Early in 2017, Lindor turned down a contract extension rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. At the time, it looked like a sound decision on Lindor’s part, choosing to bet on himself with the expectation he could garner an even better deal down the road.
Then the winter of 2017-18 happened. MVP-caliber players like J.D. Martinez, front-line rotation arms like Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish, and World Series champions like Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain are still looking for jobs well into January.