From The Sports Desk: The $140 million man

MLBFrom The Sports Desk: The $140 million manAn examination of the growing MLB trend of teams’ giving unproven prospects megadeals.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin in Pittsburg on April 13, 2026.Charles LeClaire / Imagn ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 16, 2026, 3:02 PM EDTBy Tim Rohan and Doha MadaniA few weeks ago, the Seattle Mariners signed a 20-year-old prospect to a $95 million deal, before he ever played in the majors. Last week, the Pittsburgh Pirates gave Konnor Griffin, a 19-year-old shortstop, a nine-year, $140 million deal, less than a week into his big league career.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Yesterday, the Detroit Tigers signed rookie 21-year-old shortstop Kevin McGonigle to an eight-year, $150 million deal. At the time, he’d played in just 17 major league games.Why are teams signing unproven prospects to these megadeals? We dive in below. Throughout the baseball season, we’ll have more coverage here and, as always, on NBC News. Spending SpreeThis offseason, Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting was eager to get updates on negotiations over one player’s contract in particular. He was so invested, he said, that he “pestered” the front office “to find out when it was going to get finished.”Nutting wanted to know about the team’s negotiations with Griffin, a teenager who, at the time, had never taken a major league at-bat.Why are teams willing to give that much money to unproven players? It starts with how the business of baseball is structured. After a prospect typically spends time in the minors and a team calls him up to the majors, it starts a clock.From that point, the team controls the player’s rights for at least six years before he reaches free agency. During that period, he gets a series of one-year contracts, essentially, without any long-term security. A team can release him at any time, without any future...