The similarities are a little uncanny at the times of their respective contract extensions.
Following the 4 year $45 million extension of Geraldo Perdomo last week, I posed in one of the Dbacks communities that general manager Mike Hazen just did it again and asked what if Geraldo Perdomo is the next Ketel Marte? This comment was met about how you would expect. The gist of the responses was I shouldn’t be disrespecting Ketel Marte by comparing him to Geraldo Perdomo. However, let me explain. Let’s rewind the clock a bit shall we?
The year is 2016 and Mike Hazen had just taken the job as the Dbacks general manager in October. The Dbacks were coming off of a season in which they had just lost 93 games and the Dave Stewart/ Chip Hale era was finally over. Hazen’s first move as the Dbacks GM came when he called Jerry Dipoto of the Seattle Mariners and he acquired Taijuan Walker, a former top prospect who was considered at the time to be a budding ace by most. The Dbacks gave up Jean Segura, Mitch Haniger, and Zac Curtis in the deal, but most Dbacks fans including myself were so stoked to acquire Taijuan Walker we didn’t really care who we gave up! This trade was known by most Dbacks fans at the time as the Taijuan Walker trade. However the Dbacks did acquire another player in the deal. A 22-year-old SS who was just coming off of a 68 OPS+ season.
The following spring, the now 23 year old didn’t even make the team out of spring training. It wasn’t until Nick Ahmed went down with an injury that they called the SS up. The SS hit .260 with an OPS+ of 88 in 73 games for the Dbacks in the rest of 2017.
During the following spring training in 2018 Hazen and Kendrick signed the 24 year old switch hitting SS to a 5 year $24 million dollar extension. A move that was mostly more of a ‘meh’ move for most of the mainstream Dbacks fans and baseball community because the shortstop hadn’t really done much offensively in his previous 3 years of MLB experience. Is this sounding familiar yet?
By now you have probably realized that the SS I have been talking about is Ketel Marte. Just like Perdomo, Marte hadn’t really shown much offensively prior to his extension. Let’s see just how similar these 2 players were at the time of their contract extension signings:
It is kind of crazy at the times of their extensions just how similar these 2 players were offensively. Let alone they are both switch hitting shortstops from the Dominican Republic. In nearly 1,000 MLB plate appearances Ketel had just 8 home runs. My guess is if you told fans in 2018 that Ketel Marte was going to hit 30+ home runs in multiple seasons wearing a Dbacks uniform you would be met with some skepticism.
The purpose of me writing this was not in any way shape or form to guarantee that Geraldo Perdomo is going to be the next Ketel Marte. A lot can happen in baseball. However I wanted to illustrate this so that people will have a better appreciation for the move that Hazen and Kendrick just made with Perdomo. Honestly if I had to choose between extending 1 of the players above, I would probably choose Perdomo over Ketel not knowing what Ketel was going to turn into. Pretty crazy isn’t it?
Even the sizes of the extensions are weirdly similar. Ketel at 5 years and $24 million and Perdomo at 4 years $45 million. I’m not an economist nor is that the point of this article especially considering all of the options and other signing bonuses and performance escalators, but adjusting for inflation $24 million in 2018 is probably fairly close to $45 million in 2025.
If nothing else this comparison should highlight just how much development could be left for such a young player like Perdomo. I think people forget he is just 25 years old due to the way he carries himself and the respect he gets from the team. Most fans have probably relegated his potential to being a utility level infielder with below average offensive production.
Perdomo could have a lot more left in the tank from a developmental standpoint. And while it is natural for fans to want the next best thing in the form of a shiny new prospect with more power potential, I’m not writing off Geraldo Perdomo’s offensive potential just yet. Especially considering all of the other intangibles Perdomo brings to this team. And who knows, if history repeats itself the extension of Geraldo Perdomo could be remembered as one of the most impactful moves of the Hazen era.