Can I ask ... how many times have the Guardians missed out on gauging talent for a long-term signee? The last one was the Swisher FA signing ... You can try to count the Martin trade or EE at $20 million by year 3 ... but very few times did they miss on signing a guy long-term this early on in their career. You may have to go back to Fausto Carmona fiasco or Kipnis.
We thought they missed on Clase after a few games this spring.
With all this back-and-forth with Straw, he has gone on .317/.795 during the past 14 games. Like Mercado, this doesn't mean that he is out of the woods. However, Guardians signed him because they saw something and they are not going to kill Straw's confidence like they did with Jet Johnson by shipping him out to AAA to stew. The more upside they see, the more they will stick with him.
And, this is not about the extension. The extension is because they see something special. They knew Brennan/Kwan/Palacios/Valera were on their way up in some fashion or another. Plesac/Civale/Clement didn't get an extension just for the hell of it. Long-term signees are special. Straw and Clase got them as they are seen as top players. That just doesn't disappear with a bad month or two.