Stanton wanted flexibility for Marlins - ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11897600/giancarlo-stanton-325m-miami-marlins-heavily-backloaded

Giancarlo Stanton has agreed to a 13 year 325 million dollar contract with the Miami Marlins. He has the option to opt out of his contract after 6 years. If he were to do this he would be walking away from 218 million dollars. Stanton still wants to give his team financial flexibility. He would be getting paid 25 million dollars a year every year. Instead Stanton is going to back load is contract. That means he will be getting paid around 9 million dollars his first three years. His last couple of years he will be getting paid more than 25 million dollars a year.

Stanton is getting a guaranteed 107 million dollars his first six seasons. Then he has the option to leave the team. If Stanton feels like the Marlins didn't bring in enough people to build a championship contending team, he will leave. He would be walking away from the majority of his guaranteed money by doing so. 

This was a really smart decision by Stanton. Stanton left himself with a lot of options. Stanton obviously wants to stay with the Marlins after agreeing to back load his contract. Giving the Marlins financial flexibly gives the team a better chance to improve. There is now a good chance of that happening with the money freed up by the back loading.