A professional baseball contract is a legal contract between a baseball team and an individual player. In the United States, Major League Baseball contracts are signed for millions of dollars even for the most inexperienced professional players, with top players earning hundreds of millions of dollars during their lifetime career. A professional baseball contract is often negotiated by a sports agent who represents a baseball player. The sports agent argues for the benefits and terms of the contract in order to secure a good deal for the baseball player. Teams often pay large signing bonuses to baseball players in order to persuade them to agree to the terms of a contract. Signing bonuses are paid simply for the act of signing a contract, and are paid in addition to a player's annual salary or other performance based bonuses. If a professional baseball contract is what is known as a guaranteed contract, then the player has security against being dropped from the team early. In the event of early termination, a guaranteed contract stipulates that a player must still be paid under the terms of the contract.