The Nationals were very creative with Max Scherzer‘s contract. It is back loaded, and some of the money is deferred. This could actually work out like Vernon Wells‘s contract. That was a bad one for the Blue Jays, but they were able to find a sucker to take the back loaded end of the deal. While I don’t think this will be a bad contract for the Nationals, if Scherzer pitches well during the first four years, Washington might decide to retool and dump the big money on someone else. It’s possible in four years that $35 million for a year of Scherzer looks reasonable.