Cooper Pratt’s extension sets the stage for Milwaukee to lock up another top prospect

Extending top shortstop prospects before they make their MLB debuts is apparently the new trend, one which the Milwaukee Brewers helped kickstart by giving Cooper Pratt an eight-year deal mere days after he made his Triple-A debut.

Colt Emerson and the Seattle Mariners were the first to follow, agreeing to a $95 million deal that usurped Jackson Chourio's record total for a player with no MLB experience. Meanwhile, Konnor Griffin, the best prospect in baseball, appears poised to agree to an even larger extension with the Pittsburgh Pirates, nearing a deal worth an estimated $140 million over nine years.

Suffice it to say, teams are moving quickly to lock up their best prospects. So, that naturally begs the question: Are the Brewers stopping with Pratt? Or could another deal be looming on the horizon?

Jesús Made's market has been set, offering Brewers a chance to extend another top prospect

As good of a prospect as Pratt is, he's not in the same tier as Jesús Made. The former (21 years old) is closer to being MLB ready and has the glove to stick at shortstop, but his $50 million agreement merely set the bar for Made to clear.

Emerson is the better comparison (Griffin is truly in a prospect class of his own). Both he and Made are five-tool shortstop prospects most renowned for their hitting abilities. Made (18 years old) is both younger and farther away from the majors (he's played five games above High-A), but he's also got the higher ceiling.

Extending Made to a similar deal (i.e., for eight years and about $100 million) would lock the Brewers' middle infield in for roughly the next decade, assuming one of he or Pratt moves to second or third base to accommodate the other.

That raises questions about the future of many players already on the Brewers' roster, including Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz. It would also leave fellow top prospect Luis Peña without a future defensive home in Milwaukee. Are those enough reasons to keep the front office from negotiating a deal with Made?

If you want to know why these prospect extensions are all clustered in the same window, the lockout and whatever CBA fallout comes as a result certainly is playing a part. If the owners push for a salary cap as hard as everyone is claiming, they'll have to make a lot of concessions, including increased pre-arb salaries and perhaps even less team control before free agency.

I also wager that people are disregarding the value of cost certainty when faced with uncertain times. Teams want to know where their payroll stands in the long term before the economics of the sport change. It's a valuable thing to know you're prepared no matter what comes next.

That would be the benefit of locking down Made alongside Pratt — there would be no ambiguity about the team's long-term commitments, whether or not a lockout actually happens.

This is a complicated web of pros and cons for the front office to navigate, but they may have already shown their hand by signing Pratt. Made is the best prospect in the system; keeping him around through his twenties is probably good business, no matter the cost.