Deferred Payments of Contracts (Mets fans know what I'm talking about)

[AirmenSmith]

We could have some sort of buyout option on a contract, that would let us spread payments over multiple years.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

We could have some sort of buyout option on a contract, that would let us spread payments over multiple years.

Are you talking about buyouts from team options or a player release which by definition firms all existing options on a contract? OOTP already has deferral on player releases ie the remaining value is spread out over the length of the contract.

I'm not sure buyouts on contract options in real life are able to be deferred. They are considered signing bonuses for the purpose of the CBA and the competitive balance tax. I could be wrong but even so, it seems very unlikely that a player would defer a buyout and reduce his income further while not having a contract at all.

In the Mets case both Bay and Bonilla were contract terminations. The Bonilla deal was a case of Wilpon being a greedy git wanting to make money on Madoff's Ponzi scheme while being so stupid he didn't even buy the annuity to finance the payments. I can't say it's unrealistic but hopefully it is so rare that it could only happen once. Not sure any other MLB owner is that stupid.