Sunday, December 4, 2011
NY Post: Yankees aim to trim payroll by 2014 to escape luxury penalties
So maybe they will break again this time. But as an organization, they are saying they are driven to have a payroll of $189 million or less in 2014 when that becomes the luxury tax threshold. Because the incentives that come via the new CBA are just too great for them to ignore.
For if they are at $189 million or less for the three seasons from 2014-16, they not only avoid paying one cent in luxury tax, which would rise to 50 percent for them as repeat offenders, but they also would get roughly $40 million in savings via the to-be-implemented market disqualification revenue sharing program. However, only teams under the luxury-tax threshold get reimbursed in this program, which is designed to prevent big markets such as Toronto and Washington from receiving revenue sharing dollars, which in turn will lower how much teams such as the Yanks pay (as long as they are under the threshold).
This seems prudent for the long run, even if it means the Yankees aren’t necessarily putting forth the best team they can over the next two seasons. It probably means a boring winter for us though.
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