San Francisco Giants, Matt Chapman sign rare contract extension in September

According to multiple reports Wednesday night, the San Francisco Giants have seen enough from one of the players in their 2024 free agent class to extend his contract for a six-year period.

Third baseman Matt Chapman, whose contract with the Giants included a player option for the 2025 season, agreed to a new deal that eliminates the final two years of his previous contract and keeps him in San Francisco through the 2030 season. Chapman will earn $151 million, an average of just over $25.1 million per season, under the reported terms of the new deal.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan and The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly were the first to report the news on Wednesday.

Chapman has had a nice bounce-back season in his return to his native Northern California, hitting .247 with a .333 on-base percentage and .445 slugging percentage (.778 OPS) in 136 games for the Giants. His 121 OPS+ is on pace to be his highest since 2019, when Chapman made his only All-Star team.

The Oakland A’s, the team that drafted Chapman in the first round years ago out of Cal State Fullerton, traded the 31-year-old to Toronto before the 2022 season. In his two years with the Blue Jays, Chapman struggled at the plate compared to previous years but was a more than capable defender at third base. He won his fourth career Gold Glove Award at the position in 2023.

However, Chapman’s free agent value declined after a season in which he hit .240/.330/.424 (.755 OPS). His 17 home runs were his fewest in a non-pandemic season since his rookie year of 2017, when Chapman appeared in just 84 games.

As a result, Chapman agreed in March to a three-year, $54 million contract that would pay him through the 2026 season if he exercised a player option in his contract for the next two years. If Chapman did not opt ​​out, he and the Giants had a mutual option for the 2027 season.

Chapman’s agent, Scott Boras, rarely negotiates extensions for clients who have the chance to test the open market. Players rarely negotiate long-term extensions in September, regardless of who represents them at the negotiating table.

Clearly, the mutual affinity between Chapman and the Giants was strong enough to make an exception.

San Francisco (68-72) lost on Wednesday to the Arizona Diamondbacks (79-61), the team directly above them in the NL West standings, making them even more irrelevant in the playoffs.

Whether their 2024 season ends in a few weeks or more than a month, the Giants didn’t want to wait to extend their franchise third baseman.