“I want people to understand one thing. The money they gave me wasn’t for what I’m going to do. It was for what I already did,” Guerrero told Batista. “They didn’t pay me because I’m going to hit 40 [home runs] every year. They paid me for what I already accomplished.”

Uh, no, Vlad. Or rather, “No, you idiot.” Athletes are no different in this respect than any other employee in any other field. Past performance is taken into consideration in assessing what an individual’s future performance is worth to his or her employers going forward, but a contract is definitely an exchange of benefits for services to be rendered in the future.

Toronto paid that $500 million to Guerrero so he wouldn’t leave the Jays and sign with another team as a free agent when his previous contract expired. Does he really think that another team would be paying him millions in compensation for what he already had done for the Blue Jays? Does he think when he was signed away from his original team, the California Angels, the Jays gave him all that money as compensation for his Angels’ heroics

The amounts in multi-year contracts are obviously affected by what the player has done in the past, just as the academic record and other achievements of a star graduate student hired by a Fortune 500 company will affect his or her starting salary. But to say that a salary doesn’t reflect the value an employee is is expected to add to an organization in the period covered by the contract is either a dishonest attempt to excuse failure or evidence of a dumb jock who shouldn’t be allowed to talk to the news media without a chaperone.

Not surprisingly, Guerrero’s comments are being flamed on social media, but Vlad is digging in. “No, I don’t regret myself. I’m not lying with what I say,” Guerrero said in response. “I understand some fans, they don’t understand the way and what I was trying to say specifically, but what I said is the way I feel.”

Oh! No wonder you stink this year: you think you’re playing for free, and will be until 2039.