Oakland A’s Lefty Brett Anderson Gets Contract Extension

You may know me as FanSided’s resident Padres expert, but my true love in baseball is the Oakland A’s. I write about them for another site.

It made me particularly excited, then, that my A’s locked up their best pitcher, lefty Brett Anderson, for four years at a bargain price of $12.5 million. The deal could go up to as much as 6/$31.5, but if Anderson stays anywhere near as good as he is now, let alone improves, you can count this as a huge win for the A’s.

Fangraphs’ post on the extension says it perfectly: The A’s have a very high chance of getting much better than market value on the deal, but it makes sense for Anderson because it provides him financial security after just one year; if he suffers a career-altering injury, he still has $12.5 million to build the rest of his life on.

Over on Swingin A’s, Joseph Lopez also praised the deal, saying “There’s no question that Anderson is the real deal, and that’s why I absolutely love this deal. Hopefully, this will lead to the A’s willingness to sign and lock up some of their young talent (Kurt Suzuki?).”

Overall, Anderson is probably one of the ten best starters in baseball right now, and paying him just over $3 million for the next four years…well, that’s a coup for the A’s, who haven’t had a pitcher locked up past his free agency in a very long time. Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, Dan Haren, and others have been traded, and Barry Zito was allowed to walk. Perhaps the tide is turning for the traditionally small-market franchise.