Mad Max is getting some mad money.

The financial details of Max Scherzer’s seven-year pact with the Washington Nationals are finally rolling in and they are…unique.

The contract is still – as we reported earlier – a seven-year pact, but it’s worth considerably more than the $180 million figure that was floated this morning.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports is reporting that part of the new total includes a $50 signing bonus that will be paid out over the lifetime of the contract.

Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports is reporting that, in total, Scherzer will earn $210 million.

We’ll pause for a moment to take you to this very important GIF of Scherzer at his home:

Okay, so that’s a ton of money, yet this is still being lauded as a very good deal for the Nationals.

…so what’s the catch?

Half of that money is deferred for an additional seven years after the life of the initial contract, meaning Scherzer will make $15 million a season until 2028, long after he’s retired.

Structuring the deal this way allows Scherzer and his agent, Scott Boras to say they landed the $200+ million contract they were seeking all along.

It also gives the Nationals a huge competitive advantage as they’ll only be paying Scherzer $15 million a year – considerably less than most front-line starters – which will allow them additional financial flexibility to retain many of their impending free agents.

In this scenario, everyone wins.

Scherzer gets paid quite handsomely and will be making a ridiculous salary long after he’s hung up the spikes.

Meanwhile, the Nationals are now in a financial position to keep their juggernaut pitching staff together and retain the bulk of their impending free agents to build a legitimate super team for the foreseeable future.

…and somewhere James Shields is laughing maniacally.