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In just the last month, major league clubs have bestowed contracts worth nearly $90 million on two players who have barely a year's worth of big league experience between them.

To which we say: What took so long?

The decisions by Tampa Bay, which gave Evan Longoria a commitment of up to nine years and $44.5 million just days after his callup, and Milwaukee, which on Thursday extended Ryan Braun through 2015 for a $45 million commitment, only make sense. Sorry, Billy Beane, but the Rays and Brewers are trendsetters now.

Expect the rest of the league to follow. It only makes sense.

By offering the contracts, the clubs got what could amount to incredibly deep long-term discounts from franchise-type players. By signing the deals, the players got long-term financial security about which first-year players have only been able to dream in the past. And fans kind of win, too.

The era of economically strapped clubs trading away players after three or four years may come to an end now that there is a legitimate method and precedent for young players to stay in one place.

"We have to stay open-minded," Rays general manager Andrew Friedman said in announcing the Longoria deal. "The economics of the game and us being a low-revenue team, we have to think differently and take chances such as this to keep our nucleus in place as long as we can."

It was just a decade or so ago that former Rangers GM John Hart, then in Cleveland, took the unprecedented step of offering multi-year deals to his young core players to avoid going through the often-acrimonious arbitration process.

This is the next logical step.

This is the product of owners and the players association acting like partners and avoiding work stoppages the last two times around. The game is flush with cash, partly because of the lack of interruptions. Because of that, clubs can afford to stop looking to save every nickel and dime they can during the point they control a player's contract (the first three years of service). Players can afford to start trusting management a little more, something that hasn't happened in, well, ever.

If indeed the Steroids Era is over, baseball's new age is the Era of Good Feelings.

To which we can only say: It's about time.