The Milwaukee Brewers have announced a record contract extension with outfielder Ryan Braun that will pay the second-year player $45 million over the next eight seasons.

This contract takes the recent deals of Troy Tulowitzki and Evan Longoria (both similar players in terms of experience and proximity to arbitration years) and spits on them.  Tulowitzki signed a 6 year, $31 million deal this January that shocked the baseball world.  And Longoria signed a 6 year, $17 million deal earlier this season after playing in the bigs for about a week.

Somehwere along the line, the Brewers must have decided that Braun’s arbitration years (which would not have begun until the 2011 season) were going to be quite expensive if the outfielder continued along his career path.  So, being from the cheese state, they threw him some serious cheddar.  As a return favor for putting so much money in his pockets at such an early stage in his career, Braun sold his first two years of free agency to the club.  That could come back to bite him later on.

Braun mashed in his rookie campaign last season, hitting .324 with 34 homeruns.  He beat out Tulowitzki for the N.L. Rookie of the Year award.  So far this season, the 5th overall pick in the 2005 draft is hitting .287/.318/.549 with 9 home runs and 29 runs batted in.

One wonders how this deal will effect ongoing negotiations with Prince Fielder.  You can check out previous rumors of Braun and Fielder extensions here.

Filed under: Milwaukee Brewers