The All Star third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, Rafael Devers has signed an 11-year extension of his contract with the team for which he has played since he was a very young teenager. The powerful player had signed a one-year US$17.5 million contract to avoid going to arbitration.
No matter how this new contract is viewed, it is a lot of money. However, it is not all for Devers. Over half of this money will be going to pay taxes and debts. The federal government in the United States will take 40%, and the state of Massachusetts will take 5%. At least 5% will go to his agent, Rep 1 Baseball, and another 10% will go to pay a loan he took out while he was in the minor leagues. Devers received US$1.5 million as a signing bonus, but his trainer took between 30% and 50% of that money. That’s the way baseball is for very young prospects.
At barely 20 years of age, just four years after signing, Devers made his spectacular Major League debut in 2017. However, Devers had already mortgaged 10% of his future salaries with a US$3 million loan against future earnings. So, that US$3 million will cost him US$34.8 million over the life of his new contract, which is about 1,060% interest.
Of the contracted sum, Devers gets to keep just US$132.4 million, or just a bit over US$12 million per year. This is not unusual for baseball players. Fernando Tatis Jr. is in the same situation, having mortgaged his future salary in 2017 after borrowing some money.
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Diario Libre
MLB
Boardroom
Yahoo
10 January 2023