Breaking down MLB’s offseason flurry of mad-money moves

With this record-breaking spending has come unprecedented contract length. The first 64 major-league deals signed this offseason have averaged 2.9 years in length. If that figure holds, it will smash the previous mark of 2.3 years per deal set during the 2008-09 offseason, according to an analysis of Cot’s data going back to 1991.

With only 40% of available free agents signed to date, MLB teams have already guaranteed new signees 188 major-league contract seasons, surpassing the 15-year average of 169 guaranteed years per offseason.

Teams have signed an average of 60% of available free agents over the last 15 offseasons; the remaining players retire or sign minor-league or foreign deals. That means fans can expect roughly 50 more major-league free-agent deals. Even if those are all one-year deals, the total years guaranteed to players would eclipse last year’s sum of 222. The record for total years guaranteed in new free-agent deals is 229, set in 2004-05.