Third baseman Matt Chapman and the San Francisco Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract extension late Wednesday, preventing the veteran from opting out of his current contract to become a free agent.

The contract, which begins in 2025 and replaces the final two years of a three-year, $54 million deal he signed earlier this year, contains no deferred payments and a full no-transfer clause, sources told ESPN. The contract expires in 2030, when Chapman will be 37 years old.

Chapman, 31, has been one of baseball’s most productive players this season, combining a powerful hit with the best third-base defense in the major leagues. And less than a year after his market collapsed in free agency, Chapman has parlayed his strong season into a sizable payday — securing more than $170 million between this season and the end of the contract extension.

That’s a stunning turnaround from last winter, when Chapman’s free agency landed him in San Francisco. All three years of his contract included opt-out options at the end, and Chapman said at the start of spring training that he would rather bet on himself than accept a worse long-term contract.

The bet paid off. With a .247/.333/.445 line, Chapman has an adjusted OPS that is 21% better than the league average. His 22 home runs and 56 extra-base hits lead the Giants. And his glove, which has already won gold four times, could be worth platinum this season.

All of that has put him in the top tier of wins over replacements throughout the game. His 6.0 Baseball-Reference WAR is the ninth-highest in baseball. FanGraphs has him at 4.5 WAR, 13th among outfielders. It’s reminiscent of the seasons in which Chapman earned his first two Gold Gloves and his only All-Star appearance.

When he arrived in Oakland in 2017, Chapman had already demonstrated a level of power in the minor leagues that would later make him one of the league’s top hitters in terms of launch velocity. Chapman’s ability to hit the ball extremely hard – he ranks in the 98th percentile in hit velocity and 96th in average launch velocity – has held up, and the Giants had enough confidence to pay him well into his late 30s.

It was also a necessary deal. At 68-72, the Giants are once again one of the most disappointing teams in baseball. San Francisco has hovered around .500 each of the last three seasons after a 107-win season in 2021, and fans are disappointed and vocal about potential changes within the organization.

While President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi negotiated the contract with Chapman’s agent, Scott Boras, he was able to build on one of his wins from the winter. Another, left-hander Blake Snell, is also a Boras client who is expected to opt out of his contract and sign for a much higher amount than the $60 million San Francisco guaranteed him for two years in the winter.

Chapman had expressed interest in staying with the Giants, and talks of a contract extension have taken place in recent weeks – a rarity for a Boras client about to enter free agency. Chapman joins a core that now includes right-hander Logan Webb (contract through 2028), center fielder Jung Hoo Lee (2029) and a group of young players who have excelled at times over the course of the season: center fielder Heliot Ramos, catcher Patrick Bailey, shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald and left-hander Kyle Harrison.

Now that Chapman is off the market, the pool of free agents not exactly teeming with high-caliber offensive players is getting even smaller. New York Yankees outfielder Juan Soto is the crowning glory of the bunch, and with Chapman’s signing, teams looking for a third baseman will turn their attention to another Boras client: Alex Bregman. Teams that could be in the market for a third baseman include Bregman’s current team, Houston, as well as the New York Mets (if Pete Alonso leaves and Mark Vientos moves to first base), the Yankees, Seattle and Toronto.

Other top free agent hitters include Alonso, Milwaukee shortstop Willy Adames, Baltimore outfielder Anthony Santander, Arizona first baseman Christian Walker and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.