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Old 11-28-2017, 10:05 AM   #2
eriqjaffe
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The club basically retains all rights to a player for the first six years of their major league service time. The first three can be league-minimum contracts, and the player is arbitration eligible for years 4-6.

There is nothing stopping a club from negotiating a contract that essentially overrides that structure, however. In real life, the White Sox signed Tim Anderson to a 6-year contract after he had only accrued a year of service time (in fact, slightly less than a year). It could actually be an 8-year deal as there are a couple of team option years at the end of it.

Essentially, if you do nothing, nothing will happen. The player will get another $508k contract next year. However, if he's good it might be worth signing an extension that buys out those early years because it often winds up being less expensive. I also hold a theory that if a player wants an early extension and you ignore it, they'll be less likely to sign an extension with you when free agency looms.
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