9:40pm: Olney says the team's 2010 payroll has been set somewhere between $190-200M, and as always, "it is not a hard ceiling."
3:45pm: A tweet from ESPN's Buster Olney:
Yankees finished org. meetings — they're cutting payroll. I'm not sure yet by how much, but during season, expectation was to $185 million.
According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, the Yankees began the 2009 season at about $201MM. My own rough estimate has the Yankees at about $170MM committed if Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre, and Chien-Ming Wang are non-tendered. If they re-sign Andy Pettitte for $10MM, it might be tough to fit a top-end reliever and decent left fielder into a $185MM budget. So maybe it'll go a little higher but still fall under $200MM.
In other Yankees rumor-news, SI's Jon Heyman says the Yankees will bid on Roy Halladay. He reiterates that the Blue Jays want some combination of Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Austin Jackson, and Jesus Montero. Such an acquisition would make the payroll even tighter, but perhaps ownership would make an exception for Doc.
