I'M NOT TOO ENCOURAGED BY THE YANKEES MONEY SITUATION

Okay, I have done the analysis.  Right now, without Robinson Cano or Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees luxury tax number for 13 players that are either under contract or subject to arbitration is at about $87.4 million.  You can see below... the numbers in red are the estimated arbitration settlements for the arbitration eligible players:

Right now, the remaining spots on the 40-man roster are all filled by minor leaguers and guys that are paid the league minimum ($500,000), so I would put the total number right now at about $95,000,000.

 

Now, since we must assume $12 million for benefits and we must hold $27.5 million for ARod’s salary until we get a ruling, the Yankees right now can spend about $50 million on free agents.  If you assume $23 million for Cano, that means the Yanks only have about $27 million to spend while they wait for the ARod ruling.   That gives them just about enough to sign Masahiro Tanaka, at $11 million or so and someone like Brian McCann at $16 million, but that would be it!

Of course, they could wait for the ARod ruling and might get an additional $27.5 million to spend, but most of the good free agents might be gone by then if the decision drags past December, which I anticipate it will.  If the Yanks did have that $27.5 million, they could probably get a pretty good starter and outfielder for that money.  Of course, that still leaves them without a third baseman, a backup first baseman as insurance for Mark Teixeira, any new bullpen arms, or a DH.  Those things appear out of the question if we are staying under the luxury tax threshold.

I am not encouraged by this, how about you?

 

--Douglas Solomon, BYB Guest Writer



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