How can money and years on a contract incentivize players to signing with a team?

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/jon-lester-most-important-signing-cubs-history

In this article, written by Buster Onley of ESPN.com we are taken back to the winter meatings of early December of 2014 when covetted free agent pitcher Jon Lester narrowed down his choice of where he was going to sign for 2015 on to the Giants, Red Sox, and the destination in which we know he ends up picking the Chicago Cubs. Now what made Jon pick his new team? Was it the manager? The teammates? Their record from last year? The clear answer to those questions is no obviously. Although helping the Cubs contend for the World Series was a motivating factor, ultimately Lester was most motivated by dollars and years. 

 In this case the Chicago Cubs were coming off 89, 96, and 101 losses in the last 3 years. They had a few rising stars coming to the bigs like Anthony Rizzo, Javy Baez, and Starling Castro, but guys that we know today who helped the Cubs win their first world series in 108 years like Addison Russell, Kyle Shwarber, and and future MVP Kris Byrant were just young names in the prospect sytem that die hards like myself were praying would pay off.

 Now yes you could say that Lester picked the Cubs because he wanted to break the 108 year curse like how his former bosses Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer did in Boston in 2004, but I argue that he was incentivized to join the Chicago Cubs because they gave him more money and years than the San Francisco Giants.

 In those last couple of days during that integral winter meeting Jon had to make a decision and his agent had to negotiate. I believe that behind closed doors this happened. A lot of teams were interested in paying for the talents of the ace but after consistent bidding and stubborn negociating it came down to two. The Cubs and Giants

 They went back and forth for hours and I bet Jon’s agent kept pushing for this. Just put one more year on the contract and the deal is done. Reports said that what was holding up the deat was that neither the Cubs or the Giants would offer more than 5 years to Lester. My theory is after hours of talking I believe the Cubs gave in because they new that the 6th year of the 155 million dollar contract was key for their World Series aspirations

 And the rest is history.

In my next blog post, I'll look at how was the Shohei Otani case first of its kind and unseen in baseball history?