Bit of a weird situation, the 2025 definitely didn’t warrant a contract over 300m, but then he had a monster postseason would likely would have secured him 500m even as a free agent.
So, best case scenario would’ve been that we wait out the year, Vlad pops off in the playoffs like he did, and we let him walk to the Mets/Redsox for 500m.
As it stands, its nice for the org to lock up a “superstar” player to play his whole career here. Debatable if he should be considered a “star” and if he will ever come close to that production again. We just need to hope this is a blip season.