Our Free Agency Grade according to ESPN

[Gin and Juice]

i get all of that but you still are missing the point of the 36 million being spread out over the "life" of the contract. So basically for '14 all you really need to know is [in your example] $10 < $13. Its not like once he gets hurt in year one he just gets a lump sum check for $36 million.

I give up! No wonder nobody can see the real reason we let Smitty walk

[Gucci Mane]

Whatever their announced signing bonus is is the amount that they get up front always. The signing bonus does count towards guaranteed money however. So for instance if a player gets a 5 year 50 mill contract with a 25 million signing bonus and 30 million guaranteed. This means the total contract value is 75 million. The player gets 25 million up front as a signing bonus( though the cap hit is spread out over the life of the contract) and only 5 million of that 50 million over 5 years remains as guaranteed. This is why most contracts are back loaded and agreed upon by the players because they get so much up front and the later years are effectively voidable because they no longer hold guaranteed money.

 

Yea i was well aware of when they get the signing bonus, i was just assuming you thought the term guaranteed money only meant signing bonus, which is not true. but you seem to get that.