What would an Albies' contract looked like this offseason?
The baseball free agent market is among one of the oddest things to follow among the major U.S. sports. Often times it can feel like a drag, and in others we get a frenzy of deals that blow past the initial projections.
Had Ozzie Albies not signed his contract extension back in 2019 he would be a free agent this offseason, thanks to the six years of service time he has accrued. And if Ozzie could've hand picked a market to be a free agent in, this year's free agent market would've ranked quite high.
Considering the largely inconsistent Cody Bellinger (who as of writing is still unsigned) is regarded as the top position player in this year's free agent pool, Albies' consistent excellent play would've made a sound argument to get him a BIG payday.
In each season Albies has played at least 65 games (four seasons to be exact), he has generated at least a 3.7 fWAR in each. Let's circle back to our player comp for Ozzie, that being the second baseman down in Houston. Before signing his first big contract, Jose Altuve had slightly better career numbers and was coming off an MVP season in 2017.
Altuve still had two club option years left on his original contract before he cashed in on the MVP season with a seven-year $163.5 million contract in March of 2018. Given how the market has risen each year since, it's not far-fetched to assume Albies could've gotten $200 million this offseason thanks to his production and age.