Okay? So, they're in this predicament because they didn't sign him for 8 years in the first place!!! Now they have to pay him at a higher AAV than if they had signed him for 8 years instead of that 3 year bridge.
It's risk management, they perhaps didn't feel comfortable signing him to a deal he potentially wouldn't live up to, no they are comfortable with long term, but will have to pay a bit more.
both options have pros and cons, when we signed Colin White to a 6 year deal, it had the potential to be a really good deal if he could be a 2nd line center going forward, his development crashed, and it bit us in the rear end. One might argue the Chabot deal didn't quite live up to the teams hopes. Meanwhile the Stu deal is trending pretty well, hopefully we'll be saying the same for Sanderson. When Batherson's deal runs out, should we lament we didn't sign him for 8 years if he's still going strong, or be happy that we got him at a good price while we did?