was talking about giving Walter Payton a check for a million dollars and just what it was like to pay a person

a million dollars and how amazing it was. And I remember listening to this and thinking, wow, a million dollars. Now that's chump change. The way sports have grown and the way all these contracts have blown up, I don't even know how to imagine what it's like to go from making nearly a million, not even 900,000, but nearly a million, to actually getting tens of millions. and it's just extraordinary how much money is.

Certainly life-changing, and he was a guy who was making south of a million dollars. I think he was $890 this year. They're scheduled to make that. And now, depending on the details that will likely get later today, I would imagine that his agency would like to get the numbers out there, provided they reflect a fair market deal. And I don't think the Cubs sign this without doing that. And the other thing that we have to at least address is that teams have been reluctant or we always, we ask the question constantly this ass off season, how the looming work stoppage would affect the approach to investing in the future.

There's no question we've asked that. And I think we've asked that because they've talked about it. It's not like we made it out of thin air. No. They talked about it. But the Cubs have proceeded as if that's not an issue. It's pretty impressive. The $175 million invested in Bregman, now with the long-term commitment to Pete Crowe Armstrong, it's as if that is something that the Cubs are willing to take on that responsibility knowing what everybody fears.

Is that a work stoppage looms? Yeah, there's no doubt about it. But, I mean, really, worst-case scenario, you lose a season. I don't think they're going to end baseball. It's just too profitable. Right. They will eventually come to some resolution. But it is, without question, a real commitment to a young guy to go ahead and get this deal done in this fashion.

Now, in the meantime, let's get back to the big news. I did not expect, Russ, that was part of the surprise for me, was the Cubs not only reporting this extension, close to the beginning of the season with the home opener, the season opener being two days from now. Pekar Armstrong's birthday is tomorrow. This is a heck of a birthday present. For them to do this, I feel like the timing of it was unexpected. I think when you're talking about extensions in Major League Baseball, usually the window to do it is between the starter of spring training and opening day.

So like you're at the tail end of that window, but think about where we were a year ago, where those conversations were starting to bubble up of could the Cubs extend Pete Crow Armstrong? And remember last year, I'm like, you don't really have to. And at that point, Pete hadn't proved anything yet, right? We still had questions about the bat. Could he be an everyday player where you're like, okay, this guy is a player that you build around for a long time? Then he has the first half that he has. And it's like, okay, for Pete, you're probably like, all right, let's hold off.

Like, let's keep cooking and see how the season goes. And then we see the second half where the numbers dropped off dramatically. And then going into this year, the Cubs big expectations, but you expect Pete and they expect Pete to be a big part of it. And you're like, you know what? if we're going all in or the Cubs version of all in, and you make the moves they made and bring Bregman in, and you look at their roster after the 2026 season where they have money freed up,

and you're like, okay, we believe in Pete and his talents, and we believe that he's a guy at a premier position that we can have locked in for a long time and maybe have some value if we do this now, maybe this is the right time to do it. And go ahead. No, I was going to say, even as for the numbers,

which are glaring from one half to the next. Obviously, it's a projection by the Cubs that he's more of what he was in the first half and the second half. But what do you think he is? What do you think? Is he a 30 home run guy? Is he a 20 home run guy? Is he under 20 home run guy? That's such a great question.

I don't know the answer to it. And I think if I had to take my best guess, I think PCA is an 800 OPS guy. with a premier glove in center field, which I think makes you an all-star. Right? So if you're saying he's an all-star caliber player, and we don't have the numbers yet, and there's reporting going on,

and people trying to figure that out, I think from conversations I've had in the last 12 hours, and for everybody out there, contract extensions are based on player comps. So when a team and an agency get together and say, hey, let's talk about an extension, you're talking about, okay, what are the comparables, the comparables in the last, we'll call it five years to this guy. And so I made a list because I knew I was going to talk with you guys about it.

