The Braves became the target of many people’s ire earlier this month when they signed Ozzie Albies to a seven-year, $35 million contract extension that will, if Albies turns into the kind of player he looks destined to become, go down as one of the most appallingly team-friendly contracts in baseball history. Plenty of theories about why Albies decided to lock himself into a below-market deal so early in his career have been floated, but none have been worse than Reds broadcaster Chris Welsh’s.
While discussing the contract extension during last night’s game between the Reds and Braves, Welsh implied that Albies could have signed the extension because he is too poor and uneducated to know the difference between $35 million and $85 million:
It’s unclear what would make Welsh think this about Albies (who speaks four languages), other than the fact that he is from Curaçao. Aside from this being a rude assumption to make, it’s not even a necessary one. Albies has already explained why he took the early extension:
Prizing immediate financial security and interpersonal relationships over potential long-term earnings is a perfectly reasonable decision to make. There’s no reason to think anyone making such a decision is too stupid to understand the difference between two large numbers.