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Yankees to call up Gleyber Torres on Sunday

April 21, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

The Gleyber Torres era is about to begin. According to Jack Curry, the Yankees will call Torres up for Sunday’s game. The Yankees have not yet announced anything, but there’s no reason at all to doubt Jack’s reporting. Gleyber will be with the Yankees tomorrow.

The 21-year-old Torres was pulled from Sunday’s game for an unknown reason after going 0-for-3. He left a game with back stiffness earlier this week, but there’s no injury this time. Gleyber went into Saturday’s game hitting .370/.415/.543 (170 wRC+) with one homer in 13 Triple-A games this season.

With Miguel Andujar heating up at the plate and the Tyler Wade/Neil Walker combination doing little at the plate, it stands to reason Torres will take over as the regular second baseman. Sending Wade down to Triple-A for regular playing time is the logical corresponding move, unless someone’s hurt.

Torres has already spent enough time in the minors this season to delay his free agency. The Yankees have him for the remaining 143 games of this season plus six full seasons from 2019-24. He’s already on the 40-man roster as well, so no 40-man move is required. Fun fun fun!

Yankees’ luxury tax payroll situation for 2018

April 18, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

Updated 4/18/18

Estimated 2018 Yankees’ luxury tax payroll: $184.1M
2018 luxury tax threshold: $197 million

The 2018 season is now three weeks old. The Yankees have gotten off to an uneven start, to put it lightly, and they are currently 8-8 with a +3 run differential. On the bright side, Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius remain pretty awesome. The Yankees have that going for them.

One number is going to hang over the Yankees all year: $197M. That is the luxury tax threshold for the 2018 season. Ownership and the front office is adamant the Yankees will get under the threshold this year — they’ve paid luxury tax every year since the system was put in place in 2003 — which would reset their luxury tax rate. Right now the Yankees are taxed at the maximum 50%.

As the season progresses, the Yankees’ payroll situation will evolve due to call-ups and midseason additions, possibly even contract extensions. Every change to the roster results in a change to the luxury tax payroll. Because getting under the $197M threshold this year is an important stated goal, we’re going to do our best to keep track of the payroll situation with this continually updated post. Here’s where the Yankees stand as of April 18th.

Compiling the luxury tax payroll point-by-point was getting tedious, so I decided to throw it into a spreadsheet. The last time I updated the payroll situation, I had the Yankees at $183.5M projected for the season. Now it’s $184.1M because of injury call-ups. A few other things about the payroll situation.

1. The call-ups are complicated. Pre-arbitration-eligible players on split contracts — the majority of the players on the roster, basically — get paid one salary at the Major League level and a different salary in the minors, and their luxury tax hits are pro-rated. Say, for example, a player spends 100 days in MLB and 86 days in the minors. His luxury tax hit is then 100 days of MLB salary plus 86 days of MiLB salary.

It’s important to note only minor leaguers on the 40-man roster count against the luxury tax payroll. Peterson and Robinson were never on the 40-man and in the minors, so their minor league salary is irrelevant for luxury tax purposes. Guys like Gleyber, Acevedo, Loaisiga are on the 40-man though, so their minor league salaries count against the luxury tax payroll. It’s not much, but every dollar counts.

2. Trades work in a similar way. Any player who comes over in a midseason trade — or even a waiver claim, for that matter — has their luxury tax hit pro-rated. If the Yankees were to trade for a player making $10M this season at the halfway point, they’d be charged with a $5M luxury tax hit. The math isn’t quite that neat in real life, but you get the idea. The Yankees figure to be active the trade deadline. They have money to spend and prospects to trade.

3. The disabled list provides no relief. Ellsbury’s salary doesn’t go away for luxury tax purposes just because he’s injured and hasn’t played. Players on the disabled list still count against the luxury tax payroll. It’s like they’re on the active roster. Ben Heller underwent Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire season — he didn’t throw a single pitch during the regular season — yet his full salary will count against the luxury tax payroll. Such is life.

4. There’s still lots of room under the threshold. Even with all the injuries and call-ups, and even with the potential bonuses looming, the Yankees are still way under the luxury tax threshold. That leaves them plenty of room for trades and plenty of room just to breath easy. They don’t have to sweat every call-up and every dollar spent, at least not right now. The Giants want to avoid luxury tax this year and they’re within $2M of the $197M threshold. They have no wiggle room. The Yankees have lots.

