Steinbrenner plans to lower Yankees' payroll TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- New York Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner wants to lower the team's payroll to $189 million over the next few years.Under baseball's new labor contract, the luxury tax threshold will be at $189 million after the 2013 season. By getting under the threshold, the Yankees would be eligible to get some of their revenue-sharing money back."Is it a requirement with baseball that we hit 189? No, it's not a requirement, but that is going to be the luxury tax threshold and that's where I want to be," Steinbrenner said Thursday. "I don't think it's an unrealistic goal. My goals are normally considered a requirement."Steinbrenner said this season's payroll is around $210 million. He thinks the Yankees can be successful at a lower level with a strong player-development system.The Yankees were hit with a $13.9 million luxury tax last season. New York's final 2011 payroll was $212.7 million for the luxury tax, which uses average annual values of contracts on the 40-man roster and includes benefits. Using salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses, the Yankees were at $216 million."I'm just not convinced we need to be as high as we've been in the past to field a championship-caliber team," Steinbrenner said. "We'll see who comes off (salary-wise) in the next couple years."The luxury tax threshold is $178 million this year and next, then rises to $189 million for 2014-16. Significantly, a market disqualification test for revenue sharing is phased in, gradually making teams in the 14-15 largest markets ineligible to receive money. Those funds go back to the teams that pay, as long as they are under the tax threshold.New York will pay at a 42.5 percent rate on its amount over the tax threshold this year as a frequent repeat offender and would pay at a 50 percent rate if it goes over in 2013, as is likely. But if the Yankees get below in 2014, their rate would go down to 17.5 percent if they exceed the threshold in 2015.As for this year, New York has a number of promising prospects, including pitchers Dellin Betances and Manuel Banuelos."We'll see how these young kids perform towards the end of this year and into next year," Steinbrenner said. "The young kids are going to play a big part of being able to lower this payroll. I am going to need some of these young pitchers to step up."Steinbrenner again reiterated that he's not planning to work on any in-season contract extensions."Right now I just want to get through this season before we talk to anybody," he said.Steinbrenner gave his support to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who had a difficult personal offseason.Cashman's wife filed divorce papers last month, a day after prosecutors charged a woman with stalking him and extorting money over an extramarital affair."I'm not going to get into personal situations of employees," Steinbrenner said. "It's not Yankee business. I can only say that we're here to support him."As for the upcoming season, Steinbrenner is upbeat about the defending AL East champions."I'm excited," he said. "I think we've got, on paper, definitely a better team than we did last year. I think our starting pitching is improved, and that was one of our goals during the offseason."New York has added starting pitchers Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda.The Yankees open spring training play on Friday with an exhibition against the University of South Florida.Notes: Spring training instructor Reggie Jackson arrived at camp. The Hall of Famer, who was late arriving last year after back surgery, had shoulder surgery this offseason. ... Lou Piniella, a new addition to the spring instructors' group this year, was also at the ballpark. ... 2B Robinson Cano rejoined the team after being gone three days after the death of his grandmother. ... Non-roster RHP Manny Delcarmen will miss four or five days because of a right lat muscle injury. ... The Yankees had an abbreviated workout Thursday to allow a team function away from the ballpark that involved improv skits. Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
With the Yankees planning to get under the $189MM luxury tax threshold by 2014, many have wondered if the club will be able to retain both Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson after their contracts expire following the 2013 season. Today, team president Randy Levine flatly stated that the team has a plan in place to retain both stars, writes Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. General Manager Brian Cashman says that the club will not entertain going above the $189MM mark and the front office is committed to getting below that figure. While some wonder if the Yanks can even consider marquee free agents this winter such as Matt Cain or Cole Hamels, Cashman won't rule out making a play for a high-priced player on the open market.
The Yankees offered Dontrelle Willis a minor league deal this offseason, Sherman tweets. The Yankees might look into signing Willis, who was released by the Phillies this morning.
Rafael DePaula is finally on the verge of beginning his professional baseball career. The pitching prospect agreed to sign with the Yankees for $500K in November, 2010, but hasn’t had a visa until now, so the deal hasn’t been completed. Agent Charisse Espinosa-Dash told MLBTR today that DePaula has his visa and that the original deal is expected to go through once the Dominican right-hander passes a physical. MLB suspended DePaula in 2009 and he later confessed to using a false identity. The 6'2" right-hander had a sharp breaking ball and a plus fastball that touched the mid-90s at the time that he signed, according to Baseball America. DePaula, who turns 21 this month, had been working out at the Yankees' Dominican academy.
Report: Yankees offered Freddy Garcia to Marlins By Mike Axisa Via Danny Knobler, the Yankees offered Freddy Garcia to the Marlins in a trade, but they weren’t interested. Garcia and Ozzie Guillen are close thanks to their time in Chicago together. Freddy has already indicated a willingness to pitch out of the bullpen, but apparently the team isn’t fond of the idea.
He would translate pretty well into the NL so im kind of surprised by this too... Although Id like for the Yankees to hold on to Garcia as long as we can. At least until we see Nova isnt going to have a sophmore slump, Pineda will come back, Hughes can be effective, Pettitte wont rush and hurt himself a la Roger Clemens, etc.
Report: Phillies have interest in Ramiro Pena By Mike Axisa Via George King, the Phillies have some interest in infielder Ramiro Pena. Chase Utley (knee) and Michael Martinez (foot) are going to start the season on the DL, and Ryan Howard’s injury means Ty Wigginton will have to spend most of his time at first. Long story short, the Phillies need infielders. Pena doesn’t have a ton of value so it’s unlikely the Yankees would get anything noteworthy should they make a deal. Maybe cash or a Grade-D prospect.
I'm not sure who else the Yankees have at shortstop after Nunez and Pena, but it's getting to a point where the Yankees should look into dealing him. I just seems to be time to part ways. But, like I said, I don't know if they have the depth to do that.
I think he has way more value to us as the super utility guy that we are grooming him to be then what the Phillies are going to give us.
In a pair of Minor League moves, the Yankees signed Jack Cust, who was released by HOU, and claimed C Craig Tatum off waivers from ARI.
Yankees release Jorge Vazquez By Mike Axisa Via Chad Jennings, the Yankees have released Triple-A masher Jorge Vazquez. They prefer the recently signed Steve Pearce at first base for their top minor league affiliate. Of course, JoVa’s days in the organization were numbered after word got out that he was fed up with being stuck in Triple-A and wanted to play in the big leagues. That just wasn’t going to happen with the Yankees.
