Mention the business of professional sports, and the first thing to come to most fans’ minds will be the large contracts that the top athletes earn for playing kids’ games.
Free agents indeed earn mega deals with enough wealth to allow the next few generations of an athlete’s family to live in comfort, but the path to those nine-figure deals have plenty of potential potholes. From injury to slump to scandal, there’s plenty that can go wrong before an athlete reaches that second contract.
On the flip side, one of the biggest assets a sports franchise can own is a superstar player who is still on their first contract. These youngsters are producing at an All-Star or Hall of Fame level, but they’re still being paid rookie wages, allowing the team to spend its budget money to acquire veteran supporting players around him.
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Normally, when a player is performing at a sustained level of excellence, a team will reward him with an early contract extension, essentially buying out the last few years of the rookie deal with a hefty raise, while getting a discount on the first few years of what would be a second contract. The Atlanta Braves have been proactive in locking up most of their core players with these types of deals, including Ronald Acuna, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson, Michael Harris, Sean Murphy and Spencer Strider.
They don’t get to reap the benefits of paying those players peanuts over the next few seasons, but it will pay off in the long run, as Atlanta has them at a bargain, compared to the contracts unrestricted free agents will be signing over the next few years, through the expected primes of their careers.
NBA teams regularly lock up their top stars with similar extensions, keeping franchise players like Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett off the free agent market with big contracts, and the NFL does it as well, with Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts signing big extensions to wipe out the ends of their rookie deals and keep them in town a few extra seasons.
Here’s a look at the top stars of sports who are still on rookie deals, waiting for that extension or their shot at the open market.
5 Adolis Garcia
- Texas Rangers (MLB)
The slugger has emerged as one of the top rising stars in baseball with an amazing postseason run that has the Rangers in the World Series—although an injury cut his World Series short. The Rangers have gone on spending sprees, acquiring veteran talent each of the last two seasons, bringing in Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, a pair of middle infielders whose combined deals top half a billion dollars.
Trade deadline acquisition Max Scherzer is making $43,000,000 a year, and Jacob de Grom is in the first year of a five-year $185 million deal. And Garcia, perhaps the MVP of this high-priced team? He’s making $747,000 this year. He is eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason, unless Texas steps in with an extension first. Either way, he should see his salary take a huge leap upward.
4 Trevor Lawrence
- Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL)
The top pick in the 2021 draft, Lawrence will be eligible to sign an extension after this season. NFL rookie deals are for four years, and teams are allowed to extend them following year three. Lawrence has turned around the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars and has lived up to expectations, unlike the quarterbacks picked behind him: No. 2 pick Zach Wilson, No. 3 Trey Lance and first rounders Justin Fields and Mac Jones.
Lawrence’s deal was for just over $36 million, but most of that was signing bonus. His salary this season is $940,000. The most recent quarterbacks to sign extensions, 2020 draftees Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts, both got five years, $255 million, so look for Lawrence to be pulling in $55 million a year or more in the very near future.
3 Brian Burns
- Carolina Panthers (NFL)
The star defensive end sat out Carolina’s preseason games in the hope of getting an extension. That didn’t come to fruition, so he returned to the field, hoping to get traded to a team that would extend him. The trade deadline has now come and gone, so he will play out his full rookie deal, then look to cash in.
Burns finished his four-year rookie contract last year, which paid him a total of $13.5 million, and the team picked up the fifth-year option on the deal, giving him a raise to $16 million this season. He’s looking to sign a deal that will pay $30 million a year in the offseason.
2 Paolo Banchero
- Orlando Magic (NBA)
The NBA pays its young players the best of any of the major pro leagues. Of course, they also pay their veterans better than the other leagues, so the gap between first contract and the ones that follow is even bigger.
Banchero, the top pick in the 2022 Draft, is in the second year of a four-year deal that pays $50.1 million. He’s getting $11.6 million in salary this year and is eligible to talk extension after the season.
1 Victor Wembanyama
- San Antonio Spurs (NBA)
The top pick in this year’s NBA Draft is only five games into his NBA career, but his unique blend of size and skill has captured league observers by storm. He has the potential to be a breakout star, although there are concerns over his slim build making him injury prone.
If he can stay healthy through the next two years, he’ll likely get a max deal when extension time comes. For now, he’s earning $55.1 million on a four-year deal that pays just over $12 million this year.
