When I first saw that outfielder Roman Anthony agreed to an eight-year, $130 million contract extension with the Boston Red Sox, I was confused. I didn’t understand why a 21-year-old phenom would sign a contract so soon, for so little, just months into his rookie season. He could get so much more money in two, three, four years, once he had MLB experience under his belt, I thought. 

But as I peeled back the onion, I realized that it is one of the smartest moves I’ve seen. It works to what each side would want; it provides financial security for Anthony — especially considering it could be worth up to $230 million with incentives — and gives the Red Sox control over their top prospect for years to come.

But it’s not one of those Juan Soto-esque deals with numbers that near 10 figures. It’s not one that tries to over-predict the future. It’s not even one that screams “Roman Anthony is a Red Sox player for life” or one where the Red Sox know the benefits they reap could be concentrated in the first few years, considering he will still be under 30 years old when it expires. Rather, it’s something less flashy but more important: it’s low risk, high reward. 

That’s what makes this a unique deal. It’s not the 15-year deal we often see teams give superstars, especially when they’re young like Anthony is. It’s not going to carry him through his prime, and he and the Red Sox don’t have to inherently be bound together for the rest of his career. It’s not going to carry him through the triumphs of the three stages of his career: when he enters his prime, when he’s in his prime, and as he approaches the end of his playing days. In fact, for the first half of the deal, he’ll be ascending into his prime.

At its core, the deal balances the upside of Anthony with the long-term interests of the team. In baseball terms, $130 million for a guy who could be a franchise cornerstone — and this contract seems to signify the Red Sox believe Anthony is that, given his age and the length of the deal — feels like a bargain. The deal makes it clear that the Red Sox believe Anthony is a foundational piece of the next decade, — and it avoids arbitration. Instead of paying him near the league minimum for a few years and then navigating the escalating costs of arbitration, the Red Sox locked in cost certainty now, while Anthony secures guaranteed money well before he would’ve hit free agency.

At the same time, because it’s not a ridiculous contract, it avoids the potential of his career going awry and the Red Sox getting stuck with a half-billion-dollar, Bobby Bonilla-like deal for decades. It leaves room for the two likeliest possibilities to both work in the team’s favor; either Anthony becomes a star and the Red Sox underpay him or he becomes more of an average player and the salary is closer to appropriate.

On top of that, if the Red Sox for some reason want to move on from Anthony — say the team has three or four down years — his trade value won’t be diminished because he has a poorly-structured contract. He will be making about $16 million per year, well below the average for elite players — and the expectation is that he will be elite.

Time will tell what happens, and I see no reason to believe he will be anything but a great player, but either way, the Red Sox have room and money to build a contending team. They don’t have to spend the next few years playing the wait-and-see game with the outfielder, weighing a long-term deal, or playing a numbers game to sort one out. With Anthony locked up, they can focus on filling their other needs without having his contract hanging over them.