For PCA, if you're talking about centerfielders or outfielders who are in his age range that have been extended in the last four years, you're talking about Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners, who signed a 12-year, $209 million extension. Good call on Julio. Then you have Jackson Merrill was nine for 135, Roman Anthony, beginning of one. last season was 8 for 130 and then Corbyn Carroll was 8 for 111. Corbyn Carol. So if I'm thinking about what these numbers are going to be, because Pete already has some service time and a lot of those guys didn't have a ton of service time, this might be

a six or seven year type of extension where you buy out all the arbitration years and then you add on a couple of the first years of free agency. probably in that $85 to $95 million range with escalators that take it over $100 million, but it would fall in line with those deals. I think you're right to bring up the escalators because I know Jackson Trio doesn't fit all the comps, but he was like, wasn't division.

That was before he ever made his debut. Yes, and I was thinking about him as part of this because division, young, offensive firepower, as we know. And then he was the number two prospect at the time, but it was the escalators that made that one different. because of the worth of the two option years in 32 and 33. But that's the point, though, is that ultimately this is smart money when you consider how the league is moving. And look what happens when your talent is not locked down.

I still can't really put into the proper terminology the value of Kyle Tucker's contract based on the years of deferral because that's also kind of the point is that it isn't just a way to help ensure a guy's career. It's a way to ensure generations for them ahead. And that's why the deferred money is so attracted to a lot of these players. That comes from how to do that because they did something like this. Yeah, you save yourself some money and teams are always trying to do the let's pay them before they're like really, really good. Right. And that's where you get, they're trying to do at the beginning of last year. And that's how you get the Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, like these guys that signed these massive Vladimir Gero Jr., even though he signed an extension, but like what he ended up

getting $500 million is what he would have likely gotten had he hit free agency. That's how you get those types of deals done. And so I think for the Cubs, you're getting value because you don't necessarily have to pay top of market money, but you're also rewarding Pete Crowe-Armong and saying, we do believe in you being a foundational piece going forward. And for a player, you're like, hey, I saw what I can be. I also saw if things go the other way. And while you still believe in yourself, we just never know.

Like, look at how hard it was for me to say who PCA is as a player, girls, when you ask me. Because I don't know, and I don't think Pete knows yet. I just say he doesn't know. He doesn't know. I think he saw what he can be, but with such a high variance type of player where it, I hate the word, the term boom or busts, but that's what we saw last year. A lot of boom in the first half, a lot of busts in the second half.

And so I think it's finding that consistency where you get that, everyday player that is 800 OPS with the defense. It's lazy to do the White Sox comp, and I get it because it's in town, and they're very different things in some ways. But I think when you consider Luis Robert's extension at six years and $50 million, and then the fact that the socks willingly, knowing they might not have a trade partner for him, picked up the option for the $20 million loan year by itself, that gives you an indication of how it is still a deal for many of these players, regardless of the actual

production at the end of that contract. Yeah. You know, and I think for what that, and the white tax are, and I know people were upset, they were still able to move it at the end of the day. That's it. Right? Like, you were still able to move it. And when you think about a lot of deals once you get past contract extensions, when you

get to free agency, et cetera, a lot of these deals are hard to move. right when you talk about guys that sign the 10 for 300 10 for 350 10 for 400 it's really hard to move a deal like that because teams are like I don't really want to take on bad money at the end when that guy's 36 37 38 and he's hit and he's a sub 700 OPS and we have to think about eating this money I don't necessarily want that but when you're talking about like a Fernando Tatis junior type of deal where it's 341 over I believe that one was 13 years when he signed it and looked like great value for both sides at the time. That deal is movable. But when you talk about on the same roster, Manny Machado, right, if the Padres, for whatever he doesn't want to say, hey, we want to move Manny Machado, it'd probably be really hard to move him at $350 over 10 or what that value is now, pro-rated. 14-3-40. 14-3-40. So, yeah, I think the 8.

plays a big role here. And I think the Cubs, you're paying for the prime years. And I think a lot of times that's what teams are thinking about. Like, can we pay for the prime years or entering the prime years, save some money in terms of the arbitration years and those free agency years? One other part to this, and it's not the most important part, but I can't think of too many former Cubs players who have embraced stardom as much as Pete Crollron. Armstrong, Javier Baez comes to mind, Sammy Sosa comes to mind, but he is, as I like to say, he's a touchable cub, as in he likes signing autographs, he likes hanging out with kids, he likes the bleacher creatures.

