There is anger among the teams that Major League Baseball permitted Max Scherzer’s deal to have such a high percentage of deferred money.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) February 10, 2015
The contract is for seven-years and $210 million. But as Buster notes, a huge amount of deferred money in involved. It stretches over the next 14 years and includes a $50 million signing bonus. For luxury tax purposes the contract is considered to be a $191.4 million deal based on present value, with an annual salary for such purposes determined to be $28.69 million.
Why this bugs other teams is a mystery. In response to other folks on Twitter, Olney cites executives displeasure with the $210 million figure now being the standard for an elite pitcher. I presume they also now worry that the expectation from agents will be that future deals for other pitchers include all of that deferred dough.
Which seems kind of unimportant. A $191 million deal or a $210 deal? Eh. With those kinds of numbers we’re starting to approach rounding error, even if the rounding involves eight figures.
Mostly, I think, this is a case of baseball executives not liking that someone got a huge free agent salary. Which they have always hated. At least in every case where it’s not their own team handing out the money.
