A Look At The 2014 Payroll

Yesterday I wrote an article about Austin Romine, and how he's really improved with the bat lately. Well, during that time, I had been thinking about the Yankees 2014 payroll. The reason being that if ARod is indeed suspended for the entire '14 season, then his contract is taken off of the books, and the team may be in better position to not only get under the Luxury Tax threshold, but also field a true contender.

Wouldn't it be great to see this again?

I'm going to list the possible active roster for Opening Day 2014, but before I do that I'm going to assume a few things. That can be scary, but here goes...

• To reiterate... Alex Rodriguez's appeal fails, and he is indeed suspended for the entire 2014 season. Meaning his salary is off of the books.
• The Yankees re-sign Robinson Cano to a contract with an average annual value of $25 million.
• Derek Jeter exercises his player option, and therefore costs the team $9.5 million. Note that his original option was $8 million before earning a bonus for winning a Silver Slugger Award last season, worth another $1.5 million. Also, player options are looked at as one year deals, instead of being included in the rest of the contract.
• Curtis Granderson decides to take the qualifying offer, in order to improve his stock for another free agency run after next season.
• Hiroki Kuroda agrees to one more year with the Yankees, but after a great season the team needs to raise his salary by $2 million.
• Michael Pineda is 100% recovered and ready to join the starting rotation.
• Three of the bullpen spots are taken by pre-arbitration players, who will make the league minimum.

You may see Soriano's and Well's salaries and think, "what the hell?" Well, keep in mind that thanks to some fancy accounting tricks while trading for them, their hit against the Luxury Tax will fall well short of their actual salaries for the year. Actually, Vernon's would be a tax credit if it weren't for a rule against such a thing.

So without any more adieu what-so-ever, here we go...

"Finally!"

Catcher - Austin Romine $500,000
First Base - Mark Teixeira $22.5 million
Second Base - Robinson Cano $25 million
Third Base -
Shortstop - Derek Jeter $9.5 million
Left Field - Curtis Granderson $15 million
Center Field - Brett Gardner $6 million (arbitration 3)
Right Field - Ichiro Suzuki $6.5 million
Designated Hitter - Alfonso Soriano $4 million

Bench - Jayson Nix $1.5 million (arbitration 1)
Bench - Francisco Cervelli $1.5 million (arbitration 1)
Bench - Vernon Wells $0
Bench - Eduardo Nunez $600,000 (pre-arbitration)

Starting Pitcher - CC Sabathia $24.4 million
Starting Pitcher - Hiroki Kuroda $17 million
Starting Pitcher - Michael Pineda $750,000 (arbitration 1)
Starting Pitcher - Ivan Nova $2.5 million (arbitration 1)
Starting Pitcher - David Phelps $500,000 (pre-arbitration)

Closer - David Robertson $5 million (arbitration 3)
Relief Pitcher - Shawn Kelley $1.5 million (arbitration 2)
Relief Pitcher - Adam Warren $500,000 (pre-arbitration)
Relief Pitcher - Preston Claiborne $500,000 (pre-arbitration)
Relief Pitcher - ??? $500,000 (pre-arbitration)
Relief Pitcher - ??? $500,000 (pre-arbitration)
Relief Pitcher - ??? $500,000 (pre-arbitration)

Before you get too excited over having about $42 million for a third baseman, there are some other issues to go over.

Derek Jeter is still eligible to receive bonuses of $4 million for winning the 2013 AL MVP, $2 million for finishing between 2nd and 6th in 2013 MVP voting, $1.5 million for winning the 2013 Silver Slugger Award, and $500,000 for each of the 2013 Gold Glove, 2013 ALCS MVP, and 2013 World Series MVP. Being out as much as he has in 2013, I don't see any of the individual achievements happening. Nor do I see the team even making the playoffs, let alone Jeter getting any postseason MVP awards. Thankfully, the team will know what they're getting into here before going shopping.

The Yankees may want to get a stronger reliever to pair with David Robertson. Even though Preston Claiborne has looked really good, and the team has others in the minors that could step up, Robertson himself has shown us how much a good set-up man can matter. Not to mention that the Yankees may want to get a proven lefty specialist, seeing as how Boone Logan will be a free agent.

"You're not going to miss me, are you?"

We have to remember that the Luxury Tax uses the 40-man roster... not the active/25-man roster. That means that there are 15 more players to account for. However, those players will be minor leaguers and will make less than the league minimum. They usually cost no more than $5 million.

The last thing we need to go over is the fact that the true Luxury Tax threshold is $177 million, due to the team's portion of the league's player bonuses being raised to around $12 million next season.

So add in that $5 million for the minor leaguers that fill out the 40-man roster, and the total comes to $151.75 million. Which leaves about $25 million to spend on a third baseman and a reliever or two.

So you see that Austin Romine's development, and ARod being suspended, can make the difference between fielding a playoff contender and a team that would be on the outside looking in.