What does it mean when it says incentives in MLB salary?

Jr is correct.

"Incentive" clauses are often written into a player's contract, and it offers him additional benefits (usually in the form of a monetary bonus) if he accomplishes certain things as outlined in the contract.

For example, he might get a bonus if he makes the all-star team (of course, if you pay him $2 million a year and he DOESN'T make the all star team, then you're pretty stupid)... or he might get a bonus if he wins an MVP or Cy Young award.

If you've ever seen the movie "Eight Men Out" (about the Black Sox scandal of 1919), White Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte is portrayed as having been promised a bonus of $10,000 if he won 30 games that year (1919). He won 29, but in the movie, he claims that White Sox owner Charlie Comiskey ordered Manager Kid Gleason to bench Cicotte for a couple of weeks in August, costing him about 5 starts... so he did not get his bonus, because he won 29, rather than 30 games.

(In real life, Cicotte did have a couple of chances to win his 30th game in 1919, but failed. He started 2 or 3 games after his 29th win, but couldn't win any of them. It was probably in 1917, when he won 28 games, that he was benched late in the season in order to prevent him from winning 30 and collecting the bonus. But since the movie takes place in 1919, they took some literary license on that story).

Additional or bonus compensation for achieving pre-defined milestones during the season.

Incentives CANNOT be based upon statistical performance, except for playing time. A position player may have one or more incentives for a certain number of games played or plate appearances, but not at-bats or hits or home runs. Similarly, pitching incentives can be based upon games started or game appearances or innings pitched, but not wins or saves or strikeouts.

Other common incentives include: number of days on the active roster, making the roster out of spring training, being on the active roster (i.e., not on the DL) on given days during the season, getting selected for the All-Star team, winning a season or postseason award.

Besides bonus pay, reaching similar milestones may vest option years in the player's current contract.

Incentives in baseball are you get a set amount of money for accomplishing something during the season.

Example. A player will get 25,000 if he players in 100 game.

A player will get 50,000 if he has 200 at bats.

Something like that.

Incentives are money pd for reaching certain milestones. Like 200IP. You cannot pay for performance. example if you bat 300 you get so much.