Braves sign Austin Riley to ten-year extension

Braves sign Austin Riley to ten-year extension

Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley has agreed to a ten-year, $212 million extension with the club through the 2032 season, with a club option for 2033, the team announced Monday evening.

Riley, 25, originally had three years of arbitration left on his deal after this season. The extension will buyout those three years, earning $15 million in 2023, $21 million in 2024 and $22 million in 2025, according to the aforementioned press release.

It also mentions that he’s expected to make $22 million annually from 2024-32, with a $20 million club option for the 2033 season. Assuming the team accepts the club option, he won’t be entering free agency until his age-37 season in 2034. He is currently one of two Braves players — the other being Matt Olson — set to make north of $20 million per year in 2024.

Riley, a former supplemental first-round pick in the 2015 draft, bounced up-and-down between the bigs and Triple-A Gwinnett as a rookie in 2019. He had a subpar 2020 season, but put it all together in 2021.

He slashed .303/.367/.531 (.898 OPS) with 33 home runs and 107 RBI’s, finishing seventh in the NL MVP voting and earning the Silver Slugger award at third-base.

Riley followed up with an even stronger 2022 campaign, making his first All-Star team. He’s clubbed 29 home runs — to go along with 31 doubles, one triple, driving in 68 runs in 101 games. In all, Riley’s posted a .301/.360/.604 slash line and has recently entered the conversation for the NL MVP award yet again.

He and Aaron Judge were indisputably the two hottest hitters across MLB in the month of July. Riley hit .423 with a 1.344 OPS, crushing 15 doubles, 11 home runs and tallying 25 RBI’s. His fruitful production helped the Braves go 18-8 — the second-best record in the NL and third-best in baseball — over that span.

On the year, Riley’s wRC+ is up nearly 30 percentage points from 135 to 163; his hard-hit rate has increased from 35.3 percent to 44.5 percent; and his barrel-rate has jumped from 13.3 percent to 17.6 percent. He’s in the 95th or above percentile in average exit velocity, barrel rate, expected batting average, hard-hit rate and expected slugging percentage — per Baseball Savant.

All in all, this is a smart extension from the Braves and well-deserved for Riley, who’s slowly, but surely, entering his prime years. This could also drive up the price for other third baseman on the market, namely Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers — who’s not a free agent until after the 2023 season — barring an extension (which he deserves).

This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for details.

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