The Rays and prime infield prospect Curtis Mead have had some discussions concerning a potential contract extension this spring, experiences Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). There’s no indication a deal is probably going or imminent, although the talks add an attention-grabbing storyline to Tampa Bay camp.
Mead, 22, has nonetheless but to make his main league debut. Initially signed by the Phillies as a global beginner from Australia, he was dealt to Tampa Bay over the 2019-20 offseason for left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. Mead hadn’t even reached full-season ball on the time, however he’s appeared a powerful discover for the Rays’ scouting division. The 2020 minor league season was scrapped because of the pandemic, however Mead has mashed since returning to sport motion in 2021.
The fitting-handed hitter mixed for a .321/.378/.533 line throughout a trio of minor league ranges that season, topping out at Double-A. He break up the ’22 marketing campaign between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham, placing collectively a .298/.390/.532 mark with 27 doubles and 13 dwelling runs in solely 76 video games. The majority of that work got here in Double-A, with Mead solely taking part in in 20 video games on the prime minor league stage. That’s largely as a result of an elbow harm that value him virtually the entire season’s second half, maybe dashing his possibilities of reaching MLB final yr.
Tampa Bay made the plain resolution so as to add Mead to their 40-man roster this offseason to maintain him out of the Rule 5 draft. He can nonetheless be optioned to the minors for 3 consecutive seasons and appears prone to begin the 2023 marketing campaign again in Durham. If Mead continues to hit on the stage he has the previous two years, nevertheless, he’d get an enormous league look earlier than lengthy.
Mead heads into this season ranked between twentieth and fortieth on prime prospect lists from Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic and FanGraphs. Evaluators are effusive of their reward for his bat, although there are a variety of questions on his long-term defensive match. He’s performed primarily second and third base within the minors; nevertheless, there appears to be a good quantity of danger he’ll ultimately have to maneuver to left subject or doubtlessly work primarily as a delegated hitter.
No matter Mead’s defensive end result, the Rays are clearly enamored sufficient along with his bat they’re open to tacking on their window of membership management. Tampa Bay already controls him for no less than six seasons. Sending him again to the minors early in 2023 — an affordable sufficient resolution contemplating Mead’s lack of Triple-A expertise and an infield combine that already contains the likes of Jonathan Aranda, Brandon Lowe, Wander Franco, Isaac Paredes, Yandy Díaz and Vidal Bruján — would seemingly delay his path to free company by a further season. Mead does have the prospect standing to doubtlessly “earn” a full yr of service time even when he’s not within the majors for 172 days as a part of the prospect promotion package deal within the collective bargaining settlement, however he’d want a prime two end in Rookie of the 12 months balloting to take action.
There have been a handful of extensions for gamers who hadn’t but made their massive league debuts. Jon Singleton, Scott Kingery, Evan White, Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert have all signed such offers since 2014. Singleton was assured $10MM, whereas White and Kingery every locked in $24MM. Jiménez secured $43MM. Robert holds the report for such offers with a $50MM assure.
Robert and Jiménez had been typically considered as higher-caliber skills on the time of their offers than Mead is now. Jiménez had ranked as Baseball America’s #3 prospect on the time of his contract; Robert was ranked the game’s #2 minor league expertise when he put pen to paper. Kingery (BA’s #31 prospect in 2018) and White (#54 in 2020) match extra into the bucket during which Mead now finds himself: wonderful prospects however a bit behind the sport’s really elite minor league skills.
Neither Kingery nor White has met their golf equipment’ expectations up to now. Each groups would absolutely like a do-over on these contracts, although even the misses have had a reasonably modest impact on the groups’ books. White is making $3MM this season and can safe $7MM and $8MM, respectively, over the following two years. Kingery is due $9MM this yr, together with a buyout on a 2024 membership choice.
The Rays don’t spend wherever near Philadelphia’s stage and are even a methods again of Seattle, so a deal for Mead can be somewhat extra dangerous than the White or Kingery ones had been. Nonetheless, the potential payoff of locking up a high-end expertise at below-market charges is sufficient for groups to have curiosity in this type of association. Tampa Bay hasn’t reached any extensions with gamers earlier than their MLB debuts, however they’d made out exceptionally nicely on early-career pacts for Evan Longoria and Brandon Lowe earlier than both had reached 50 massive league contests.
