Today on Rates and Barrels, we break down the American League, picking division winners, wild cards, and making our awards predictions. Let's go.

Welcome to Rates and Barrels, it's Wednesday, March 25th. Happy opening night.

Derek Van Riper, Enosaris, Britt Jiroli here with you on this episode.

We break down all three divisions in the American League.

Make those award predictions.

And we have some baseball news you should know as we get started.

How about another extension, Brit?

Pete Crow Armstrong gets a new deal with the Cubs.

We are still awaiting terms at the time of this recording, but knowing that they were working on a deal

this time last year and seeing the season that Pete Crow Armstrong put together in 2025,

you can imagine that it's a much larger deal than it would have been had they agreed

to terms a year ago. Yeah, he's a guy who kind of waited and I always think a judge, one of the good

guys who wait, but obviously he didn't end up hitting free agency, but he bet on himself and he had

a great year. And I think what the Cubs are trying to build guys is that young Corrigan that they

had when they won the World Series. They're trying to, you know, have these guys stick around, be Cubs for a while longer. And PCA is such a huge part of what they do. You know, in talking to people over there, like he's everything that they want to be moving forward. And he's kind of the ideal candidate they felt like to, you know,

not all these guys are going to be able to sign extensions.

That's true of any team with, you know, young talent.

But I think when you look at a guy like PCA, what he brings to the table.

And, you know, he had a great team USA, WBC, like continuing to build on that.

I think Bobby Wood Jr. is another guy who really has taken that main stage and performed and really upped his presence. So for them to get PCA, I feel like if they had waited any longer, it might have gotten too pricey. So they kind of did a good job threading the needle here. I would expect that it's well over $100 million, right, for a deal like this now.

Like it's just going to have to be. And you're right, a year ago, certainly wouldn't have been in that same stratosphere. So good for them, good for the Cubs. And I wonder, I think we talked about this maybe last week or two weeks ago, if we're going to see more extensions for players because of a looming potential work stoppage. If we're going to see guys that don't want to sit around and not know what's going on,

and they're like, you know what?

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