This will never happen in baseball

Oh, it's plenty unfair.

Let's say you sign a good contract with the NYT. After two successful years--much praise on SJ, stories in BASW, winning APSE's--the Times comes to you and says, "Well, because of hard financial realities, we're going to have to let you go." And you have no recourse, other than to try to hustle up a job in a very exclusive and tough marketplace. Tell me how fair that is.

 

I did not say it's unfair.
It is however, patently stupid to report that a player signed a 6-year contract when we know anything beyond the first year is not guaranteed.
Therefore, it is a one-year contract with the rest at the whim of management.

 

Why should I change my name? He's the one that sucks.

 

And the players and their agents know it is exactly that, spnited, which was my point.

And hockeybeat, there are very significant differences between that and your scenario -- the level of money involved. That bonus and two years of base pay at the NYT isn't going to set me up for life. The NFL player in that scenario is set for life (unless he spends like an idiot). If it's not the kind of deal that sets him for life, the team isn't going to be cutting him for cap reasons anyway.

Also, a reporter or writer's career is much longer than an NFL player's career, so that also changes the dynamic.

 

But the pay, OOP....grrr!

 

With that roster bonus in the bank -- the one the NFL cannot take back, even if I run a criminal enterprise -- I am feeling comfortable going out on the free agent market.

 

It's not a cap casualty if a team decides a player isn't worth what he thinks he's worth.

If Faulk wanted $6 million per year and the Colts thought he was worth $5 mil and let him go, that's not a cap casualty. That's sound business.

And it won't ever happen in baseball, agreed.

 

Then the Twins are geniuses. They didn't think Santana was worth $150 million, so they traded him.

 

I agree.

And they were smart to do it.

 

So you agree that it won't happen in baseball, and you agree that the Twins just did it with Santana?

 

OK, then count the number of times newspapers quote the "value" of the contract without pointing out that a huge part of it is utterly worthless.
And this is the sport that most needs guaranteed money.

 

I believe he was talking about the initial point of this thread, that the team with the lowest payroll in baseball would never win the World Series.