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Part of Contracts and salaries for people who want the details
Contracts and salaries earnings, sorted out as of 2027
Contract and salary earnings sorted by component, with named 2027 examples from the NFL, NBA, MLB and MLS and the documents behind each figure.
Contracts and salaries earnings sort by component before they sort by rank. Each component exists because one side wanted certainty and the other chose to pay for outcomes rather than time. Sorted that way, the structure explains why the reported figure is almost never what anybody receives.
What to take away
- Guaranteed money and maximum money are different promises wearing the same label.
- Spotrac, Over The Cap, Pro Football Reference, Baseball Reference and the MLSPA salary release publish the year-by-year detail that press reports flatten into one number.
- The NFL's 2026 salary cap is $301.2 million per club, set in the league's own release; every NFL figure below sits against it.
- MLB has no salary cap. Its 2026 competitive balance tax threshold is $244 million, and the 2027 number waits on a new collective bargaining agreement.
- Agent commission is capped at 3% in the NFL, 4% in the NBA and 5% in MLB, so representation cost is knowable before tax.
- A figure without a date and a source document is an estimate, not a record.
The components, sorted
| Component | Who carries the risk | Named 2027 example |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed salary, NFL | The employer | Josh Allen, $55 million average annual value on his 2025 extension (Over The Cap) |
| Fixed salary, NBA | The employer | Stephen Curry, about $62.6 million for 2026-27 (Spotrac) |
| Fixed salary, MLB | The employer | Juan Soto, $51 million average annual value on his 15-year Mets deal (Spotrac) |
| Fixed salary, MLS | The club, inside a capped budget | Lionel Messi, about $20.4 million in guaranteed compensation at Inter Miami (MLSPA salary release) |
| Signing bonus | The employer, up front | Myles Garrett, $21.6 million signing bonus, 2025 (Over The Cap) |
| Roster bonus | The employer, on a date | Josh Allen, $8.5 million March 2026 roster bonus (Spotrac) |
| Performance incentive | The person | NFL per-game active bonuses, commonly $500,000 to $1 million |
| Option or void year | Whoever holds it | Dak Prescott, 2028 through 2030 void years (Over The Cap) |
| Deferred money, long tail | The person, over time | Bobby Bonilla, $1.19 million each July 1 through 2035 (MLB) |
| Deferred money, club side | The club, for a decade | Shohei Ohtani, $2 million in 2027, then $68 million a year from 2034 to 2043 (Spotrac) |
| Injury guarantee | The employer | Deshaun Watson, $92 million injury guarantee on the 2022 deal |
| Buyout or release | Negotiated | NBA waive-and-stretch, as used on Bradley Beal in 2025 |
Read the middle column down and a pattern appears. A package weighted toward the top rows is low risk for the person. One weighted toward the middle rows is a bet. Two deals with the same headline total can sit at opposite ends of that scale.
The four leagues allow different amounts of that scale. The NFL and NBA cap club spending and cap agent fees. MLB sets no cap and taxes payroll past a threshold instead. Its minimum salary was $760,000 in 2025 and $780,000 in 2026.
MLS caps each club's salary budget in the mid single-digit millions. A club may carry up to three Designated Players, whose charge against that budget is a fixed six-figure amount, with the owner paying the rest.
Deferral pushes money further out than any other term. Shohei Ohtani signed a $700 million Dodgers deal in December 2023 that pays him $2 million a year from 2024 through 2033, then $68 million a year from 2034 to 2043. Aaron Judge's Yankees deal carries a $40 million average with no deferral at all.
Guaranteed and maximum are not the same promise
This distinction does more damage than any other in public reporting. A deal described as worth a stated total over several years may guarantee only part of it, with the rest tied to being retained, to defined targets, or to an option.
Deshaun Watson signed a fully guaranteed $230 million deal with the Cleveland Browns in March 2022. That is the exception. Myles Garrett's 2025 extension with the same club is reported at $40 million a year with $123.5 million guaranteed, and that guarantee sits below the average.
Baseball and basketball guarantee the whole deal once it is signed, so a release means the club keeps paying. An NFL release usually stops the money at the guarantee. A waived NBA player can be stretched over twice the remaining years plus one, which is how Bradley Beal's 2025 exit from Phoenix was booked.
