Mack on Baseball - Back End Deals

The recent signings of Jose Reyes and Albert Puljois have caused an awful lot of Internet chatter on this subject. Let me chime in here.

• First of all, every contract that is signed by a baseball team and a baseball player has been agreed to by both parties. There doesn't seem to be any animosity by either Jose or Albert, nor do you read about their agent bitching every day on the net.

• Contracts like this are sometimes structured this way so the team can offer additional dollars to other free agents and, thus, make the team more talented for the original signer to play on. Pitcher C.J. Wilson was signed by the Angels because of the back-ended Puljois contract.

• All contracts like these are iron-clad and fully insured. The players involved can't spend in a year the amount of money they get now, so, frankly, this is a wonderful way for a superstar to insure he has the money needed to take care of generations of relatives.

The Mets could have easily participated in these kind of contracts this off-season; however, there has to be a desire by both parties to put something like this together.

Understandably, the Wilpons can't think past their current financial woes and agents/FAs avoid situations like this until they are played out.