Dec
24
Yanks slapped with luxury tax, again
ByThis year’s bill: $23,880,000. On the bright side, this is the second consecutive year the Yanks lowered their luxury tax input, having paid out $26,000,000 last year and a whooping $33,980,000 back in 2005. Old pal Roger Clemens tacked on $6,980,000 to the luxury tax bill all by his lonesome, and since 2002 the Yanks have paid $121,600,000 in luxury tax penalties. That’s alotta cheddar.
Damn Old-Ass Clemens… We paid $6 million for six wins…
And yet people hate us and say we’re bad for baseball…
If I understand the luxury cap correctly, the Yanks paid a little bit less in luxury tax this season because the threshold went up $8MM (in essence, the Yanks were at the same place as last year, but the thresshold went up).
I haven’t done the math, but off the top of my head, when you substract Clemens’ salary, plus transfers for Jaret Wright ($4MM to the Orioles) and for Randy Johnson (I forget the exact sum, but a little money went the Arizona way), and then add Hawkins plus raises to Mariano, Posada and A-Rod (plus to Cano and Wang), the Yankees will still end up with about $10MM less in payroll this year.
And next year, at least $46.5MM come of the books ($17MM for Giambi, $11M for Mussina, $10MM for Pavano, $5MM for Farnsworth and $3.5 MM for Hawkings – neither of which I believe the Yankees will keep), and up to $32MM extra depending on what happens with Pettitte and Abreu.
So if Santana/Sabathia and Texeira are available in the 2008/2009 off-season, the Yanks can still pony up about $35MM (say $20MM for Santana and $15MM for Texeira) and DECREASE their payroll by a nice chunk (plus the thresshold goes up an extra $8MM and the Yanks get revenue sharing relief for the new Yankee Stadium).
If I were the agent for Santana, I would be telling my client not to even think about accepting a trade. And if I’m the agent for Sabathia or Texeira, I’d be telling them not to sign any extensions and head for FA.
In the end Yankee spending helps baseball.
Sad isn’t it? The NYY keep helping those who REFUSE to pony up an are still the bad guys…lol
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Ha…it’s not like the Yankees are paying for it…they passed that right on to the fans for the season ticket plans. My section 11, row U seats went from 18 to 27 dollars this year. That’s insane to me. Apparently now I’m a tier reserved MVP….it’s ridiculous.