With first baseman Wil Myers in the midst of his first All-Star season, both he and the San Diego Padres are reportedly open to working out a long-term contract.

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Myers, Padres Looking Toward Offseason Negotiations

Saturday, July 16

According to Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Myers and the Padres aren’t interested in having discussions during the season, as they plan to wait until the offseason before hammering out details.

Per Spotrac.com, the 25-year-old is making just over $500,000 this season and is arbitration-eligible in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

According to Lin, Myers made it clear that he is content to play out the rest of the 2016 campaign before worrying about his future with the club:

I don’t think anybody would ever be opposed to talking about money, but as far as that’s concerned, I want to go out every day and just play. I don’t want to worry about extension talk, I don’t want to worry about money. I just want to go out and worry about each at-bat I have. … Obviously, we’ll listen to anything, but when that time comes up, we can discuss it then.

The former third-round pick of the Kansas City Royals also expressed confidence in the direction of the team and a desire to be part of the turnaround moving forward:

I love San Diego. I love every part of it. Obviously, winning is more important to me, being a competitor. It is tougher to play games that aren’t as meaningful, but I really believe that the Padres have a legitimate plan in place. I think what they’ve done this season is going to lead to something special in the future.

They’re spending a lot of money, and that’s what the Royals did from ’07 to 2012. They signed a bunch of players, they drafted great players, they spent money on the draft. I think that’s kind of the model that mid-market teams need to go after, and I think that’s what we’re doing here. And I think it’s going to be a great thing for us coming up in the future, and hopefully I can be around for that.

The 2016 season is Myers’ second with the Padres after coming over in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, and he has broken out in a big way. Along with a .289 batting average and .355 on-base percentage, the North Carolina native has already set career highs with 20 home runs, 61 RBI and 15 stolen bases.

Myers has struggled with injuries for much of his career, especially last season when he appeared in just 60 games, but he is trending toward becoming an elite all-around player when healthy.

The Padres have remade their roster and shuffled several big-name players in and out of town in recent years, but Myers is a key building block and potential franchise guy they can’t afford to lose.

   

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