* * *

Like it or not, the Yankees are going to get under the luxury tax threshold this season, and they are currently in good position to do so. They have room to cover injury call-ups and room to take on salary at the deadline. If you have any questions about the luxury tax payroll, or if you notice an error, shoot me an email at RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com.

Yankees vs. Tigers doubleheader postponed Sunday

April 15, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

For the second straight day, the Yankees and Tigers have been postponed due to rain. Today’s split admission doubleheader has been rained out (freezing rained out, really), it was announced, and the two games will be made up as part of a doubleheader on June 4th.

The back-to-back rainouts are beneficial to the Yankees in three ways. One, the bullpen gets another day to rest after a heavy workload week. Two, the Yankees can skip Luis Cessa’s spot start. He was supposed to start yesterday in CC Sabathia’s spot. Sabathia is expected back Tuesday though, so the Yankees can skip Cessa.

And three, these two games get pushed off until later in the season. The Yankees are banged up right now and the bullpen is struggling. When these two games get made up in June, the Yankees will hopefully be healthier — Greg Bird is expected back by then, for example — and have a more effective bullpen, plus any trade pickups made between now and then will be available.

Losing an off-day to a makeup game always stinks, and in this case the Yankees are losing an off-day to travel to Detroit to play a doubleheader. Yuck. All things considered though, June 4th isn’t a bad off-day to give up. Here’s the June schedule:

The Yankees have two off-days in the seven days following the doubleheader on June 4th. The travel’s not too bad either. Baltimore to Detroit to Toronto. Again, it’s never fun losing an off-day to a travel to play a doubleheader. This isn’t awful though. Could be worse.

This six-game turned four-game road trip ends with a split, and the Yankees are heading home for a two-game series with the Marlins. Luis Severino, today’s scheduled starter, will presumably get the ball in Monday night’s opener. That’s one of those experimental 6:35pm ET starts. Old buddy Caleb Smith will be on the bump for the Marlins.

Update: Aaron Boone said Severino will start Monday and Masahiro Tanaka will start Tuesday. Both will be on an extra day of rest. Sabathia will come off the disabled list to start Thursday. (The Yankees have an off-day Wednesday.)

Saturday Links: Jeter, A-Rod, Forbes Franchise Values

April 14, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

The Yankees and Tigers were rained out today, and there’s a pretty good chance they’ll get rained out tomorrow too. The weather forecast in Detroit doesn’t look good at all. Here, to help you pass the time during this sudden Yankees baseball-less day, are some links and notes to check out.

Jeter skipping Yankees-Marlins series

The rebuilding Miami Marlins will be in the Bronx this week to play a quick two-game series Monday and Tuesday, but minority owner Derek Jeter will not make the trip, according to Joe Frisaro. Jeter told Frisaro he’s not making the trip because going to Yankee Stadium will be awkward. From Frisaro:

“I’m not going. I just want to let everybody know, I’m not going to New York. I went to the Spring Training game when we played New York. But it would be an awkward situation for me to actually go to Yankee Stadium. I’m just being honest with you guys. That’s why I’m not going. I knew it was going to be a story, one way or the other. So, I might as well get out in front of it and say, I’m not going. So, I will not be there.”

The Yankees will make a two-game trip to Miami later this season, and I imagine Jeter will be in the house for that. I wonder how long it’ll be until it’s not awkward for Jeter to come back to Yankee Stadium? Never is a long time. I’m sure it’ll happen at some point. Plenty of others have gone on to other teams and returned for Old Timers’ Day, for example. (Not as an owner though.) Jeter knows the Yankees enhance his personal #brand. I doubt he’ll cut ties completely.

A-Rod talked to Dodgers in 2007

Earlier this week Alex Rodriguez made some headlines when, on an ESPN broadcast, he said he wishes he would’ve signed with the Mets back during the 2000-01 offseason rather than the Rangers. Jon Heyman has a follow up column with a few fun notes. Two stand out in particular:

Brian Cashman and Scott Boras were discussing an eight-year extension worth $235M before A-Rod opted out in 2007. That would’ve added five new years on top of his existing contract.
After exercising the opt-out, Boras and the Dodgers were discussing a potential $320M contract over an unknown number of years.

After A-Rod opted out in 2007, it was widely reported Cashman wanted the Yankees to walk away, but ownership stepped in and re-signed him to his then record ten-year, $270M deal. That Dodgers deal would’ve been a total disaster given what he know now. A-Rod’s hip broke down and they don’t have a DH spot. Assuming that $320M deal covered ten years, Rodriguez would’ve become the first $30M a year player in history, beating Clayton Kershaw by seven years.

