After seeing shortstop Brandon Crawford deliver a career year at the plate and in the field in 2015, you can’t be too surprised that the San Francisco Giants decided to strike early and circumvent arbitration by giving him a multi-year contract extension. Sources indicate he’ll be sticking around for $75 million in the next six seasons. But you also might be asking whether they went too far.

Let’s start with the big question: Did the Giants pay too much for a player coming off a big season, or did they wisely invest in a guy coming into his own?

Crawford’s power spike in 2015 may seem unusual, with his ratio of home runs to fly balls more than doubling from his previous career rate of 4.4 percent to 11.1 percent. That fueled him more than doubling his previous career high in homers, with 21 last year after 10 in 2014. However, players are supposed to peak in their late 20s. Crawford’s power numbers have gone up every year he has been in the league, and his 2015 season was not simply a big first half with 12 first-half homers -- his Isolated slugging percentage after the All-Star break was actually higher, going up to .208 from .203. Another positive indicator was his career-low rate of infield fly balls, which he cut in half to seven percent from the 14 percent clip he had in the first half.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Crawford's improvements have mostly been about increasing his performance on hammering hard stuff; his OPS against fastballs of every stripe went up to .887 in 2015, after a previous career rate of .766. Against breaking stuff, he continued to struggle, only improving to a .559 OPS from .523. But to his credit, Crawford has struck a better balance at the plate. He offered on the first pitch more often, swinging on a career-high 41.7 percent of first pitches, belting six homers and delivering an OPS of 1.151. Simultaneously he worked deeper into the count by seeing a career-best 3.87 pitches per plate appearance, hurting people late as well as early and helping himself get the fastballs he can hammer.

Is all of that merely a function of luck on contact and numbers-related noise, or a function of better execution from a fly-ball hitter who, earlier in his career, was more passive at the plate? Having seen Crawford’s consistent improvement, the Giants have obviously placed their bet.

Second, Crawford is a premium defender at shortstop whose improving defense generally has tracked with his offensive improvements, leading to a career-best 20 Defensive Runs Saved and a Gold Glove in 2015 (pulling off the near-impossible feat of besting Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons).

When you consider who might have been available in 2017 and beyond, you’re not going to find a guy who can do those things. Given that Crawford is a Californian, a guy who grew up in the area and went to UCLA, if anything he was perhaps ready and willing to strike a deal quickly, carrying him not just beyond 10-and-5 status with the team but reportedly providing him with full no-trade coverage in the meantime. That sounds like a guy motivated to stay home, and a club sensibly appreciating what they have as well.

Perhaps the other key element to keep in mind is that Crawford wasn’t the only core player on the Giants headed for arbitration and committed for just two more years before hitting free agency. First baseman Brandon Belt is more than a year younger than Crawford, and is coming off a year in which he set career highs in homers and walks. On the negative side, Belt saw his season end early with a new concussion to add to the post-concussion symptoms that hampered him in the second half of 2014, and he also needed knee surgery to boot. Whether or not the Giants identify Belt as a reliable fourth building block alongside Crawford, catcher Buster Posey (committed through 2021) and ace lefty Madison Bumgarner (through 2019) remains to be seen, but he may be their next major action item before hitting the market to shop for the starting pitching they're expected to make a priority this winter.

Would all of that price the Giants out of getting the two free-agent starters they may need to return to the postseason? Crawford’s deal is back-loaded at $15 million in the last four years (the years he’d have been earning money via free agency), which means that its impact on the Giants’ hot stove shopping will be relatively slight the next two years. If Belt were amenable to a similar set-up, Giants execs Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans would be that much better set up to spend their winter hunting for the arms -- and a center fielder to replace Angel Pagan -- they need to win now and over the life of their commitments to their Core Four of Bumgarner, Posey, Crawford and Belt.

Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.