Matt Snyder , CBSSports.com : “Yes, he was an MVP candidate -- finishing fifth in NL voting -- and is very young, but he is also a guy who hit .259 in 2012. A truly conservative team would sit back and see how Freeman fared over the next season or two before broaching the subject of such a huge extension. Instead, the Braves went a bit out of character and splurged to lock up their man through 2021. All of this speaks volumes to the confidence Braves' brass has in Freeman as their face of the franchise for the next eight seasons.”

Cliff Corcoran, SI.com: “Consider this: Freeman was asking for $5.75 million in arbitration this year. If you deduct one season at that price from Freeman’s extension, the Braves are really paying him $18.5 million over the final seven years of his new deal. But Freeman wasn’t going to make $18.5 million next year, either. Let’s say he had another great season and got bumped up to $10 million for 2015, a big jump. In that scenario, the Braves just gave Freeman $19.875 million a year for the final six years of this deal, and if you give Freeman another generous assumption of $15 million in his final year of arbitration (by way of comparison, Prince Fielder made $6.5 million, $10.5 million, and $15.5 million in his three arbitration seasons from 2009 to 2011), the Braves just gave Freeman a five-year free-agent contract worth $22.85 million a year. To date, the only first basemen to sign contracts with average annual values as high or higher have been Ryan Howard ($25 million via the Phillies’ disastrous extension) and free agents Albert Pujols ($24 million) and Fielder ($23.78 million).”