For better or for worse, MLB teams do their best to try and get young players who they believe will be future superstars under control long-term on contracts that they hope will age well. Corbin Carroll, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Julio Rodriguez are prime examples of that, as are Ronald Acuña Jr. and Jackson Chourio — all of whom sacrificed years of free agency for an upfront payday. Some of these deals age well. But some, obviously, do not.
With every MLB team trying to find the next big star on a cost-effective deal, there are several young players all across the league playing their way into new lucrative extensions of their own. These five in particular stick out.
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5) Bryan Woo might be the best of a Mariners loaded rotation
The Seattle Mariners are a team known for their starting pitching. Luis Castillo is a three-time All-Star, George Kirby might be the best control pitcher in the sport and Logan Gilbert could be the most underrated pitcher in the game. An argument can be made, though, that Bryan Woo is the best of the bunch; and if he isn't the best, he's darn close.
Woo has been a mainstay for Seattle since debuting in 2023 and has been one of the best pitchers in the league so far this season. The right-hander has a 2.40 ERA in 10 starts and 63.2 innings of work. He's fanned 63 batters on the year while issuing only eight free passes, which is astonishing.
Perhaps the most impressive quality Woo has to offer is his consistency. He has gone at least six innings in all 10 of his starts this season, which, for the present-day game, is really hard to do. He's allowed three earned runs or fewer in eight of his 10 starts and has allowed one run or fewer in half of his appearances.
Woo doing this at 25 years old has Mariners fans dreaming about what he can do when he reaches his prime. He doesn't hit arbitration until after the 2027 season, and it certainly is risky to lock down a pitcher long-term, but extending him now could result in the Mariners having one of the best pitchers in the world on a very team-friendly deal through his prime — which can be huge for a penny-pinching team like Seattle.
4) It isn't too early for the Nationals to commit to James Wood
James Wood is slashing .284/.378/.542 with 13 home runs and 36 RBI in 53 games this season. He has hit more home runs than Rafael Devers, driven in more runs than Alex Bregman, a higher on-base percentage than Juan Soto and a higher OPS than Kyle Tucker. Oh yeah, he's 22 years old and in his first full MLB season, too. Is that good?
Wood is putting up these numbers as a 22-year-old with limited experience on a Nationals team mostly bereft of talent. Pitchers have no reason to throw him strikes. He takes his walks when they don't, and he hits mistakes when they do. He has the patience of a 10-year veteran.
At 6-foot-7, Wood is as intimidating a player as there is in the game, and the fact that he's in the 93rd percentile or higher in metrics like barrel rate, hard-hit rate and average exit velocity, according to Baseball Savant, only adds to that. Wood's two biggest weaknesses (if we can even call them weaknesses) at the plate is that he hits the ball on the ground too much and doesn't pull the ball in the air enough. Again, he's 22 years old, and has had this much success in spite of those flaws. Once he learns how to do those things, watch out.
If he isn't already one of the best players in the game, Wood will likely be considered in that tier in short order. It might be scary to pay a player who hasn't even finished a full MLB season yet, but Wood is the real deal. The Nationals should see if they can get a deal done now, rather than risk getting priced out like they did with Juan Soto.
3) Zach Neto is MLB's brightest star nobody talks about
The Los Angeles Angels might be a team not many MLB fans want to watch, but they have some young talent on the rise. Zach Neto is a big part of that. He is establishing himself as a star, and it feels as if nobody is giving him any recognition because of the team he plays for.
Last season, Neto hit 23 home runs and stole 30 bases for the Angels, and he's taken another step forward this season. The 24-year-old is slashing .283/.324/.551 with nine home runs and 20 RBI in 35 games played. Despite missing the first couple of weeks of the season, Neto is tied for 49th among position players with 1.4 fWAR, ahead of players like Gunnar Henderson, William Contreras and Bryce Harper. He's done this while playing in fewer games than everyone ahead of him on the list, and with a subpar supporting cast.
The Angels are a mess, but Neto is a player worth watching and worth building around. He looks like someone who can lead the Angels for the next decade if they pay him. They ought to try and get a deal done sooner rather than later.
2) Hunter Brown is establishing himself as one of MLB's best starting pitchers
Admittedly, Hunter Brown struggled his last time out, allowing five runs in five innings in a loss against the Tampa Bay Rays. In his nine starts prior, though, he had allowed a total of nine runs in 56.2 innings of work (1.43 ERA). Brown doing that after posting a 2.26 ERA in the second half of last season shows that he's a budding star.
He's had his bumps in the road with the Houston Astros, but right now, Brown looks like a bonafide ace. He's tied for 5th in the AL with 71 strikeouts, is sixth in the AL with a 2.04 ERA and is fourth with a 0.91 WHIP. If he isn't in the Cy Young conversation right now, he likely will be by the end of the season.
The time for the Astros to extend Brown is right now. He's slated to enter arbitration after the season, and is set to hit free agency after the 2028 campaign. We've seen the Astros let guys like George Springer, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker depart either in free agency or via trade in recent years. Letting Brown do the same in just three years when he'll almost certainly be considered one of the best pitchers in the sport would be a brutal outcome.
1) The Cubs might've already missed their chance to extend Pete Crow-Armstrong
It's been well-documented that the Chicago Cubs tried and failed to extend Pete Crow-Armstrong. Their last public attempt to do so came before he had done much at the MLB level. Now, though, Crow-Armstrong looks like a budding superstar.
We've known about his defense and speed, but his bat has been the real story. Crow-Armstrong is slashing .280/.310/.565 with 14 home runs and 48 RBI. He's tacked on 14 stolen bases as well, in addition to his usual outstanding defense in center field.
Crow-Armstrong has been one of the best run producers in the Majors this season despite hitting towards the bottom of the Cubs lineup for much of the year. His glove and speed make him a valuable player already given how important speed and defense are for center fielders, but his bat being this good this soon has Cubs fans thinking that the sky is the limit.
Since Crow-Armstrong already turned the Cubs down at least once, it might be too late for Chicago to get anything done with him now. If Crow-Armstrong is willing to negotiate, though, the Cubs should do what they can to try and get him to sign the dotted line.