With all of the super well thought out and insightful posts that people have written about how "Neil" Huntington has done such a terrible job with personnel decisions, I feel like it also needs to be mentioned when he does something right. With the Adam Jones extension getting done, I think this brings to light just how great of a job NH did with the Andrew McCutchen deal. Now let me start by saying these two guys were in different positions. McCutchen was still under team control until after the 2015 season which means his deal bought out 3 free agent seasons. Adam Jones, on the other hand, was set to hit the open market after next year and his contract bought out 5 free agent season. This is not an insignificant point. The fact that the O's were dealing with a guy who was much closer to free agency matters. Still, Jones' deal will pay him $85M through 2018. McCutchen's deal will pay him $66M (assuming the Bucs pick up his option year) through 2018. Not only is McCutchen a year younger than Jones, he is just a better player. Their past history establishes this pretty well. McCutchen has shown himself to be a 4-5 win player whereas Jones has been a 2-3 win player. Even in this, Jones' breakout year, McCutchen has been arguably the better hitter (With a 158 OPS+ compared to Jones' 157). Again, this isn't meant to absolve NH of his other failures. It is also not just a rehash of what he did well with this, now months old deal. I am only pointing this out because if the Bucs didn't get the deal done when they did, the Jones extension gives us an idea of how easy it would be for McCutchen to command more money than the team would have been able to afford.