A great way to determine if a contract was market value or team friendly is to guess at the player's trade value after signing the contract. Joey Votto is signed for the next decade for just under what it would cost to buy the Oakland A's. There aren't a lot of teams -- if any -- that would trade a player for that contract. The Yankees would trade Mark Teixeira for Votto, surely, but it'd be hard to imagine a hypothetical trade for Votto without another contract going the other way.
Ian Kinsler Extension Does Not Include No-Trade Clause
Ian Kinsler on a five-year deal, with $75 million guaranteed, is still a player that other teams would covet. I'd wager that several teams would trade good prospects for the privilege of Kinsler and his contract. That probably means it's a great deal for the Rangers. And it gets better:
There is NO extra no-trade provision for kinsler, tho he does get the automatic 10-5 protection midway thru new deal
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) April 10, 2012
Not that the Rangers are thinking about trading him. And as Heyman points out, after the 2015 season, Kinsler will qualify for 10/5 protection -- with ten years in the league and five with the same team, he'll automatically get no-trade coverage.
But if Jurickson Profar goes nuts over the next couple of years, and if Elvis Andrus develops into a fantastic hitter ... heck, who knows? Stranger things have happened. For now, Kinsler is a Ranger until his mid-30s. His contract isn't that cumbersome, though, so the lack of a no-trade clause is interesting, at least.
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