No service time? No problem.<\/p>\n
Mariners prospect Colt Emerson made history Tuesday before even getting called up to the big leagues, reportedly signing an eight-year, $95 million extension with Seattle. FanSided’s Robert Murray<\/a> first reported the news.<\/p>\n According to Spotrac<\/a>, Emerson’s deal is the largest in MLB history<\/a> for a player with zero service time. The No. 22 pick in 2023 out of high school, Emerson has rapidly ascended to Triple-A and could debut as early as this year.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at the five biggest contracts, in terms of base value, ever signed by prospects before their MLB debut:<\/p>\n 2026: Colt Emerson, Mariners (8 years, $95 million, $130 million max)<\/p>\n The 20-year-old Emerson reset the market<\/a> for top prospects. A shortstop, Emerson projects to be the Mariners’ starter in 2027 — with a chance for an early call-up this season. He’s the No. 7 prospect in MLB Pipeline<\/a>, atop Seattle’s loaded system<\/a>. In his first three games of 2026 for Triple-A Tacoma before signing his extension, Emerson went 5-for-14 with a home run.<\/p>\n 2023: Jackson Chourio, Brewers (8 years, $82 million, $140 million max)<\/p>\n Jackson Chourio still holds the record for max value of an extension<\/a> with no service time, but Emerson surpassed him in base value. The Brewers outfielder quickly developed into a star, finishing third in 2024 Rookie of the Year voting. Still just 22 years old, Chourio hit 21 home runs in each of his first two MLB seasons.<\/p>\n 2026: Cooper Pratt, Brewers (8 years, $50.75 million)<\/p>\n One day before Emerson’s extension, the Brewers handed out more than $50 million to Cooper Pratt<\/a>. The shortstop is No. 62 in MLB Pipeline<\/a> and only figures to rise after his solid spring training<\/a> (.294 batting average in 18 games). Pratt, 21, was a sixth-round pick by Milwaukee in 2023 out of high school.<\/p>\n 2020: Luis Robert Jr., White Sox (6 years, $50 million, $88 million max)<\/p>\n This contract<\/a> initially looked like a steal for Chicago, but Luis Robert’s production and health tailed off after a hot start to his career. The outfielder was second in 2020 AL Rookie of the Year voting and won the Gold Glove in center. He played just 166 combined games in the next two seasons before a resurgent All-Star season in 2023, but missed 114 games over the following two seasons. Chicago traded Robert to the New York Mets<\/a> in January, with one more season (a club option for $20 million) remaining in 2027.<\/p>\n 2019: Eloy Jimenez, White Sox (6 years, $43 million, $78 million max)<\/p>\n The White Sox started the trend of big-money extensions<\/a> for prospects in 2019 with Eloy Jimenez. Like Robert, though, he couldn’t stay healthy — and his production wasn’t near the same level when he was. A Silver Slugger in 2020, Jimenez only played 100 games once (in 2023) after his 2019 rookie season. He’s bounced around to several teams in recent years, now playing on a minor league contract<\/a> with the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStarting this season, Major League Baseball is rolling out the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS), a new high-tech way to challenge calls. Here\u2019s everything you need to know about how it works and why MLB is introducing it.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No service time? No problem. Mariners prospect Colt Emerson made history Tuesday before even getting called up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-576793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}