The Yankees are not going after C.J. Wilson or Mark Buehrle because they do not like the costs especially in 2014.
To understand the Yankees’ current thinking, you must understand that no team stands to lose or gain more from the newly agreed upon collective bargaining agreement.
...This would mean the only big shot the Yankees fire this offseason already has occurred, with their CC Sabathia retention/extension. It also means they will be bystanders as organizations such as the Marlins and Blue Jays dominate the Winter Meetings, which begin tomorrow.
“We get the eye roll when we tell teams or agents or the media [that the Yankees have financial parameters],” one team official said. They don’t have to believe us. They will see with our actions.
...Thus, the Yankees will be looking particularly for starters who are relatively cost effective and do not have commitments beyond 2013. For example, the White Sox’s John Danks is a free agent after this season and the Cubs’ Matt Garza is a free agent after the 2013 campaign. But, for now, those teams’ asking prices are too large for the Yankees, especially because they do value their cost-effective prospects more than ever as they keep their eye on the $189-million-or-less goal for 2014.
This is why when pushed on Yankees expectations for the Winter Meetings, one team executive said: “I don’t think we’ll do anything.”
Repoz
Posted: December 04, 2011 at 04:53 PM |
23 comment(s)
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1. McCoy Wilfong for Money Posted: December 04, 2011 at 05:30 PM (#4006516)So we are talking about the kind of money returned or saved that even the Yankees can't ignore and they are not.
So the Yankees have ignored it for 7 years but they are not going to ignore it now?
Something tells me there is no way the Yankees are going to be under 189 million dollars in 2014. Not unless they get really creative with their contracts.
It looks like the Yankees have about 96 million dollars to play with in 2014, not counting arb guys and any new contracts but counting the 3 million dollar option and a bonus for ARod. David Robertson will be an Arb 3 guy and Ivan Nova an Arb 2 guy. I would guess that would be at least another 15 million right there.
A $189M payroll with Darvish is ~$200M (counting fee), which is where they've been forever.
Let's do some quick math. Yanks payroll is around 205-210 annually. Luxury tax threshold in 2011 was 178M. 40% on roughly 30M overage is 12M.
Fast forward to 2014. New rate is 50% with a 189M threshold. If the Yankee payroll holds steady, its roughly 20M overage on a 50% rate, or 10M.
So according to Sherman, the Yanks are scared of saving 2M per year.
Well, apparently they added another wrinkle by adding a recvenue sharing savings as well.
Also, Cano, Joba, and Hughes will be free agents by then.
Take the money you'd pay Joba and buy Cano a summer condo.
Let's try that again:
"Cano will need to be re-signed. Joba and Hughes will be free agents by then."
Plus, according to the article, just by getting under the threshhold once, that resets their "repeat offender" status and they'll drop to a 17% tax the next time they go over.
To take advantage of this, the Yanks can employ a system of even year/odd year contracts for long term deals. Let's say you sign Cole Hamels and Matt Cain next year, each getting 6 year deals. You pay them 40M each on odd numbered years and 1M on even numbered years, averaging 20.5 per and ensuring you pay a 17% luxury tax in perpetuity. I'm sure the league office will be fine with this creative solution.
Genius!
Sweet, so as of this time next week people can no longer say AA hasn't won anything yet!
Luxury tax payroll uses AAV
It's true, but assuming they go straight back to being 30m over the cap, they would save less than 20m the following 3 years*. Getting under that threshold is going to be a gargantuan effort. Are the Yankees really going to jeopardize multiple season, just to save 20m?
*
Year 1 17.5% instead of 50%: 9.75m
Year 2 30% instead of 50%: 6m
Year 3 40% instead of 50%: 3m
In addition to what APNY points out, unless I misread it, it's a one time deal only.
I have a really hard time believing it though when you consider the obsession the Yankee culture has with trying to be the best team every single season. Yeah, they've shown that they don't have an unlimited budget and won't spend absolutely whatever it takes but this is a far tighter constraint than they have put on themselves in the past. Only $100 million for them to spend on 22 players in 2014? Hard to see that happening. Though the nice thing is that if they really do go through with this then the new slotting system for the draft will prevent them from putting all that freed up money into amateur talent.
Did I just hear YR's head explode?
I also very much doubt that the Yankees are going to willingly fail to outspend the Red Sox given the terms of the new CBA.
"Cano will need to be re-signed. Joba and Hughes will be free agents by then."
Yep, I fully expect the Yanks to have only about 50 million dollars free with only about 7 or 8 guys signed for 2014. I don't see them being under in 2014.
They certainly can if they want to. They're only committed to $76M.
I doubt they'll want to, though.
I don't have any problem with how the Yankees want to address the impact of the "luxury tax". I object to the existence of this thinly-veiled Yankee tax in the first place. Whether the Yankees are above or below the arbitrary threshold doesn't exonerate such obvious chicanery.
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