I seriously don't understand the angst over this. Why are people so bent out of shape to extend guys beyond 3 years from now, if they aren't willing to take club-friendly deals?
I know people want to extend this window as long as possible, but it's already a pretty big window. By tying up your salary flexibility extending ALL your young players, there's a 50% chance that you prolong the window, and there's a 50% chance that you close the window yourself. I have no problem with Rizzo saying (if he WERE saying this, which he might not be): there's injury risks with Zimmermann and Strasburg, and there's performance risks with Desmond and Espinosa. Why not wait a year or two to see how those issues play out, and extend some or all of those guys after we have more data points with regards to those things.