Friday, December 4, 2015

The Luxury Tax, the Yankees and Getting Greedy


We learned this week that the New York Yankees would have to pay another $26 million in luxury tax penalties for the 2015 season. The Yankees are once again preaching austerity, and why wouldn’t they after spending more money than I will ever see in my lifetime every single season in luxury tax for basically nothing. If the team was winning playoff series and World Series rings that would be one thing, but they aren’t lately. I can’t believe I’m saying this as the owner of a Yankees blog donned “The Greedy Pinstripes” but for once I agree with Hal Steinbrenner. Cut the payroll.

The two highest paid teams in Major League Baseball, the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, both made the postseason in 2015 and both were gone after one game. The Yankees lost the AL Wild Card Round to the Houston Astros while the Dodgers fell in the NLDS to the New York Mets. In fact, none of the top nine payrolls in all of Major League Baseball won a playoff series in 2015, the Chicago Cubs with the 10th highest payroll in baseball won a series in the National League as the second Wild Card winner. To take it one step further the Yankees have paid the tax in every season of its existence and haven’t won a World Series since the 2009 season. To take it even one more step forward the Yankees haven’t won a playoff game since Derek Jeter’s ankle snapped in Game One of the 2012 ALCS. That’s a lot of money for, if you believe in the World Series or bust mantra, a whole lot of nothing.

Imagine if the Yankees had $26 million to spend last winter, would Max Scherzer or Jon Lester be Yankees right about now? What if the Yankees had an extra $26 million to spend this season? Would we be seeing a Brett Gardner trade and a Jason Heyward or a Justin Upton? Maybe a David Price? Jordan Zimmermann is 29-years old and only got $22 million annually and he was considered to be one of the Top 3 best starting pitchers on all of the free agent market.


Every single season the Yankees take one of those big names and high-priced free agent acquisitions that we as fans demand and enjoy and flush it down the toilet labeled “Major League Baseball Luxury Tax.” Let that sink in for a minute. Getting under the cap for just one season allows the Yankees 100% resets on their taxes and allows them to not only Get Greedy but to own the free agency market once again if they see fit. I think I could handle one season with a payroll under $200 million, the rumored luxury tax threshold limit after the 2016 collective bargaining agreement expires this season, in order to once again wear the Greedy Pinstripes crown but maybe that’s just me. 

14 comments:

  1. Burch even after they reset on their taxes there is no way that the Coupon Clipper will spend money. He isn't like his dad where George would reinvest in the team. Hal is take the money and run. The only way I see this organization ever moving forward is under the reign of another owner.

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    1. Yes and no Hans but overall I agree. Hal won't spend like his father but that doesn't mean the team is going to have a 120 million payroll either.

      Hal may be cheap but he was given control because he is the financial guru of the family where George was not. George didn't have to be, and frankly neither does Hal but I digress.

      One thing Hal says is true. You shouldn't have to have a 200 million payroll to win a World Series every single year. Bringing up people from the farm can prevent that. The part he misses though is that if you don't have the draw and the big name attraction in New York you don't catch the fan bases attention either. Yankees will spend but never again like they did with be boss.

      The Yankees were George's hobby and love. Many owners, Hal or the next, will run it like a business like about 28 other owners do.

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  2. Sorry Danny I just can't agree here. The team is poor because of bad deals. We should spend the most as we make the most. We are also going to have big contracts coming off when the FA market is not as good as now. We badly need a front of the rotation pitcher that will give us around 200 innings. There are guys in the FA market that woI'll address this need. We also need to trade Gardy and looK seriously at Heyward or Cespedes. Kev

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    1. The team is poor because they flooded the books with knee jerk reactions on the free agency market. No disrespect intended but it seems like that's what you want to do again.

      The plan is underway, whether Hal lets Cash stick to it or not is another discussion. There are finally usable pieces coming out of the Yankees farm system. No need to clog up the roster. If the deal makes sense then absolutely, spend.

      For example, David Price is one of those roster clogging players for at least four years of that deal. Heyward I like because of his advanced metrics and age but Cespedez, in my opinion, will never replicate what he did with the Mets. But e will be paid like he will.