Like, it's the peripheral part of it, but he's kind of a perfect Chicago Cubs star from the PR standpoint. Every team needs that guy, like the budding personality, walks into the room and everybody just like, oh, that's a dude, right? Before he even says anything, you're going to always have your quiet leaders, your more reserved type of dudes, but you need your personality, the guy that gets people to go to the ballpark, the guy that gets people really excited. There are a lot of really young Cubs fans. They're like, I want to be like PCA. Like, that's a real thing. And they don't have a lot of that even on this team right now. They're all very quiet,

grinder, do your work and go home, guys. And now, if you're one of those kids, you don't now get to grow with PCA being on this Cubs roster. I want to get into more of that as well with Russ Dorsey as we are, man, we are almost 48 hours before opening day. How about that? That is quite the thing. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody. We are with Russ Dorsey, who has his own podcast now, the relay with Russ.

Source is confirmed. I've been running right now, right? Yes. Yes. Yahoo Sports is National Baseball Insider. He's an insider and analyst for MLB Network. and Friday night baseball on Apple TV Plus. So, Warren Pekro Armstrong's extension,

and also what we can't expect to see just over two days away on opening day. Next. There is a lot of stuff. There's stuff that's interesting to both of us that didn't even make the rundown, didn't even make the show. Yeah.

So let no one tell you it's a slow time in sports. There's a million different things. And that was even before this news broke late last night. About 10 o'clock our time, somewhere between 10 and 1030 that Pete Crowe Armstrong and the Cubs have agreed on an extension. We'll be fascinating to see the official terms. We knew that last year around this time, the Cubs had gone and offered him something that ended up being reported as about $66 million.

And now this one, according to Bob Nightingale, is well over $100 million. dollars. Jackson Merrill of the Padres signed a deal last year for nine years and one thirty-five. I think he's a little bit more of a polished hitter than Pete and is an interesting kind of player. So you've got that as one of the tent polls. I looked at Corbyn Carroll's contract extension from 23. That was eight years and 11. That's a couple years ago. So we'll see where it is. But very, very common occurrence to try and buy out the rookie contract and some of the arbitration years and maybe a year of free agency as well for Pete Crow Armstrong. We saw Rick Hahn do this. This was, I always thought it was like his superpower of being like, you know what, we like you, you like us. Let's just get these arbitration years like out of the way.

And let's sign something that makes you feel good and makes us feel good. With Pete, I think it is a little bit more complicated because he's already, we know that he is a platinum glove level defender. And he was able to hit 30 bombs last year. And it was rocky once we got to the second half of the season. I still think that there's all sorts of untapped potential there, which surprised me a little bit that he signed. But when you think about next season and what might not be and you go,

well, there's a lot of money that's sitting on the table for me right now. And I can just have it. I can just sign this and I can have it. And then if by the time this is over, Pete's still, what, 29? Yeah. At the end or 30 at the end of this, if he's the player that he thinks he is, that we hope he can be, he'll get another bite at the apple and the money will be huge at that time. I join you in having the initial reaction of like, wow, I'm surprised Pete did that right now.

A little light, right? Well, it's just, but if you're him, consider that. you had the massively great first half, but then the big second half fall off, and you're not exactly sure what kind of offensive player you're going to end up being. You're not exactly sure, and you're hopeful, and the Cubs aren't exactly sure, but they're hopeful. But like you said, if you're the Cubs, you know very well. You've got a brilliant center field or probably the best one in all of baseball, a brilliant base runner, and a guy with a tremendous amount of pop.

And if you're Pete, you get that feeling of, ah, Mom, dad. We made it. We made it. I got guarantees of more than $100 million. You know, we can all just know everything's going to be all right. And we're going to have a great old life and have generational wealth if we play our cards right. And then, yeah, maybe get another bite later on.

But mom, dad, we made it. We made it. And the hope is that he doesn't feel if he's great, like he doesn't feel bad about it. Two years from now he's sitting there going, man, I... Who'd you just think of? Because I just thought of a player in our lifetimes, Lawrence, goes back a little ways. Who'd you think of? Different sport.

Scotty Pippin. Scotty Pippin signed a contract extension. That he was told not to sign. That he outplayed dramatically. Dramatically outplayed it. And he spent the last few years of his contracting life, contracted life, upset about it and resentful. But you know what's interesting now that we say this part out loud? Look at Scotty since then.

