Earlier this week, it was reported that both the Yankees and Red Sox were pursuing free agent starter Hiroki Kuroda despite luxury tax concerns. However, baseball sources tell Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com that the Bombers are unlikely to make a bid for the soon-to-be 37-year-old.
Kuroda seeks a deal that will pay him roughly $12-$13MM per season, which translates to something closer to $17MM when factoring in the 40 percent luxury tax charge. Even though the Yankees like Kuroda, a club source told Matthews that the team simply doesn't have room in the budget for him. Wallace writes that the Yankees' supposed interest in the veteran is likely designed to drive the price up for Boston.
This morning, prior to this report, nearly 28% of MLBTR readers voted the Yankees as the most likely destination for Kuroda.
So if they don’t have room in the budget for him, one can assume they don’t have room for Jackson or Oswalt. Which leaves trade, internal promotions and minor league flyers.
Oswalt would be a perfect signing for them too, especially if he only wants a one-year deal like I heard a while back. Great (borderline fantastic) if he stays healthy, only costs you money, and buys more time for those prospects to get better in the minors.
It makes sense… the Yankees have never really been a team that would be hesitant to sign a player they wanted over a few million dollars. (especially since it’s going to be a short term deal) It’s not like they made any big splashes this winter.
It looks like they’re putting their name in the mix just to just up the price.
A shame, because Kuroda could help boost that rotation. He’s approaching 40 and he’s been in the NL, but there are too many questions marks in the current rotation and a little competition is never a bad idea.
you don’t pay a guy 12 million to be competition though
Except, the Yankees have the cash and Kuroda’s better than basically everyone else on that staff not named CC.
He’ll slot in at #2 or #3.
Frankly, the current rotation is just not good enough for a team like the Yankees:
Hughes (pretty bad year, injury concern), Nova (rookie, prone to late inning pressure) and Garcia (peripheral numbers suggest he got a bit lucky, he posted similar peripherals the year before and posted a 4.6 ERA), and AJ Burnett (do I need to provide details?)
If Kuroda doesn’t work out, then it’s only a year. (can’t say the same for AJ)
Kuroda wouldn’t be competition, he’d slot in as their two or three and the competition would then be between the horseshoe up Garcia’s butt and whatever other warm bodies they can generate.
You must be Kuroda’s agent or something! Also, your response to my comparison of Carpenter and Kuroda on the other blog. The Carpenter Contract is a good paradigm for Kuroda as far as I am concerned. If I am the O’s, I would make a 2 yr offer / 10 Million per year. If someone else wants to pay him more, then God Bless them and the O’s continue the search elsewhere.
What? And why is Carpenter a good comparison? Carpenter took a steep discount to stay with the Cards. He would be worth much more in the open market.
Kuroda won’t want to sign with the O’s anyway. I don’t know why you keep bringing the O’s up since they’re a non-factor.
The Yankees like Kuroda, but they don’t “like” like him…
Right, but they “still wanna be friends”….
With benefits.
Well, the Yankees found a way to win the East last year and I gotta think Hughes will be much improved. It was frustrating, as a Rays fan, not being able to hit anything Garcia threw, we did have fun facing Colon, though. I wont be shocked if the Yankees get someone like a Garza in a trade (although as a Ray, Garza wasn’t too great in Yankee Stadium) or even promoting one of their 2 big SP prospects and giving away A.J for a bag of scuffed baseballs.
As a Ray, Garza aced the Yankee line up in Yankee Stadium. He won’t have to do that as a Yankee.
To get anything, meaning scuffed balls, the Yanks would have to eat over 2/3 of Burnett’s deal. At ~$4 mil a year there would be a market for him. The Yanks wouldn’t get much back, but not having Burnett pitch for them should be compensation enough…
Garza in the New Yankee Stadium – 0-1 in 3 starts, 3.18 ERA (WHIP of 1.43 and his K/BB was only 1.43) Old Yankee Stadium, 0-1 in 3 games/2 starts, 6.17 ERA
I don’t know where you get that Garza aced the Yankees lineup in YS.
Obvious typo is obvious.
“As a Ray, Garza faced the Yankee line up in Yankee Stadium. He won’t have to do that as a Yankee.”
Makes more sense now, right?
It does make more sense, but I disagree with it being an Obvious typo.
Thinking about a 37 year old Kuroda pitching in the AL East makes me cringe. I hope the Red Sox stay away from him, too.
Yankess Believe they have enough pitching to contend good luck. Its just not like them to hold pat after bad postseason showing.
There was a time not so long ago where they would want to trade A-Rod for his postseason. But good luck unloading that contract.
The yankees wouldnt trade him because a poor sample size..
There was never a time when a contract like that was tradable. The time of rash Yankee decision making was the 80’s, a period with no rings.
“Yankess Believe they have enough pitching to contend good luck.”. Heard this same kind of stuff a year ago.
The Yankees “bad postseason showing” as you like to call it had absolutely nothing to do with pitching. It was because of unclutch hitting, but I guess they need a new lineup now right?
The same comment applies to the Red Sox. They seems to be in even more of a “hold the line” on payroll than the Yankees. And since they too have gone over the luxury tax threshold 2 straight years the $12 to $13MM salary Kuroda is looking for will also cost the Red Sox about $17MM. Money they seem to have been unwilling to spend so far this off season.
I like to think ARod takes up the $170-200 mil slot on the payroll. ARod will cost $43.5 mil this year…
Holy…. the Pujols deal looks like a steal….well the first year or 2 anyway, I think A-Rod’s salary starts going down the last 4 years, right?
