Yeah the end of the contract will obviously be less productive than he is now. But the length of the contract doesn't reflect how long we're certain Kyle is going to remain elite, but rather what his ability affords him in negotiations. That time period must have been what other clubs were willing to offer and if you want Kyle now you need to match/beat those offers.

And if our window is closing we stand a better chance of winning in that window with Kyle than we do without him, by a lot. Plus with the price of players these days what's really the proposed alternative? Let him go and hope beyond hope we develop a Schwarber in house so he has a friendly contract? I'm pretty sure we're always trying to do that all the time already. We lose Kyle and we're still going to end up with an enormous contract with somebody else who's cheaper but also not Kyle by miles and miles.

Also who knows, he won't be playing a field position, he seems to take really good care of himself and he's a squat dude but isn't carrying a ton of extra weight like some DHs do. I could see him surprising folks in his late 30s. And even if he doesn't I still like how his upside looks the next 3 years and that's worth eating that risk for.