Nolan Arenado Is The Rare Baseball Superstar That Deserved A Big Pay Day

Nolan Arenado and the Colorado Rockies have agreed to a massive contract extension. Arenado will continue to rock a Rockies jersey after signing an 8-year, $260 million contract. Arenado will also have the option to opt out of the deal after 3 years. Arenado’s average annual value of $32.5 million is the largest ever by a position player. This is a great deal for the Rockies for one reason, Nolan Arenado is one of the few rare superstars that deserve big pay days.

Arenado has great qualities and he checks off all the boxes. The Rockies 3rd baseman has been in the league 6 years. He won the gold glove every single year. He’s arguable the best defensive third baseman ever. Over 6 years, Arenado has a 13.3 WAR with just his defense. If Arenado didn’t hit at all, he would have won the Rockies that many games just with his glove. Defense at third base should age well. There’s no reason to believe that he can’t replicate what Adrian Beltre did at third.

Arenado, 28, also has an elite stick. He’s won the Silver Slugger at his position 4 years in a row. He has also led the National League in home runs in 3 of the past 4 years. Over that stretch, he has a batting line of .297/.358/.573 batting line with 158 homers and 159 doubles. That’s what an elite player produces. Not this fanboy Bryce Harper .249 bullshit. Arenado is no worse than a top 5 player in the sport.

Sure, playing in Coors Field helps, but Arenado is flat out good even without the home field advantage. His OPS+(129) and wRC+ (127) which factors in ball park factors, suggest that has been 27 to 29 percent better than that of a league-average hitter since 2015. There’s no metric that you can pull up to slander him. Nolan Arenado is just that damn good.

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Arenado is one of the few superstars that deserved this kind of a pay day. He’s in his prime and comes with zero baggage off the field. He plays both sides offense and defense at an elite level. Outside of Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, JD Martinez, Jose Altuve, Francisco Lindor, and Aaron Judge – that’s about the entire list of guys that deserve monster pay days. Arenado is one of those guys.