The San Diego Padres recently inked their young superstar Jackson Merrill to a massive contract extension that could be worth up to $200 million in total. Merrill finished as the runner-up in the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year voting, falling just short to Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes. After such an impressive season, it's no surprise to see Merrill get paid.
The Boston Red Sox followed suit by signing their top prospect Kristian Campbell to an eight-year extension worth $60 million. The young infielder has gotten off to quite a hot start this season as he earned the starting second base job coming out of spring training.
Arizona Diamondbacks star Ketel Marte also signed an extension this week, but these young stars aren't the only players around the league who could be signing extensions this season.
Who could be the next young star to ink an extension?
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Yankees young star speaks out about potential contract extension
The New York Yankees have multiple young stars they could look to sign to contract extensions in the near future. The first one that comes to mind is shortstop Anthony Volpe, who's off to quite a hot start this season.
When asked about a potential extension, Volpe had a very simple answer.
“If anything like that happens, we’ll cross that bridge when it comes,’’ Volpe said, h/t Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com.
While Volpe is the most obvious player to land a Campbell-like contract extension, he's not the only one. Jasson Dominguez and Austin Wells make a lot of sense as well. The Yankees are seemingly bought in that these two are key pieces of the offense going forward, especially if they can continue to develop.
Volpe's value is only going to go up from here, especially if the torpedo bat continues to help him produce elite results. The sample size is too small to tell if the bat is truly having a huge impact on Volpe, but the initial results are astounding.