Yankees again ranked as most valuable MLB franchise

Once again, the Yankees are the most valuable franchise in baseball according to Forbes. Forbes has compiling franchise valuations for 21 years now and the Yankees have been atop the list every year. The Yankees are valued at $4 billion, up from $3.7 billion last year. Their revenue is estimated at $619M, but their operating income is a mere $14M. Here are the most valuable franchises:

1. Yankees: $4 billion
2. Dodgers: $3 billion
3. Cubs: $2.9 billion
4. Giants: $2.85 billion
5. Red Sox: $2.8 billion
…
29. Marlins: $1 billion
30. Rays: $900M

The gap between No. 1 and No. 2 is the same as the gap between No. 2 and No. 7. The Yankees are truly in a world of their own among the 30 MLB franchises.

As noted in the Forbes piece, the Yankees generate roughly 20% more revenue than any other team thanks to the YES Network, the still new ballpark, and other side ventures like Legends Hospitality. The average MLB franchise is worth $1.645 billion these days, which is ridiculous. The Marlins sold for $1.2 billion last year. Imagine what a mid-range franchise could go for on the open market.

Yankees, Tigers postponed due to rain Saturday

April 14, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

As expected, this afternoon’s game at Comerica Park has been postponed due to rain. Word is the Yankees and Tigers will try to play a split doubleheader tomorrow, but tomorrow’s weather forecast doesn’t look much better. We’ll see. Tomorrow’s games are scheduled for 1pm ET and 7pm ET.

The impromptu off-day comes at a pretty good time for the Yankees. Between short starts and extra inning games, the bullpen has been worked hard the last week. Those guys could use a breather. Depending on tomorrow’s weather, the Yankees might also be able to skip using Luis Cessa as a spot starter for CC Sabathia. Sabathia is expected to return Tuesday.

Randy Miller hears that if the Yankees and Tigers are rained out again Sunday, the Yankees could return to Detroit to play a doubleheader on August 20th. It’s not ideal, giving up a second half off-day to travel and play a doubleheader, but what can you do?

Tyler Austin suspended five games for brawl with Red Sox

April 12, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

As expected, Joe Kelly and Tyler Austin have been suspended for their roles in last night’s benches clearing brawl at Fenway Park. Here’s all the discipline announced by MLB:

Kelly suspended six games and fined for “intentionally hitting Austin with a pitch and fighting.”
Austin suspended five games and fined for “charging the mound and fighting.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin were both fined.
CC Sabathia, Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia, and Marco Hernandez were all fined for going on the field while on the disabled list.

Both Kelly and Austin are appealing their suspensions, so they are eligible to play the meantime. Last year Gary Sanchez was suspended four games for his role in the benches clearing brawl with the Tigers, and it was reduced to three on appeal. Austin’s suspension might get knocked down to three or four games.

Teams have to play shorthanded while players are suspended — if you remember, the suspensions from last year’s brawl with the Tigers were served consecutively to avoid playing with fewer than 24 players on the active roster — which is not ideal, but the rules are the rules. At least no one got hurt.

2018 Home Opener postponed, makeup game scheduled for Tuesday afternoon

April 2, 2018 by Mike Axisa Leave a Comment

The Yankees will have to wait at least one more day to play their first game at Yankee Stadium this season. Today’s home opener has been snowed out. The Yankees haven’t made an announcement yet, but it’s coming. The makeup game is scheduled for 4pm ET tomorrow.

The weather forecast doesn’t look great for tomorrow, so it’s possible the Yankees and Rays are looking at back-to-back postponements. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. If it does, the Rays still have two more series at Yankee Stadium this year, so there’s still plenty of time to schedule a doubleheader.

If tomorrow’s makeup game is played as scheduled, the Yankees will play six games in the next six days, meaning Jordan Montgomery will have to make his second regular season start on normal rest. Not a huge deal, but the schedule had neatly lined up in such a way that all five starters would make their second and third starts on extra rest. Alas.

This is the second time in three years the Yankee Stadium home opener has been postponed. Opening Day 2016 was rained out and played the next day. The Yankees had some pretty good weather luck last year and in Spring Training. So of course he first regular season home game was postponed. Go figure.

Update: Montgomery will start tomorrow. The Yankees will stay on turn rather than go with Luis Severino on normal rest. Makes sense. Also, the Rays will start Chris Archer rather than their fifth starter, some guy named Bull Penday.