I said in my free-agent writeup of Jason Heyward that I'd be fine giving him seven years and over $150 million, and that's close enough to what the Cubs did here -- I was thinking a $22-23 million average annual value (AAV), and Heyward will indeed get $23 million, but for eight years rather than seven. In a winter market that so far has seen some big escalations in top-end salaries, that's an extraordinary value for the Cubs and all the more impressive because Heyward was the top free agent available.