Gibbons' rolling contract:

[SharoneWright]

Looks like AA put Gibbons in a pretty nice spot:

The Toronto Blue Jays have built a creative rolling option into the contract of John Gibbons that will prevent him from ever facing a lame-duck year as manager.

Back when he was hired in November, Gibbons revealed that he was given a two-year deal plus an option, but he didn’t explain how the option functions.

The way it works is that as long as the Blue Jays don’t fire him prior to the following Jan. 1, the option becomes guaranteed with another option added to the back end. For example, if Gibbons makes it to 2014, his 2015 option vests with another option added for 2016.

Believed to be the first of its kind in the big-leagues, although that’s unconfirmed, the structure essentially means Gibbons will be operating on a perpetual two-year contract, eliminating any in-season intrigue on how his contractual status affects his standing.

Creative&smart or too generous??? AA has certainly gone all in with this club (and now manager) as currently constituted... should he have left himself at least a couple of outs... ?
http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2013/0 ... me%20duck'

[torontoaces04]

Looks like AA put Gibbons in a pretty nice spot:

The Toronto Blue Jays have built a creative rolling option into the contract of John Gibbons that will prevent him from ever facing a lame-duck year as manager.

Back when he was hired in November, Gibbons revealed that he was given a two-year deal plus an option, but he didn’t explain how the option functions.

The way it works is that as long as the Blue Jays don’t fire him prior to the following Jan. 1, the option becomes guaranteed with another option added to the back end. For example, if Gibbons makes it to 2014, his 2015 option vests with another option added for 2016.

Believed to be the first of its kind in the big-leagues, although that’s unconfirmed, the structure essentially means Gibbons will be operating on a perpetual two-year contract, eliminating any in-season intrigue on how his contractual status affects his standing.

Creative&smart or too generous??? AA certainly all in with this club (including manager it seems) as currently constituted... should he have left at least a couple of outs... ?
http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2013/0 ... me%20duck'

I'm done questioning AA...crow tastes like ****.

[spykelee]

I actually like this idea. It's not as if we can never fire the guy, but it means that everyone knows where they stand and what's going on.

Gibby wont have to be concerned with job security for the vast majority of the year, and the players also know that like it or not, gibby is here, so you better work out your issues. It's a little risky, but by and large, I like it.

[Randle McMurphy]

Can't see Anthopoulos scapegoating Gibbons at any point if this team underachieves, anyway. He's going to ride with him even if it doesn't work out. The guy's exactly what he wants in a manager.

[darth_federer]

There are some things I dont understand in sports. This lame duck stuff is one of them.

Anyways, its an interesting contract and your manager feeling secure is always good.

[satyr9]

The only thing AA loves more than baseball is contract options. He's finally come up with a way that they self-perpetuate.

[distracted]

It ends up very close to having an automatic one year salary as severence.

I like the idea. The cost of firing the manager is always well known, can't get too large (like on a longer term contract) and avoids the media problems that can come in the last year of a contract.

[sule]

I can see this catching on with other teams.

But I wonder if he could get away with something similar for players.

[Ado05]

Way I look at it is it will just keep going as long as he's doing well.

See no bad side to it.

[Parataxis]

Evergreen contracts are fairly common in a lot of other industries; makes a lot of sense to me.