Some baseball owners may be even less willing to sign multiyear, guaranteed contracts worth tens of millions of dollars because of the expense of insuring them. If you have higher deductibles and higher costs on disability contracts on your players, you're not going to feel as comfortable signing the jumbo baseball contracts. Baseball teams have more exposure to big insurance claims because of their willingness to sign players to guaranteed, long-term contracts, Blumencranz said. The NFL pays signing bonuses instead of guaranteeing contracts. And the NBA and NHL provide fully guaranteed contracts but spread the risk by requiring all teams to insure their highest-salaried players.
Baseball teams have two options.
They can pay the higher premiums, which cost several hundred thousands of dollars to cover contracts the size of Belle's and affect the team's bottom line. Or teams can elect simply to pay the injured player's salary instead of relying on an insurance company. That route could be hugely expensive. Some baseball teams are moving in the direction of less insurance. The expense is huge.