According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Athletics have extended right fielder Lawrence Butler for seven years and $66.5 million. With the A’s set to play a pair of spring training games in Las Vegas this weekend, the team is making sure to be in the headlines, with the club also announcing the hiring of former Las Vegas Raiders president Marc Badain for the same role with the green and gold.

Butler, 24, broke out in a big way in July of 2024, and finished the second half of last season as one of the top-10 bats in baseball. From July 1 on, he hit .302 with a .346 OBP, slugging 20 home runs and driving in 49 RBI. He also swiped 14 bags in that span for good measure.

During that stretch, he had a 167 wRC+ (100 is league average), which ranked him No. 8 behind guys like Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Yordan Alvarez, and Brent Rooker. He was also just a touch better than Francisco Lindor (166). That’s some elite company to be in for that length of time, and if his start to spring training has been any indication, he’s not going to be slowing down in 2025.

So far he has gone 9-for-16 in camp, good for a .563 average, adding two homers and five RBI to the mix. Butler has potential superstar written all over him.

The reason the A’s must have felt comfortable with the deal is because of the adjustment Butler made at the dish right around the time that he took off. He started keeping his head still at the plate, and the ball started flying off his bat.

The big question on everyone’s mind here is how his extension stacks up compared to that of his good friend Michael Harris II of the Atlanta Braves. Harris’ deal was signed in 2022, and was for eight years and $72 million.

For those wondering why the dollar figures on each are somewhat low compared to the deals that Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani have received the past two off-seasons, it’s because both Harris and Butler were pre-arbitration when they signed, not free agents.

For Butler, he had two seasons of pre-arbitration left before he even started making more modest sums of money in arbitration. This way, he gets $66.5 million guaranteed and the A’s receive a couple of extra years of service time. This deal will now keep him under club control through the 2031 campaign, when he would have previously hit free agency after 2029.

Those pre-arbitration seasons would have carried salaries of $760,000 and $780,000, which is part of the reason the years and dollar figure appears low.

For those that haven’t skipped ahead, the way the math works out between Butler and Harris II is that the A’s slugger will be getting $9.5 per season on average, though the actual payments each year may vary.

By comparison, Harris is making an average of $9 million. The first round goes to Butler on AAV. Yet, Harris is set to make slightly more overall thanks to the extra year, and he also has two more years with club options attached, valued at $15 million in 2031 and $20 million in 2032.

If the Braves pick up those options down the road, Harris would end up winning both the AAV title, as well as the overall total.

The A’s have now locked up their two big sluggers in Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler for the foreseeable future, even with the franchise’s final destination somewhat uncertain.