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    2. And I don't think I ever welcomed you Kev. Welcome to the group, hope to see more of you around. Appreciate the input.

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  3. Hey Danny sorry its your old mate Rooney from twitter. I used my first name for a change. The way I see it is we are now being frugal about 3 years too late. We have big contracts coming off next season and the season after but are their going to be guys of the quality and youth of Heyward on the market then? We could field a team with a $300M payroll and the Yankees still make money.

    I completely agree that the Price deal is a roster clogging contract and we need to avoid these if we can. But we also need rotation help. I would love a bona fide ace but I cant see that happening so we need to find top of the rotation guys we know will give us the innings we need whilst also going deep in a game. Last year our rotation did well in the circumstances but were not going deep enough meaning we relied so much on the pen and things burned out down the stretch.

    Dont get me wrong I love the youth movement, I love that our farm is producing high ceiling talent but this division is anyones and we dont need to add that much to make sure we will be in the hunt.

    Also remember this blog is not called the frugal pinstripes!!!!

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    1. Hey Kevin, thanks for joining the discussion. Always like chatting with you on Twitter so glad to see you made it over here!

      The team went frugal and then Hal Steinbrenner pulled a "daddy" and went ape shit signing Beltran, Ellsbury and McCann. Now we're going frugal again. I agree with you though because this is the deepest free agent market we've seen in a long, long time. Why though?

      Because all the top tier starting pitchers and younger guys were getting signed to these huge extensions early on. Teams were scared. We're not seeing as much of that anymore and everything is starting to plateau and flat line again. Yankees rolled the dice and they lost, it happens. It may happen more times than most, but that's life.

      I agree with needing a pitcher, I'm not entirely sold on an ace. Tanaka can be an ace and Severino damn sure could be an ace. Another ace would be awesome and I'd love to not have the question marks, but I'd also hate to look back on this offseason three or four years from now and see the new flavor of the week on the free agent market and no room because we signed Price, Cueto etc. and they are stinking up the place. You know?

      This blog name was also made during the offseason of the 2009 season. It started as a joke after the team got Swisher, Teixeira, AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia. I went around on every avenue I could begging the team to "get greedy and get Manny (Ramirez" and the name stuck. It's a bit outdated with Hal Steinbrenner stamping the pay checks.

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    2. Yeah we did and by god that Ellsbury contract is horrible. I guess my point is its only money and that sounds a bit easy to say when it is someone elses money. But attendances are down the team lacks a spark that gets us all excited. Heyward for example is not a top end superstar but IMO he makes our OF miles better. As much as I love Gardy the simple fact is we are stuck with Ellsbury and using both together simply does not work. He is one we can look to move on and bring in a guy like Heyward while using Gardy trade to address our rotation issues.

      I agree I dont think we need an ace and I dont really fancy the ones on the market give the contract lengths but we do need a front end starter who can go deep.

      I wasnt having a dig about the name incase you wonder it was me being facetious! This is my favourite Yanks blog and as you know I am based across the Atlantic so I rely on places like this to talk baseball.

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    3. Kevin not to be personal but, are you in the Sevice per chance?

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    4. Truly though the new stadium priced out the fans, not the GM or for the most part the players. Sure if you have nine Bryce Harper's and a David Price pitching every night a lot of fans bite the bullet on that Tuesday evening. A lot of the fight the traffic or the subway, pay the hundreds of dollars to eat, park and watch. That's unrealistic these days though.

      I appreciate you stopping by and really appreciate your kind words. We do our best over here and it's nice to know it's appreciated.

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  4. Welcome Kevin, stick around and join in more often, things are about to get hot as some of the top people sign contracts.

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    1. Thanks Ken been talking to Daniel for years now and even had him join us on a podcast a while back. Great blog and its time I started to get involved on here. Much easier than the restricted nature of twitter when talking about the team.

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    2. Well, Kevin You sound very well up to-date on not only the Yankees but other teams as well so, I know the site will enjoy your input and articles. The more fans the more fun we have!

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    3. only downfall of Twitter, 140 characters.

      I tend to get a little long-winded, but I guess by now a lot of you guys know that.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)