'I hope I outperform the contract': Aaron Ashby's extension will keep him with the Brewers through at least 2027

The Milwaukee Brewers hit one out of the park with the five-year contract extension right-hander Freddy Peralta signed in February of 2020.

Thus, it wasn’t surprising to see the team follow the same blueprint in locking up another of its talented young pitchers for the long term in Aaron Ashby.

The left-hander has signed a five-year extension with the Brewers that will keep him in the fold through 2027, with team options for 2028 and 2029.

"I love this organization. I love the coaches here," Ashby said Saturday at American Family Field after the deal was announced. "There's so many people here that have helped my career and got me to be where I'm at today. There's a certain level of security there, definitely. Just to know that I'm gonna be here long term and can settle in here is a great feeling."

Ashby, 24, was a fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft out of Crowder College in Missouri and became the Brewers top pitching prospect entering 2021, when he made his major-league debut.

Ashby has spent time this season both in the starting rotation as well as the bullpen, going 2-7 with a 4.57 earned run average and a WHIP of 1.49. Ashby also has registered a save and has 83 strikeouts in 69 innings over 18 appearances (12 starts).

"This is a person we feel very good about," Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said. "And you add to that the exceptional talent he’s displayed throughout his minor-league career and now at the beginning of his major-league career, it’s really impressive.

"We feel really good about investing in that type of person and player. He feels really good about the Brewers. When you combine those things, you’re able to get to agreements like this that I really think benefit both sides."

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Prone to bouts of wildness, Ashby nevertheless possesses of some truly nasty pitches, most notably a sinker that averages 96.1 mph and helps him generate ground balls an impressive 57.3% of the time and a slider that serves as his strikeout pitch. He also mixes in a changeup with an occasional curveball.

"He's a player that it's going to be fun watching him get better," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "Yes, it's all the talent, but he has talent to get better. He has a work ethic to get better. He has a kind of a mindset to get better. So as we watch Aaron over the years, we're gonna say and see a player continue to get better, and that's that's always fun to watch."

Ashby has had more success against right-handed hitters this season, limiting them to a collective .248 average and .695 OPS compared to .309 and .906 for lefties.

His highlight to date came on May 30 when he struck out 12 over six innings in a victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Ashby followed up with nine strikeouts in six innings against the San Diego Padres.

It’s been much tougher sledding since, and Ashby also missed a couple starts from late June into early July due to a forearm strain that led to a stint on the injured list.

Ashby isn’t eligible for arbitration until 2025, so the extension buys all three of those years out while giving the Brewers the option of keeping him through the first two years of free agency as well.

According to reports, Ashby's contract guarantees him $20.5 million over the remaining five years he had of club control. The club options Milwaukee possesses for 2026-27 could bring the total to seven years and up to $46 million. The initial dollar amount is in the neighborhood of the five-year, $15.5 million deal Peralta signed just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut baseball down for three-plus months.

Whenever a player signs a contract extension so early in his big-league career, he is doing so with the knowledge he could  be missing out on money on the back end in exchange for security on the front side. For Ashby, he could be delaying his free agency by up to two years, through his age-31 season, while taking on essentially $26 million over those two years.

That was a consideration Ashby took into account.

"If we had a fortune teller here, that would be great but we don't," Ashby said. "In this sport, you see every day how fragile it could be. I'd love to be able to say I'm going to be a superstar and I hope I am. I was telling some guys before that I hope I outperform the contract. You want to outperform every contract. For me, it was a decision I was comfortable with."

With Ashby, the Brewers have a real chance to come away with a deal that is below market value by the time all is said and done. Ashby features some of the best pure stuff in baseball and, judging by how Milwaukee has gotten the most out of young arms Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Eric Lauer to date, it's a good bet they will do so with Ashby.

"I think Aaron is the type of person and player that we think can be a Brewer for a long time," Counsell said. "He’s very early in his big-league career, but he's a player that I think everybody thinks can have great success in this league. He has the ability to grow, both as a player and a person, in this very good pitcher in this league. I'm happy that it worked out for both sides and that he's going to be a Brewer for a long time."

The Brewers broached a possible contract two months ago and went back-and-forth with Ashby and his agent, Rex Gary, before reaching an agreement this week. These types of extensions are few and far between due to the give-and-take and the level of understanding required from both sides.

"These types of negotiations can take time from first broaching a topic like this, to understanding what a structure might look like, to understanding what sort of timeframe could work for both sides to ultimately putting pen to paper on dollars," Stearns said. "It does take time. It goes through stages. It requires some level of patience on both sides.

"In this case we were able to get to the finish line. That doesn’t always happen. In fact most of the time it doesn’t happen. But in this case both parties were able to get to the finish line and I’m glad we did."

Peralta also received a signing bonus of $1.175 million and can make additional money through incentives. The Brewers can re-sign him for $8 million in both 2025 and 2026, with a buyout of $1.5 million in 2025 and no buyout in 2026.

At the time he signed his extension, Peralta was 13-7 with a 4.79 ERA in 55 appearances (22 starts), with 211 strikeouts in 163⅓ innings. He also was 23.

The biggest difference between the two is how the Brewers acquired Peralta; he was signed as an international free agent by the Seattle Mariners in 2013 and traded to Milwaukee along with two other pitchers in the 2015 off-season in exchange for first baseman Adam Lind.

Peralta acknowledged at the time he was possibly shortchanging himself by signing the team-friendly deal and in retrospect there’s little question he has considering what quality starting pitching now goes for on the open market.

Having just turned 26 on June 4, Peralta earned his first all-star bid in 2021 and has gone 16-8 with a 3.26 ERA in 51 appearances (36 starts) and 292 strikeouts in 212⅓ innings.

For his career, Peralta is averaging 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings (Ashby is at 10.9 per nine).

But, like Ashby, it was a tradeoff Peralta said he was comfortable taking at the time in exchange for the security.

Peralta is making $2.25 million this season. He’s 3-2 with a 4.42 ERA in eight starts with 50 strikeouts in 38⅔ innings but has been on the IL since May 23 with a shoulder strain.

He was to begin a minor-league rehab assignment Saturday.

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Ashby, who signed a one-year deal for $704,500 on March 22, now has similar security.

"This is the organization that drafted me in 2018 and I've felt nothing but love," said Ashby, whose next start is scheduled for Monday against the Colorado Rockies.

In one week, Ashby has made arguably two of the biggest decisions in his life to date. In addition to putting pen to paper Saturday, he got engaged to his girlfriend, Avery, over the all-star break.

"It's been a big week with a couple of life decisions," Ashby said. "Just extremely excited. I don't know that any of them have fully set in yet but I'm excited for all of them."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Brewers, Aaron Ashby sign five-year contract extension