THE CAPOLOGIST FIELD GUIDE
One contract.
Different numbers.
A headline tells you the size of a deal. The details tell you what the player can earn—and what the team owes against its cap.
01 / FOLLOW THE MONEY
Paid now. Counted over time.
Cash is compensation paid or scheduled to be paid to a player. A cap charge is the amount counted against a team’s salary cap in a league year. Bonus proration can spread a cap charge across seasons.
Cash paid
The player receives the bonus in Year 1.
Cap allocation
The bonus counts $4M in each season.
This shows only the bonus, not a player’s full contract. Salary, other bonuses and later contract events can change the total cap charge.
Scheduled future compensation is not earned career income. A headline value is not a promise that the player will receive every dollar.
02 / READ THE WHOLE DEAL
New money isn’t always total value.
An extension adds terms to an existing agreement. Its new money and new years can differ from the total value and years remaining.
Illustrative extension: $20M per new year, compared with $17.5M per remaining year. We keep those denominators separate.
03 / CHECK THE PROTECTION
“Guaranteed” needs a definition.
The same headline can describe different kinds of protection. We do not treat these categories as interchangeable.
Fully guaranteed
Money fully protected when the agreement is signed.
Injury guarantee
Protection tied to injury. It does not automatically establish a full guarantee at signing.
Reported guarantee
A source reports a guarantee but does not establish its precise type or when it takes effect.
04 / KNOW WHAT’S MISSING
Unknown is not zero.
The evidence does not establish a value.
The evidence establishes that the amount is zero.
Our editorial database preserves this distinction. Older imported tables can contain incomplete breakdowns, so check their source notes before drawing conclusions.
05 / BEHIND THE NUMBERS
A record you can trace.
- 01
Capture the evidence
Link each fact to its source and distinguish reported figures from confirmed terms or estimates.
- 02
Propose a record
Keep unknown terms blank. Explain corrections and calculations.
- 03
Review before publication
Check the evidence and the scope of permission for commercial reuse.
- 04
Preserve the history
Corrections create new versions. Withdrawal removes the approved record from public access without deleting its history.
Website publication and API redistribution have separate permission checks. Availability on this site does not automatically permit commercial API reuse.
06 / KEEP THE CONTEXT
Dates and teams matter.
A contract end year alone does not establish unrestricted free agency. Options, void years and player eligibility can change the outcome. Signing team and current roster team are also different facts, particularly after a trade.
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