The final out of the World Series marks the beginning of baseball's second season, when teams court free agents and orchestrate trades with the hope of building a championship contender. The real and anticipated transactions generate excitement among fans who discuss the merit of moves in the...

The impact of contract length on player performance has received attention in the sports economics literature. Players are said to shirk following the signing of a guaranteed contract if performance falls below some level of expected performance. While much of the literature uses OLS to identify...