Mets sign Nimmo and Robertson
Nimmo gets 8 years, 162 million
It looks like the pattern this year, finally, is a variation of the Lerners's deferred money strategy. Both strategies have the benefit of stretched out payments and lowering the present value of the payment stream. The Lerners gave short years with deferrals, which doubled the CBT impact over a shorter term. That's why the team technically exceeded the CBT when their actual payroll for players on the roster was lower. The current approach gives extra years of being on the roster for guys pretty clearly aren't going to be worth big money in exchange for lower AAV and current luxury tax impact. The current strategy allows a team to accumulate better talent up until the late years when they will be rostering the equivalent of Soriano's and Scherzer's deferred payments (money out for little value to the active squad's performance).
Seeing the two approaches, it kind of leads me to want to push back a bit on the whole "well, when we were a contender, the Lerners were willing to pay and exceed the CBT." Technically true, but if they were really trying to max out the ability to accumulate talent to contend, deals like Scherzer's 7 year contract for $30 million a year would have been structured as a 14 year deal for $15 million a year, which is closer to the payment stream. While it is rare, that would have been a steal of a deal for the Nats. Scherzer would still be performing on the staff. Of course, more deals would not work out that way, but that's sort of what the Turner / Bogaerts and possibly the Judge deal are structured. Not pitchers, so a lot less risk.
