No Progress on Melky Cabrera Extension: Report

Once Melky Cabrera started rolling along on his ridiculous hot streak, there was plenty of talk about getting him an extension. Melky said he'd love one, and Brian Sabean said he wouldn't be opposed to it.

But according to a report from ESPN's Buster Olney, there hasn't been much progress made on an extension for the Giants outfielder.

"Melky Cabrera is on the verge of free agency without progress toward a long-term deal with the San Francisco Giants, sources say," Olney wrote on Thursday. "Cabrera is in a great position to cash in, because he had a 201-hit season in 2011 and is on a pace for 248 hits this year."

Olney then briefly discussed what Melky could possibly earn this offseason, citing Carl Crawford's seven-year, $142 million deal from the Red Sox, and Adam Jones recent six-year, $85.5 million deal from the Orioles.

In other words, we've now hit a new stratosphere with the Melky contract talks. Just about two weeks ago, I wrote that there was speculation that Melky could earn something along the lines of Aaron Rowand's deal with the Giants, which paid him $60 million over five years.

So Melky's gone from being a very nice offseason addition to being discussed as possibly getting a huge contract to getting a hypothetical $3-6 million raise on that hypothetical contract.

If this trend continues, you can call the dogs off on the Giants giving Melky an extension during the season, unless his stats continue on the same current pace. (And if that happens, Melky will laugh at the idea of not going to free agency and straight cashing in.)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Melky's an awesome player, and he's crushing it this year. But you can't draw up a potential albatross of a contract to a player based on two months of production.

Baseball seasons are long and there's a strong-to-quite-strong chance that Melky starts slumping at some point. And that is the time to strike on a new deal, not while Melky's coming off a month that featured him breaking a record set by Willie Mays more than 50 years ago.

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