My CF is a FA after this year.  He's a 162 game player, 30-ish HR's.  Decent CF defense, or better. 28 years old.

Current salary is $6M.  He wants 5 years at $6M. I'ld prefer not to do a 5 year contract.  How close do you have to get to the total contract amount ($30M in this case) to get a player signed.

I wouldn't mind an $8M-$7M-$7M ($22M total) or an 8-7-6-5 contract. ($26M).

What do you think?  Can I go shorter than 5 years?  What is your experience?

moe

I'm pretty sure the best you can do is a mutual option in the 5th year and a slight tweak of the money in each year of the deal, so long as it adds up to $30 million.  Anybody have a different experience with a departing FA? 

Thanks....

I had a guy that wanted $22 million over 4 years and I offered him 11 for 2.  He said no.  I went up and up and he never got him signed.  I think my highest offer were 15 for 2 or 18 for 3.