The Ruiz contract has a negative impact on the organization far beyond it being a sunken cost. There has been a clamoring on this site to sign Abrams and Wood to a long-term contracts. If you were the Lerners' and also having been burned by Strasburg and Corbins' contracts would you be reluctant to sign any player that has a few years track record?
They absolutely were not burned by the Corbin contract. We wouldn't have won in 2019 without him. Yes, his ERA sucked after then, but we weren't going to win with the team around him, especially once Schwarber and Strasburg went down.
Strasburg, yes, obviously the worst contract in ML history.
Beyond that, they had a few guys they tried to sign who fortunately went elsewhere: Rendon, Desmond, Zimmermann. And a few who got away: Soto and Harper. And we've debated to death whether or not losing Harper was a net benefit since it meant we kept Eaton in 2019.
Bottom line is that like with anything else, some extensions work out, some don't. If this team thinks that Wood & Abrams are long-term players, then you extend them. I expect they will try and extend Wood and trade Abrams when one our other shortstop prospects is ready.
