Before hip surgery knocked Matt Chapman out of the 2020 playoffs, the A’s had offered their superstar third baseman a 10-year extension worth $150MM, writes The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. After the hip injury, rejecting that offer was a decision that caused some second-guessing on Chapman’s part. Some two years after Oakland attempted to extend Chapman, the offer exists only as a comparative tool.
Chapman will play out his remaining arbitration seasons in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform. The Jays maintain team control over Chapman for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, after which the Scott Boras client can head to free agency to test open waters. Rosenthal crunched the numbers and found that Chapman will need to essentially sign a six-year, $122MM deal when he reaches free agency to make his decision to reject the extension look like a wise one. That’s doable if he’s able to stay healthy.
On the field, Chapman was healthy again in 2021, and again a Gold Glove Award winner at the hot corner. He ranked tied for fourth among third baseman in defensive runs saved by The Fielding Bible awards in 2021.
His offense, however, didn’t quite return to its previous heights. With a .210/.314/.403 line across 622 plate appearances, Chapman’s 101 wRC+ was the lowest mark of his career, though certainly a respectable enough number when paired with first-rate glovework. Being another season away from hip surgery could help Chapman rebound further in 2022, and playing his home games away from the Coliseum won’t hurt either.