The San Diego Padres remain committed to the practice of signing young players to cheaper, long-term contract extensions despite the unpredictability of their future production.

Josh Byrnes signed Jedd Gyorko to a $35 million deal last month, his first long-term extension since signing Cameron Maybin, Nick Hundley and Cory Luebke to similar ones in the spring of 2012.

"When they don't work out, they are not killers, but they hurt," Byrnes said. "We need our dollars to hit their targets, but I think the concept is still good. ... The whole model for 20 years is the club is giving some security and taking some risk and sometimes it doesn't work out.

"And the club has to deal with the risk of that."