I totally agree, what GM even thinks they'll be around for the year 7 of the deal? And if they are around, it probably means that they won, so their job is likely secure. The one thing I wonder is, from a player's perspective, under the old type A/B compensation system, a large final year of a deal made offering arbitration a lot less likely since pay can only be cut a small amount in arbitration, so they wanted a larger the base number to make an arb offer less likely. The only reason that I can see a player still wanting to back load is to have some protection against a trade (who wants an aging outfielder for $20+ million per)