Long contract “hack”
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Feel like the ability to sign free agents on long contracts makes rebuilding a team a little too easy? My White Sox save just signed Juan Soto, Tyler O’Neil, Corbin Burnes and Teoscar Hernandez in free agency after the first season, all on 15 year backloaded deals. Hernandez in particular is crazy cheap because his average salary expectation falls off a cliff over a 15 year period (as by then he’ll be about 46!) meaning I can pay him about $1.8M a year which for an 85+ rated outfielder feels obsurd.
Once the players start to get too expensive I can trade them away for nothing if necessary, or push through waivers and it seems a given that someone will scoop them up and take them off my hands. Anyone else used this trick to improve their team?
