Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Braves Sign Wagner, Yankee Payroll

The Braves are set to sign Billy Wagner to a 1 year $7 million deal that has a $6.5 million vesting option for another deal. The impact on us? Almost none. But it did get me thinking about the upcoming meeting Cashman was having about payroll, and the subsequent development of a plan for the off season. The Yankees have some money coming off of payroll, namely the following:

Johnny Damon: $13 million
Hideki Matsui: $13 million
Andy Pettitte: $11 million (payout with incentives)
Xavier Nady: $6.5 million
Chien Ming Wang: $5 million
Jose Molina: $2 million

Which added up gives a combined $50.5 million coming off the books. However, this is somewhat deceptive because the Yankees still need to fill the roles that some of these players leave open, so some of that money will be coming right back on the books. Beyond this, built into their contracts the following players are set to earn raises:

CC Sabathia: $9 million
Derek Jeter: $1 million
Robinson Cano: $3 million
Nick Swisher: $1.45 million
Damaso Marte: $0.25 million

That's a combined $14.7 million in raises to current Yankee players. Lastly, the following players are arbitration eligible and will likely get raises:

Brian Bruney
Melky Cabrera
Chad Gaudin
Sergio Mitre

They probably won't be getting huge increases, but its worth a mention. Let's say that they commit half of the $50.5 million coming off of payroll into filling some of the vacancies left by our free agents. That leaves roughly $25 million of saved money to devote to the $14.7 million in contractual pay raises, and whatever raises players would get through arbitration. In this scenario, the Yankees will have less than $10 million of the $50.5 million that came off the books, remain off the books. This means little for now, with such a bad free agent crop, but next season it will be interesting to see how the Yankees manuever between trying to keep their payroll down with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera becoming free agents, more of their young players becoming eligible for arbitration, and a rich crop of free agent pitchers that will likely be available.

11 comments:

Fred Trigger said...

"will likely get raises"

nope, its definately will get raises. Probably one of the best things Marvin Miller did for the players was hoodwinking the owners into accepting an independant arbiter. Not only that, but to guarantee raises every time they go to arbitration. Things are a little less crazy now, I think it can increase 25% at the maximum, but in the early days it was 75%, I think.

I wouldnt really worry too much about how the yankees are going to manuever their payroll since there is no possible way to break the bank of steinbrenner. Especially now after they won the world series. There is definately no way they will let Jeter walk. Also, could you guys please tell Rivera to finally freaking age. I mean, jeez, enough with the dominating with one pitch already! Get old, dammit!

SA Yankee fan said...

Don't forget, ARod's contract peaked this yeas as well, it does down from here and settles at around 20mil.

Jeter and Rivera should earn around what they are earning now or slightly less. Don't get me wrong, I respect Jeter's Gangsta as much as the next man but he is heading into the twighlight of his career, can you really see him earning 25mil a year at age 37?

Fernando Alejandro said...

Haha, welcome back Trig!

Yeah, there's no way Jeter or Mo walk. Its more the idea that the Yankees want to lower payroll, yet they almost certainly will not be able to next season. They might be able to trim some off this year, but it won't stick for 2011.

Fernando Alejandro said...

I was wondering about that too SA, I wonder if they give Jeter a bigger contract just because he's Derek Jeter, or if he'll get less because he's a 37 year old shortstop. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him.

A-Rod's contract peaked at $32 million this season, but he'll make the same amount next season, then it drops by $1 million in 2011. After that, it does go down each year until he's making $20 million a season, but he gets $6 million for reaching these homerun milestones: 660, 714, 755, tieing the homerun record, and then breaking it. That's a potential extra $30 million the Yanks will have to pay if he reaches those milestones.

Fred Trigger said...

SA Yankees Fan,

It may have peaked base salary wise. but dont foget, he has a lot of incentives in that contract which will bring his salary up drastically.

Fred Trigger said...

you beat me to the punch, Fernando.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Its how I roll.

Fred Trigger said...

yeah.....rolling dirty, like all yankees fans.

In all seriousness: I'm glad the yankees won, especially with the (what I thought was unfair) treatment of arod.

I think socializing with cool yankees fans, like you guys, has made me soft. Of course, I was used to the (In strong NY accent) "we won 26 championships, what have you won?" type. Which everyone that comments on this blog is, of course, not that type.

Rob A from BBD said...

So the Mets got a 26-year-old first basemen who is not about to amount to anything and some longshot prospect, but they save $2.5 million. The Red Sox get 2 first round draft picks. The Mets are a joke.

Anonymous said...

Mo is actually 100 years old...

Fernando Alejandro said...

And you know you're our favorite Red Sox fan Trig!

As for the Mets, they are an unfortunate bunch. My all time favorite blunder though was the Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano trade. Gotta love them.