Why Teams Give Near-MLB Prospects Guaranteed Millions
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 875 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2026
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno, DVR, and Britt discuss a pair of eight-year extensions for two yet-to-debut shortstops -- Seattle's Colt Emerson and Milwaukee's Cooper Pratt -- before looking back at Roki Sasaki's first start of 2026 and digging into why the lofty expectations around him are unlikely to fall anytime soon. Plus, Andrew Baggarly joins the show to for our (belated, blame DVR) Giants season preview.
Rundown
1:50 Colt Emerson Gets Eight-Year Extension from Mariners
9:33 Cooper Pratt Gets Eight-Year Extension from Brewers
19:19 Examining Roki Sasaki’s First Start of 2026
25:45 The Weight of Expectations on Roki
33:15 Justin Verlander’s Return to the Tigers
41:04 An Immaculate Inning From Michael Soroka
42:43 2026 Giants Preview with Andrew Baggarly
43:39 Overall Impressions of Tony Vitello Early in Year 1
46:03 Luis Arraez’s Long-Term Future at Second Base
50:13 The Buster Posey Era: Is This Team Better Now Than It Was A Year Ago?
55:32 Assessments of Landen Roupp, Tyler Mahle & Adrian Houser
59:21 The Bullpen Comes Into Focus
1:04:54 PECOTA’s 82-Win Projection: Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social
Follow Britt on Bluesky: @brittghiroli.bsky.social
Follow Baggs on Bluesky: @andrewbaggarly.bsky.social
e-mail: ratesandbarrels@gmail.com
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
With: Britt Ghiroli & Andrew Baggarly
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Why would a Major League team give a player without a day of service time in the majors a $95 million contract? |
| 0:06.0 | We'll break it down. Let's go. |
| 0:08.0 | Welcome to rates and barrels. It's Tuesday, March 31st. |
| 0:21.0 | Derek Van Riper, Inoceris, Brittgeroli here with you on this episode. |
| 0:26.2 | We have two somewhat surprising extensions that have happened over the last 24 hours or so. |
| 0:33.2 | The Mariners and Brewers getting in on the fun, giving eight-year deals to a pair of players that we have not seen in the big leagues yet. |
| 0:41.8 | Colt Emerson and Cooper Pratt, we're going to break that down. |
| 0:44.5 | We put some players under the microscope on the Tuesday slate, including Roki Sasaki, who made his season debut after a bumpy spring. |
| 0:53.3 | We'll talk about what we saw in that first outing against |
| 0:55.8 | the Guardians and where we think things are going from here. And later on in the episode, |
| 1:00.2 | we have our Giants Season Preview with Andrew Baggerly. Britt, how's it going for you on this Tuesday? |
| 1:07.0 | It's going well. When you said Giant, I thought you just meant like huge. And then I was like, oh, Andrew Vagherly. Okay, it's the Giant Season Preview. The Giants, of course, finally get a win, right? Did you guys see Tony Vitello barefoot celebrating? Enjoying himself. Yeah. Yeah. It was a 26-minute preview. |
| 1:28.0 | I don't know if it made it into the giant level of season preview. |
| 1:31.8 | But if we could do 90-minute season previews on every single team next year, I would love to do that. |
| 1:37.2 | I don't know if that's actually possible. |
| 1:39.4 | Yeah, you really get into the weeds. |
| 1:41.3 | Nobody wants that. |
| 1:42.9 | That's right. |
| 1:43.7 | How's it going for you on this Tuesday, you know? |
| 1:46.3 | I'm doing great, ready to go. Let's start with some baseball news you should know. Colt Emerson approaching an eight-year, $95 million deal with the Mariners. |
| 1:57.0 | And of course, Colt Emerson has not made his big league debut yet. This contract will break the record, previously held by Jackson Churio, who got 82 million guaranteed from the Brewers before playing a day in the big leagues. And it's going to include a ninth year club option of full no trade clause and escalators that could bring it to a value above $130 million, |
| 2:20.7 | these details and the news first reported by Robert Murray of fancited. |
... |
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