[Danley]

I find that you can manage this by backloading the contracts behind options. Make the final two years higher, beyond the total they were asking for, which will require absurd buyouts. Lower all the non-option years. The average salary on paper will go up but because you won't be executing their options anyway the actual amount you pay will go down. I think it's mostly the LAD budget driving this phenomena in the game. If a player can get that kind of money somewhere, they'll try to get it everywhere and it leads to every team overpaying a couple guys while struggling to stay out of the red.