Yes, A-Rod’s actual salary does go down each year. However MLB uses AAV of a payers contract for luxury tax purposes or as it’s official known as “Competitive Balance Tax”. So what a player is paid in any given year in some cases has absolutely no relationship to their effect on a teams luxury tax number.
Forget the salary, all free agents are over paid, the the Yanks clearing 450 million a year, they can afford anyones over pay. I’d rather the player make the money than the owner.
That’s a strange way to look at it.
It’s as strange as saying Kuroda will cost ~$17 mil. Or AJ Burnett will cost ~$25 mil a year. Or R Soriano will cost $16 mil, $21 mil next year….
…and your point is? A-Rod re-signing for 2008 didn’t stop the Yankees from going after and signing CC, AJ and Tex at the end of the 2008 season to the tune of $400MM plus.
The Yanks are making a boat load of money each year, Google it at top revenues in the mlb, they make alot more than #2 the Sox. Their worth more too! Let’s get back to reality, the Yanks will continue to spend for the best players because they are always on top and drafting late The Sox, Rangers, Phils, and Angels are doing the same thing.
A-Rod was hurt last year, he will be on a mission this year. He is one of the top players of all time, check the stats. Your teams probably don’t have any HOFers.
I do not own any teams. So you are right. Not HOFers…
To be fair, A-Rod’s HoF candidacy was very realistically shot when he got linked to steroids.
Also, A-Rod on a mission is hoping for a lot. You blame last year on injury, but you should probably note that A-Rod hasn’t had a healthy season since 2007. He’ll put up good numbers, but he’s turning 37 just after the ASB, his 2011 numbers are probably close to the best you can expect out of him going forward.
Are there rules to how the luxury tax is dispersed and spent. It should run exactly as it sounds – if the high-end teams pay a gradational tax based on their payroll, it should be gradationally sent ONLY to payrolls of teams at the bottom of the payrolls, so that teams who’s ownership refuses to spend money (Oakland) can increase their budget. Isn’t their something like this in the new CBA?
Roy, there is no balancing of the luxury tax proceeds. Its dispersed amongst all the teams that don’t pay the tax. It is not required to be spent on payroll, but rather, has a vacuous requirement to be spent on baseball operations. Teams like the Pirates take that requirement to mean they can pay off the loans their owners made, and distribute as profits to their owners an amount equal to their owners’ income tax liabilities on profits previously distributed. The same goes for the much bigger pot of money that comes from “revenue sharing” and “MLB licensing.”
The A’s are actually not the biggest offender. Their salaries have floated in the $60MM-$70MM range. Beane brings in an expensive F/A each year to keep the number up above the radar. Sheets comes to mind as an example.
Several teams have payrolls floating in the $40MM range. Those are the teams we (the fans), the MLBPA and MLB should have a problem with.
Great answer, Steve. Thanks a lot.
Why should ANY of the payroll taxes go to a team who’s ownership “refuses” to spend money? That’s sort of rewarding them for being “stingy” isn’t it.
Either way, I thought the lux tax went towards the mlb legal fund and then the rest went to the player funds (retirees, etc).
No Roy. there are no rules on how the luxuary tax is dispersed and spent. None what-so-ever. Every few years I have a neighbor who gets a check in the mail from MLB luxuary tax department – it is a complete suprise every time. Its dispersion is completely random but loosely based on a persons height and spelling of their last name.
I was mad when I read this until I saw the source was Wally Mathews
I can’t stand that guy. ESPN paid that guy for his Yankee bashing articles.
The Yankees saying they don’t have anymore money makes me laugh. And the Yankees acting surprised about the luxury tax…didn’t they plan on that ahead of time?
I’m not sure if it’s the way the sons are running the team now or what but it seems like they are getting cheap in the past few years.
Its called running it as an efficient business, with both long-term and short-term strategizing.
Might it be that the Brothers Steinbrenner have had enough of meddling after their rather expensive mistakes and handed the reins over to their highly competent GM?
Spending ~$210 mil is now considered cheap?? Even the Yankees have an upper limit. Based on the last 4 years, it seems to be $210 mil +/- a couple mil. Kuroda would put the Yanks right at that number. Is Kuroda the SP they want to go ‘all in’ for?? Save some bullets for mid season. See what the clubs needs and what injuries happen. If CC goes down for the year maybe Cashman finally gives the Mariners what they want for Felix…
Cashman is waiting for a top pitcher to become availale for a reasonable price.
Kuroda, Jackson and Oswalt are the top pitchers available, and if you mean trade well good luck, after the packages the A’s and Padres got for Gio, Cahill, and Latos, teams won’t be giving their aces for anything less than a top package, especially from the Yankees
Good point. If the Yankees made the playoffs last year with CC/AJ/Nova/Hughes/Colon/Garcia, they can do it again. There will be many, many more available after 2012, where they can really bang out a great rotation – and keep in mind Iwakuma will be (re?) posted in January, last I heard (feel free to correct me if I am wrong).
Also, don’t be surprised if there is a Nakajima sign-and-trade in the works.
I believe Iwamuka is a free agent, so he can sign with any MLB team
I don’t believe that alot of next year’s top free agents will reach free agency. Their teams will try hard to resign them.
Your right, I am interested to see if the price comes down on Garza, since he only is under control for 2 years he should only cost a little more than half of what Gio and Latos cost. Realistically if the Cubs want to trade him I think a 2 B prospects and one C would be more than fair.
So if the only reason they were pretending interest in Kuroda was to drive up his price for Boston, then why would they now be leaking to the media that they actually don’t have an interest in Kuroda, which would then drive down his price, which I would take to mean that they actually do now have an interest in Kuroda.
Believe nothing!