The realistic expectation sits between the guarantee and the maximum. Coverage prints the maximum because it is the largest number available, and it is not wrong as a description of the ceiling. It is wrong as a description of what anyone will be paid. The year-by-year detail behind these figures is on contracts and salaries.
What comes out before anyone is paid
Agent commission is a published percentage, not a rumor. The NFL Players Association caps agent fees at 3% of a player contract, the National Basketball Players Association at 4%, and the Major League Baseball Players Association at 5%. On Curry's $62.6 million, that is roughly $2.5 million before federal or state tax.
Tax follows where the work is performed. A player on a California team pays California rates on home games and the jock tax in every other state he plays in. Texas and Florida have no state income tax on wages, which is part of why those markets compete for free agents.
Where the money runs through a company, that company pays its own costs before the owner sees anything. The IRS sets out the available forms in its overview of business structures.
Employee or independent contractor changes tax treatment, benefits and who owns the work. The IRS explains the difference between an independent contractor and an employee because the two are treated so differently.
Where the terms come from
Not every term is negotiated one at a time. Collective bargaining agreements set minimum salaries, benefit structures and the rules that individual deals sit on top of. The NFL's 2026 cap of $301.2 million per club comes from that agreement, and it sets what every roster can spend.
The NBA's 2025-26 salary cap is $154.647 million, and the league's projection for 2026-27 sits near $165 million. Both come out of the CBA formula and are sent to clubs before the season opens.
MLB has no cap at all. The 2022 Basic Agreement sets the competitive balance tax threshold at $244 million for 2026 and runs out in December 2026, which leaves the 2027 number open.
MLS writes its salary budget and Designated Player rules into the roster rules it publishes each season. The MLSPA lists every player's base and guaranteed compensation twice a year, in spring and fall.
Statutory floors apply in many jurisdictions regardless of what a contract says. The Department of Labor publishes plain-language fact sheets on the federal wage and hour rules in the United States.
The documents behind these figures are public. League cap releases and the Spotrac, Over The Cap, Pro Football Reference and Baseball Reference contract pages cover the deals themselves. The NFLPA, NBPA and MLBPA fee schedules cover representation, and the MLSPA salary release covers MLS. They describe dated terms and categories of worker rather than named individuals' take-home pay.
Reading a published figure
Any figure you meet describing somebody's pay is the table above flattened into one line. Ask which components it includes, whether it is guaranteed or maximum, whether it is annual or total, and whether it is before or after deductions. Most reported figures fail at least two of those questions.
How these numbers accumulate into lifetime sums is on career earnings. The commercial deals that sit alongside a contract are on endorsement income. Why this publication prints no individual take-home figure is on estimate methodology.
Common questions
Why accept contingent pay over guaranteed pay?
Because the contingent version is usually larger if it pays. Josh Allen's $8.5 million roster bonus arrives only if he is on the roster that March. Someone confident in the outcome trades certainty for size; someone who is not does the reverse.
Is a signing bonus extra money?
It is money paid early, and whether it sits on top of the stated total or inside it depends on the deal. Myles Garrett's $21.6 million signing bonus in 2025 was part of his reported $40 million annual value, not a gift on top of it.
Does a long contract mean long security?
Only for the guaranteed portion. Dak Prescott's deal runs through 2027 with void years to 2030, and the guarantee ends well before the term does. The length is the part that gets reported.
How can a $700 million contract pay $2 million in 2027?
Because most of it is deferred. Ohtani's Dodgers deal pushes $680 million to annual payments of $68 million from 2034 to 2043, and the league discounts deferred money when it computes the club's competitive balance tax number. Spotrac carries the yearly split.
Why is Messi's MLS figure smaller than the rest of his income?
MLS roster rules count a Designated Player at a fixed charge against the salary budget, and the club owner covers the remainder of the pay. Messi's reported agreements with Apple and Adidas sit alongside that, and the MLSPA salary release lists only the league compensation.
Where can I check these figures myself?
Spotrac, Over The Cap, Pro Football Reference, Baseball Reference and the MLSPA salary release publish year-by-year detail with dates. The NFL's own cap release, the NBA's cap announcement and the NFLPA, NBPA and MLBPA fee schedules are the primary documents. If a figure has no date and no document behind it, treat it as an estimate.
