Baseball Players Are Also Worried About the Fiscal Cliff

Too bad we never saw the pitching matchup of Simpson-Bowles

B.J. Upton, the talented Major League Baseball outfielder, just signed a $75.25 million deal to play for the Atlanta Braves in the next five years. That’s a lot of money, even spread out over five years, and it comes with an unusual provision—a $3 million bonus to be paid before Dec. 31, 2012.

The date is a giveaway: If Jan. 1 arrives in the U.S. with a government plan to avoid the fiscal cliff, or if President Obama has his way and resets tax rates on the wealthy to Clinton-era levels, getting paid a day early will save Upton $120,136.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot of money for someone scheduled to receive a salary of $12.45 million next season, but it’s more than twice as much as the average American earns in a year. Someone in Upton’s coterie of agents, lawyers, and accountants has an eye on the nation’s upcoming austerity trigger.