The Baltimore Orioles on Friday became the latest team to sign a prospect with little or no experience in the major leagues to a long-term contract extension. They signed top catching prospect Samuel Basallo to an eight-year, $67M contract extension not long after calling him up to the majors. It is a bold move, but not one that’s totally unheard of in modern baseball. It’s a way for teams to get some cost certainty on a player they anticipate being a star, it’s guaranteed money for a young player who would spend the next six years playing for set amounts and it is also some security for that player in the event they do not pan out or get injured. Now that Basallo in the majors and signed, it is worth asking who the next prospect to get that sort of investment should be. It’s actually a very easy answer: It’s infield prospect Konnor Griffin of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Griffin has rocketed his way through the Pirates system and is already up to Double-A at the age of 19. He has also rocketed his way up MLB’s
