If you're locking guys up early and buying out their arb years and getting their free agency year into their early/mid 30's you're coming out on top. If they did Bogey (longer) Betts, Benintendi and JBJ years ago they'd be 3/4 right now. I'm imagining them locking up their 2018 core as early as 2015/2016. In that scenario, the amount of money you save on Betts/Bogaerts pays for JBJ 5 times over. You probably come out even and a little ahead on Benintendi. So I'd rather pay a little bit more and have these contracts without any opt-outs. But, on the other hand, I'd take a deal with an opt-out in-out over no deal with Devers.
At this point, that may be the only way to get Devers to sign an extension.