Baseball contracts often work this way more than any other sport because of the contracts they're forced to sign early in their careers. They get through smaller deals the first 6 years I think of their career before they can get their big break contract. I think it takes 6 years or so before they're arbitration eligible. Gotta look that up to be exact. Pujols signed the biggest deal at his time for someone before their arbitration year, like a 6 year 107 milli deal. But the Cardinals made a killing because he was the best player in the sport for many of those years. So by the time he gets his next big contract, he's basically getting paid for past performance as much as for the future years.