While I believe the policy of not giving incentive ladened contracts may seem prudent and cost affective generally, I believe that there are situations which justify making an exception. Why limit the way you negotiate contracts; especially when the padres are already limited due to the pitching bias of Petco park? The Padres are a small market team with limited revenues, and it would seem that they would be the exemplar team to use incentive ladened contracts to further entice players who may be turned off by Petco parks extreme advantage to pitchers.

Of course pitchers are not going to have a problem with Petco park, but what about Free Agent position players? What about retaining acquired or home grown players? Are the Padres limiting themselves by not doing any incentive ladened contracts? Also, what about players coming off an injury and players with a record of producing coming off a down year? Wouldn't an incentive ladened contract be more prudent for the Padres and attractive to the pitcher or position player who is coming off an injury and looking to reestablish himself? And wouldn't such a contract also be more alluring to players coming off a down year who might otherwise be turned off by the extreme pitching advantage of Petco park?

 
In the case of Chris Young, for example, what are the viable alternatives? The Padres could offer him a low base salary without incentives based on his limited performance over the past two years. I believe that kind of contract would lack appeal to a player who has achieved some success when healthy, especially since there would be other teams which could offer a low base salary plus incentives. On the other hand, the Padres could offer him a higher base salary based on his talents with less emphasis on his health issues, but this option carries with it a higher risk of financial loss if he is re-injured. If however, a low base contract with incentives is offered the Padres would be able to present a more attractive and competitive offer with less risk.

I can see the financial disadvantage of offering an incentive ladened contract to a very healthy productive player who could possibly add cost to the already established budget. However, for a player such as Chris Young or a player coming off a down year, the incentive ladened contract would give the Padres a greater opportunity to acquire or hold onto a player who has a good chance to rebound to a productive season without a great deal of financial risk. And if the player does happen to have a rebound year, it would mean that the Padres would have a more productive season and the cost of the added incentives would be worth while.