Scotty has spent a lot of his life upset and resentful. But now he's Mr. Pib. I did see that. It's unbelievable. It's a very like whoever thought of that campaign for Scotty Pippen is brilliant. And I don't know if our guy Roy was in charge of that or not. I don't know. But that is a brilliant.

If you guys have not seen the Scotty Pippin' Mr. Pib commercial. Scorn Pippin. You need to check it out because it's like, oh, I see what you did this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I see what you did there, too. You mentioned documentaries. But like, yeah, exactly. But every time you sign a player to one of these kind of deals, including the Rick Hahn signings, there's a risk.

You're gambling on the makeup of the person. Yes. Are they invested in wanting to be great, trying to be great, so is the effort going to stay there as they get paid? And if you're Pete, are you going to be comfortable? Are you going to get complacent? Are you going to get resentful? It's all about who you are as a person. See, it's weird.

And I don't think Pete's going to be that way. don't have any questions about that part of it. From either perspective, right? I think Pete's going to bust his ass. If I'm the Cubs, I think Pete wants to be great and has the makeup of a guy who's going to keep trying to be freaking great. Yeah, I don't know if he'll get to that place. I don't either.

But I know that he won't stop trying. And that's like, you can tell, like, even the anecdotes, even the stuff that I learned where in December, he's in the cage. at Riggly. Like he wasn't out in L.A. Not that there's anything wrong with him being out in L.A. But the fact that he was here and he was taking hacks at Riggly Field doing stuff. Like I think there is a genuine desire for him to be great.

I do worry about what happens to him if he's not. But, and that's like this season even, I'm worried about if he's not as great as he thinks he can be, how does that impact him? But I don't think that it'll impact him to the point where he stops trying to be great. You know, it took a call the other day from a guy on hit and run who's like, his bust still on the table for Pete Crowe Armstrong, thinking back to the conversations we had after I got back from Mesa and people were concerned about Pete swinging at bad pitches.

It's hard to just have bust on the table when you're a gold glover. I don't think it is on the table for exactly that reason. I don't think it is. You're, you're, you're, you might be the best defensive player at the, at one of the two or three most important positions on the field. Like, and you are lightning fast when you do get on base. But just his, his presence as a defender means that bust is, is off the table. I, I don't, I don't think it is. Like, if he is, if he's a guy with an on-base percentage that hovers around 300 or even below 300,

and he's a guy who it's 25-30 homers, and he's a guy who strikes out 160, 100-70 times. That's not a bust. That is not a bust. You might get to the end of the contract and say, man, he was smart to sign what he signed, but I don't think bust is on the table.

Well, I mean, I know that Ian Hap gets on base and he provides a little bit of pop, but if you think about it in terms of how much Ian makes per year, because what, with this past extension, what Ian make 20, 20 a year? So let's say that Pete's around 20 to 23 a year on his deal. If he's what he was in the second half of last season, offensively, but is still that guy defensively, how do you feel about it?

You know? Not great, but you're talking about six years down the road. What does that number look like compared to the rest of the league six years down the road? And what have you gotten value-wise for the front end of it? I mean, is there a chance? You're looking at the Luis Robert contract feel to those final couple years. But think about the Robert discussions we had the last couple years where we were, both of us were right when we would say, I can't believe they're paying that guy that much.

Or we'd say, that's actually not that bad a contract for what you're getting. Like these things have a way of sometimes ending up in the middle of the conversation. Texers, a couple of them have brought up the idea, and I think it's a good one. if the floor is Jason Hayward, you know, like if he's a guy that hits 20 bombs, but he plays excellent defense, we don't have the whole contract yet, by the way. But if we're saying that it's 21, 22 a year and he ends up being Jason Hayward, I think you're probably fine with it because of the way that finances in baseball are going. But you'd love to see him play closer to the top of.

his potential. I think Jed Hoyer has said this about him before that he's a great player, even if he's not hitting. But if he hits, he's a superstar. I mean, so if he hits, this is going to be a contract that you feel great about. And you're saying, you know. He's a four-war player without hitting. It's like our guy, Nico, who's what, a six-war player without homering? Yes. That might change this year. Yeah, we've been discussing it. Mm-hmm.