Two Top Shortstop Prospects Sign Big Extensions
It’s becoming more and more common for super young players to sign contract extensions with their respective organizations, and that couldn’t be more of the case than it has been within the last 24 hours as two non-debuted prospects signed multi-year extensions.
Milwaukee’s Cooper Pratt and Seattle’s Colt Emerson, both highly ranked shortstop prospects, have signed eight year deals. Pratt was the first to sign on Sunday while the news that Emerson and the Mariners were finalizing a deal broke on Monday morning. Pratt’s deal is worth $50.75 million across eight years bringing him through 2033, and includes team options for both 2034 and 2035. The AAV on the deal is $6.34 million and of course the total value of the contract will increase if the Brewers were to exercise their team options in 2034 and 2035 which will be Pratt’s age 29 and 30 seasons. The Brewers are no strangers to extending players before they make their debut. They signed Jackson Chourio, now one of their top players, to a record-breaking contract extension for a non-debuted prospect at the time as they locked him up for eight years at $82 million with two team options. Although Pratt is not nearly as highly-touted as Chourio was, Pratt has received a lot of rave reviews out of the Brewers system, so there is genuine belief that Pratt will play a significant role in Milwaukee’s big picture moving forward.
Although the same amount of years as Pratt’s deal with Milwaukee, Colt Emerson’s contract extension with the Mariners is another record-breaking one. At $95 million guaranteed across eight years with a team option for 2034, Emerson’s contract passes up the aforementioned Jackson Chourio for the biggest contract signed by a non-debuted prospect. Emerson is in fact held in nearly the same regard as Chourio was as a prospect, currently ranking within the top ten among a number of prospect rankings, including 7th overall on the Baseball Focus top 50 prospect rankings. Emerson advanced as high as Triple-A Tacoma not long after his 20th birthday where he posted a 1.172 OPS and a 174 wRC+ in a 6 game cup of coffee. He started the year at High-A Everett before a promotion to Double-A Arkansas that ultimately led to his Triple-A debut. In 600 total plate appearances across those three levels a year ago, Emerson hit 16 home runs on his way to .285/.383/.458 slash line, good for an .842 OPS and a 129 wRC+ while he walked at an 11.8% clip with just a 17.5% strikeout rate. He of course has opened the season at Triple-A Tacoma, but it won’t be long before he’s getting the call to Seattle.
Both coming from the prep ranks in the 2023 draft, Pratt is actually nearly a year older than Emerson, but not quite as far along as him. Pratt didn’t see any time in Triple-A a year ago as he spent the entirety of 2025 at Double-A Biloxi. In 527 plate appearances in 2025, he hit just eight home runs but stole 31 bags while posting a .238/.343/.348 slash line, coming out to just a .691 OPS and a 107 wRC+. The offensive numbers don’t jump off the page in the same way that Emerson’s does, but Pratt finds value elsewhere, mainly in his defensive ability and athleticism on the bases. It’s certainly a profile the Brewers have developed and deployed well at the big league level, so no wonder they were so quick to pull the trigger on an extension this early. While it seems like quite the risk signing players to long-term deals before they have even stepped foot on a Major League field, it grants security for both the organization and the ballplayer as each party doesn’t have to worry about the herky-jerky world of arbitration.
Colt Emerson and Cooper Pratt are both in Triple-A at the moment, and have good shots at making their MLB debuts in the near future. To continue following along with prospects such as Pratt and Emerson among others, subscribe below to be notified of new posts!
