D-backs’ Evan Longoria can relate to Corbin Carroll earning new deal

In 2008, Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria had played a week of Major League Baseball action before agreeing to terms on a six-year extension.

Longoria was 22 years old at the time and made the club after playing 234 minor-league games in 2006 and 2007. He was the No. 2 prospect in the league, according to Baseball America.

Fast forward 15 seasons, and Longoria’s new team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, signed 22-year-old rookie phenom Corbin Carroll to an eight-year extension — with a club option — only 34 games into his big-league career.

“I don’t know that there’s any minuses, to be honest with you,” Longoria told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Tuesday. “I mean, maybe you leave a little bit of money on the table and might look back in two or three years and go, ‘Man, maybe if I would’ve waited three more years, I could have … gotten a huge contract.’

“The most important thing for me was security for myself and for my family, basically be able to create generational wealth with that first fortune.”

Longoria agreed to a $17.5 million deal, which he outplayed very quickly.

He earned the American League Rookie of the Year in 2008, and the Rays reached their first World Series, a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Longoria was an All-Star in each of his first three seasons.

11/10/2008: Evan Longoria became the first #Rays player in franchise history to win AL Rookie of the Year, doing so unanimously. Here’s a look at his #postseason debut on 10/2/2008, which included two homers. #Rays #RaysUp (via MLB) @draysbay @RaysColoGlasses pic.twitter.com/n1JAmEtL9X

— MLB Daily Dingers (@MLBDailyDingers) November 10, 2021

“It really, I think, enabled me to become the player that I did,” Longoria said. “It kind of settled me in. I didn’t have to worry about, ‘Was I gonna get sent back down to the minors?’

“I felt secure in my job after I got paid and was able to take the steps to get better from there.”

Carroll signed on for $111 million guaranteed and up to $154 million.

Corbin Carroll dingers are back 🤟

MLB’s No. 2 overall prospect swats his first @Dbacks roundtripper of 2023: pic.twitter.com/ZduOb8z30n

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 4, 2023

He entered 2023 as the No.2 prospect in baseball, per MLB pipeline, and someone the D-backs saw as a cornerstone of the franchise due to his work ethic.

Longoria and the Rays agreed to another extension in 2012, a 10-year deal worth $100 million. The veteran said Carroll will be young enough at the end of his deal to earn another payday like he did, saying the young outfielder has the potential to be “generational.”

Carroll will be 30 or 31 when he next hits free agency, unless he signs another extension.

“I think it’s the way to keep a team intact for a long time and potentially get a little bit of a discount on the back end,” Longoria said. “What’s important, I think, is locking those guys up and having a core group of guys who can stay together for what I’m sure most ownerships hope are multiple championship runs.”

Carroll started in each of Arizona’s first six games this season, adding three stolen bases, a home run and a double.

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