Ken Rosenthal reports that the San Diego Padres are close to signing first baseman Wil Myers to a six-year contract for more than $80 million.
Myers is arbitration eligible for the first time this year and would not be able to reach free agency until 2020, meaning that this deal would cover all three years of arbitration and three of his free agent years. He just turned 26 last month, so it would cover his age 26-31 seasons.
Myers is coming off a year in which he hit .259/.336/.461 with 28 homers and 94 RBI in a career-high 157 games. He made the All-Star team as well. Long term contracts for corner guys like Myers are not always great deals, but this is a good one given his age, the relatively low dollars involved and the fact that his 2016 season showed him to be both durable and capable of realizing the extraordinarily high expectations people had for him as a prospect.
A nice deal for San Diego.
