MLB Most Valuable Assets

The unanimous National League Cy Young Award in 2025 at 23, on a 1.97 earned run average, and Pittsburgh pays him close to the league minimum for one more winter.

Forty-one home runs and 36 stolen bases through September 9, at 24, the first 40-homer, 30-steal season in the franchise’s history. The extension the Cubs signed does not start until next season, which means the best year of his career is being paid at a pre-arbitration rate.

A second consecutive All-Star selection at 23, and second in the American League MVP conversation this season. Tampa Bay has him for four more years before free agency and has not opened extension talks.

He debuted on opening day. Detroit signed him through 2034 before he had finished his first season.

Boston’s leadoff hitter at 22, signed for eight years and $130 million in August 2025 before he had played a full season. The deal pushes his free agency into the middle of the next decade.

Twenty-two years old, signed for eight years and $82 million before he had played a major league game. Two club options can carry it to 2033.

A shortstop who has already put up a 25-homer, 67-steal season at 22. He turned down what was reported as the largest extension Cincinnati has offered anyone, so the Reds hold him three more years and then find out.

Twenty-three, with four more years of club control. Washington acquired him in the trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego.

A 37-homer season from a shortstop at 23 is the kind of production clubs pay nine figures for; Baltimore is paying arbitration prices for two more years of it.

Signed for nine years in his first full season, which buys San Diego his entire prime and a club option on the year after it.

.311 with 38 home runs and 95 runs batted in through September 9.

A batting title, 32 home runs and 31 stolen bases from a shortstop in 2024, on a contract Kansas City structured to run as long as fourteen years. The opt-outs from 2030 are the cost of getting that many.

Twenty-four, in his second season. He reached 200 strikeouts in 129 innings, the second-fastest anyone has got there.

Rookie of the Year in 2023 on a 25-homer, 54-steal season, signed to an eight-year deal before any of it had happened.

The largest contract in the history of North American sport, fifteen years with no money deferred, signed at 26.

Two consecutive National League MVP awards, both unanimous, after two earlier ones in the American League, and a 1.79 earned run average across fourteen starts this season before a left knee problem shut down his pitching. Of the $700 million, $680 million is deferred to 2034-43, which is why the Dodgers could keep building around him.

Six years and $170 million for a left-hander Boston acquired and immediately committed to, with an opt-out after 2030 that is his leverage rather than theirs.

Twenty-two, the first overall pick of 2022, with Super Two arbitration possible after this season and four or five years of control behind it.

Twenty-four, three years of control remaining, and a Rangers club that moved him to the majors within a year of drafting him.

The second overall pick of 2023, 24 years old, with as many as five years of club control still to run.

Fourteen years and $500 million signed in April 2025, with a record $325 million of it paid as a signing bonus. A .263 season with seven home runs in 2026 is the first year of that deal going the wrong way.

Rookie of the Year at 21 and then a contract that Seattle structured to run, in its longest form, into the late 2030s.

Sixty home runs in 2025, more than any catcher has hit, and second in the MVP voting. A 2026 average under .200 is the sharpest fall on this list, and the extension was signed before it.

Back-to-back American League Cy Young Awards and the pitching Triple Crown in 2024, traded to the Dodgers at this year’s deadline for three prospects.

Three MVP awards, the American League home run record, and a batting title in 2025 at .331. He missed from May 31 to September 8 this year with a stress fracture in a rib and is 34, which is what a nine-year contract signed at 30 eventually looks like.

A shortstop who has carried the Mets since the contract was signed, now 32 with five years still to run on it.

Moved to shortstop in his thirties for a club that has won two of the last three World Series, with six years left on the deal.

A World Series MVP shortstop at 32, with five years remaining.

Twelve years for a starting pitcher, which no club had done before, on a Dodgers rotation that has since added Skubal.

Traded from Boston with eight years still owed, which is a rare thing for a contract this size and tells you what the Red Sox thought of the remaining term.

Thirty-four, with seven years to run, on a deal San Diego re-signed rather than let reach the market.

Two MVP awards and a contract that runs through his age-38 season, five years of which remain.

Fourteen years signed at 22, which looked enormous then and looks ordinary now against Soto and Guerrero.

The best second baseman in the National League on an extension whose final year is reported differently by different outlets, which is why this cell does not state one.

Six years and $141 million signed in 2026, for the defensive infielder a wild-card Cubs club is built around.

Traded from Baltimore to Boston at the deadline with a year and a half of control left, which is what a catcher fetches when his club decides not to extend him.

A catcher signed for eight years before his rookie season had finished, at a price that looks small next to what the position costs on the open market.

Eight years and $95 million for a shortstop who reached the majors this season.

Seventeen home runs as a rookie and an eight-year extension signed in July, which puts his free agency past 2034.

Eight years and $60 million signed early, the cheapest long-term deal any of this rookie class has taken.

A debut on April 3, five home runs and more than 20 stolen bases in a season a finger injury interrupted for two months. The nine-year extension has been reported rather than announced, which is why this cell says so.

The first overall pick of 2024, an All-Star in his rookie season, with the whole of his club control still ahead.

A rookie season in the Mets rotation that has drawn Rookie of the Year support. His line is reported differently by different outlets and so is not quoted here.

An All-Star as a rookie, with six years of control in front of him.

Seven years and $210 million signed last winter, the largest contract Toronto has given a pitcher.

Among the highest-paid pitchers in the game at 36, which is the age at which this list stops paying for the past.

Four years and $240 million at $60 million a year nominally, though $30 million of it is deferred, which drops the present value below that. The two opt-outs belong to him.

Among the American League leaders in runs batted in at 31, on the five-year deal Baltimore gave him last December.

Forty-three home runs through September 9, the most in the major leagues at that date, at 33, re-signed by Philadelphia for five years last winter.