Alex Gordon did not get a long-term contract on Tuesday, instead merely processing through baseball&#x92;s standard arbitration process with the Royals, which means one more day that&#x92;s gone with each side missing an opportunity that isn&#x92;t coming back.</p><p>Right now, today, is the best environment the Royals will have to sign their reigning player of the year to a long-term deal. And right now, today, is the best environment Gordon will have to ensure his family a few generations worth of financial security by signing to stay in the only place he&#x92;s ever wanted to play.</p><p>In other words: Get this done.</p><p>Like, now.</p><p>There are reasons that Kansas City is the best place for Gordon, you know. His relationship with general manager Dayton Moore is pure and genuine. He constantly credits hitting coach Kevin Seitzer with a breakout 2011 season in which he hit .303 with 72 extra-base hits and, by most accounts, was the most productive left fielder in the game.</p><p>But major-league baseball is all about the players, and if this deal doesn&#x92;t get done &#x97; if Gordon becomes the Royals&#x92; first worthwhile investment not to sign long-term since the Carlos Beltran trade in 2004 &#x97; it falls back on ownership.</p><p>The Royals must operate differently than many teams. This is a small market, small money, and barring an enormous boost in attendance and television revenue, it&#x92;s hard to see the Royals ever being in the top half of payrolls, or, to be honest, being legitimately criticized for not being in the top half of payrolls.</p><p>It&#x92;s just that this situation is different. There are times to be frugal, times to plan for the future, and times to write a check.</p><p>This is the time to write a check.</p><p>When will the Royals have more reasons and more ability to pay one of their homegrown own to stay?</p><p>They played with the lowest payroll in baseball last year. They have Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar &#x97; the most important players of the next wave &#x97; cheaper than they&#x92;ll ever be. They saved $12.5 million on Gil Meche&#x92;s shocking retirement; some of that was invested internationally, but not all of it.</p><p>If anything, this is that rare time when a team would be wise to frontload a long-term contract.</p><p>Michael Cuddyer signed a three-year contract worth $31.5 million with Colorado, which many baseball people feel was too much but could serve as the general framework for Gordon. Perhaps it&#x92;s instructive that Casey Close is the agent for both players.</p><p>The Royals have Gordon under club control for two more years &#x97; his demotion to Omaha in 2010 gave the team an extra season &#x97; so any long-term deal would have to account for a projected salary around $5 million this year and one more year at below market value.</p><p>A good guess for a contract that would be fair to both sides might be four years and $35 million. The contract could be structured in a way to pay Gordon more than he&#x92;d otherwise make now, while still maintaining the Royals&#x92; need for flexibility once Hosmer and the others get more expensive.</p><p>Whatever the number, getting something done makes too much sense to both team and player. Gordon talks openly about appreciating the organization&#x92;s support. His family is a short drive away in Nebraska, and he enjoys living here. Money is always the most important thing, but this other stuff matters, too.</p><p>It would be silly to discount the sentimentality involved here, not just with Gordon being somewhat local, but in him and Moore both following similar paths: initial saviors, then popular whipping posts and now again showing real promise.</p><p>For the Royals, the vision all along has focused on Gordon and Billy Butler first, then building around them. They have that opportunity now, and it&#x92;s one that doesn&#x92;t come around often.</p><p>Signing Gordon for four years means keeping a talented core of position players together long enough to see what they can do with Hosmer &#x97; by far the most talented of the bunch &#x97; in his prime.</p><p>The last time the Royals lost a homegrown star was an embarrassment that still haunts them. It essentially came down to Carlos Beltran wanting $1 million more than the Royals offered over three seasons, the team refusing to budge and standing behind a silly line in the sand rather than keep their best player.</p><p>Since Moore&#x92;s arrival, ownership has been much better. They gave big free-agent contracts to Gil Meche and Jos&#xE9; Guillen. They signed Zack Greinke, Joakim Soria and Billy Butler to long-term deals. They gave out record amounts to amateurs through the draft and internationally. The narrative is changing, but the memories remain.</p><p>At a caravan stop this week in Arkansas, chairman David Glass said he wanted to sign Hosmer and Moustakas long-term. Neither of those players have Gordon&#x92;s emotional investment, both have Scott Boras as their agent, and both will come up for free agency when the Royals&#x92; payroll figures to be much higher than today.</p><p>So if the Royals can&#x92;t sign Gordon, there&#x92;s no reason to take them seriously with the others. That matters as much now as ever before with what the Royals are doing and still hope to do.