The deal outlined here may be favorable to the Twins, in terms of expected value and all that. They're the team, and are in a position to spread out risk among multiple players. But from the player's POV, getting your risk bought out has some real value. You have just one career. Buxton's signing bonus, minus taxes and agent fees and other costs, probably set him up for a middle-class lifestyle, to raise his family, and for the rest of his life. But a deal like being proposed here lets him, for example, endow a charitable foundation in his name that can disburse a couple million a year or more perpetually, if that's how his mind works - not to mention upgrading the lifestyle a little further. That kind of certainty isn't nothing. $76.5M may be a little light, but not ridiculously so. It shouldn't take $100M for the 7 years.