So Newsday has Pedro being offered a guaranteed third year, while the Globe says it’s all-but-guaranteed. I guess it’s just dancing around with legalese: it’s probably near-impossible for Pedro to miss the 3rd year, but for insurance purposes it’ll count as 2 years, or something like that.
One thing to note is that the guaranteed third year is what makes Pedro’s contract more like Schilling’s actually: while Schilling was offered a 2-year contract with options, this doesn’t count the 2004 season, which was the last season of his DBacks contract. So Schilling’s Sox contract starts now, and in effect Schilling’s 2 years at $25.5 million are something like a 3-year deal. (Details at Dugout Dollars.)