Flipping through, it was interesting to note that the 2010 luxury tax threshold will be $170mn, up from $148mn in 2007. At a 40% tax rate, that saves the Yankees a good amount of change. If their payroll is $200mn, their tax bill will be done to $12mn.

Also, luxury tax bills are announced on December 12, so the Yankees have that to look forward to tomorrow.

If we sign Holliday, pay him $1m year1, with a $14m bonus…
Did Cashman GET Holliday and keep the payroll under $190m?

What if we give someone $6.5m/yr in bonus for 2 years… and it balances out when Po in off the books in 2012?

There must be some ‘funny’ rules about bonuses, because they are handed out all kinds of different ways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonnie_Holliday

In 2010….
Holliday + NO DH (Po, Swisher, Jeter, ARod, Miranda, Montero) costs the same as ‘a Cameron’ and ‘a Matsui’. Is it close to a wash production wise?
In 2011, My guess is Po DH’es 60 games and of course Montero and the crew (Swisher, Jeter, ARod, Miranda). So if we don’t get Holliday (and lease a LFer instead), we still need a LFer.

I’m just not sure that Holliday costs us much more over the next 5 years then a different (equal in value) alternative,

This is why Methinks Cashman is on Holliday.
Besides… lots of dopey fans will think we got Halliday. and be happy.

The determination of a Player’s Salary for a particular Contract Year
for the purposes of interpretation and application of this Article XXIII
only shall be in accordance with the following rules.

…

(3) Signing Bonuses
Any Signing Bonus in a Uniform Player’s Contract (and any
other payment this Article deems to be a Signing Bonus) shall be
attributed, pro rata, over the Guaranteed Years of the Contract. If a
Contract contains no Guaranteed Years, the Signing Bonus shall be
attributed in full to the first year of the Contract.

As for Brackman, his $4.55mn contract includes the $3.35mn signing bonus, so his annual outlay is $558,333 for his bonus (paid 2007-2012) and $300,000 for his salary (paid 2007-2010).

The bonuses definitely count toward the luxury tax (they are salary expenses). The question is when are they are applied…pro-rated or as they are paid.

Miranda has to DH, because who else will right now; even if he doesn’t, he gets paid his $.4M. Everyone else also comes from the 40-man roster, to fill the last bench spot and the non-Mo-Marte-Gaudin bullpen slots – unless, of course, the Yanks sign some free agents, which I doubt they will. Perhaps a non-tenderee is possible, but those guys make peanuts too. Even still, Miranda+5 spots = ~$3M. That plus the $6M for Gaudin and Melky gets us about even.

But where did you get that number for Brackman? Yes, his $3.35M signing bonus is spread over 6 years (that’s $558333 in 4 of the years, $558334 in the other 2), but his salary is $4.55M for 4 years, or $1,137,500 each year.

[39] I have no idea if or how bonuses count towards payroll in MLB, and I doubt there’s an official answer like in the NFL. So for simplicity, I left them out.

My wild-ass guess, though, is bonuses are treated as non-salary expenses, and thus technically wouldn’t count towards payrolls.

My point with Damon was not one year at a high salary versus 3-4 years at less. It’s 1 or 2 years at less versus 1 year at high salary. The Yankees might be able to afford $16mn, but why do that when you could possibly pay another DH (or Damon himself) half that? Then, you could use that $8mn to fill other holes.

The Yankees had to treat Matsui so gently this past season, that I don’t think you can confidently project him to stay healthy. For that reason, I would give Damon an edge over him (unless you are prepared to bring in Matsui and another bat like Cameron or DeRosa).

Bonus money is taxable, but what I am not sure about is whether you pro-rate (like football) or apply it in the year it is paid.

The Royals and White Sox are rumored to be very interested in Gardner, so I think Cashman can get something back for him. These are teams that have traded useful parts for Coco Crisp and Scott Pods, so I wouldn’t rule it out.

[33] that’s true, and matsui’s knees are an issue that the yankees should certainly consider. but in his career he’s been very durable. maybe that has caught up to him, but i don’t think that’s at all clear, especially if we don’t use him in the outfield at all. but it sounds like other teams would consider using him in the outfield, so maybe he’s actually getting better. i just don’t know.

[10] vazquez was a good pitcher. the mistake with him, in my opinion, was trading him for the old asshole.

Brett won’t bring us much more then a bag of balls. Why trade him unless we get someone really useful? He’s got options and is cost controlled for a while. I think trading him depends somewhat on who we get for LF.

At $80m, I can the the Red Sox and Angels in on Holliday. Will the Cardinals go that high? The Mariners take the big dive? Who’s got $80m to spend?

Posada 13.1
Tex 20
Cano 9
A-Rod 32
Jeter 21
Melky 3
Swisher 6.75
Curtis 5.5
Miranda 0.4
Cervelli 0.45
Pena 0.45
Gardner 0.45
Hoffman 0.45
CC 23
AJ 16.5
Andy 11.75
Joba 0.45
Phil 0.45
Mo 15
Marte 4
Robertson0.45
Aceves 0.45
Melancon 0.45
Dunn 0.45
Gaudin 3
Brackman 1.695833333
Igawa 4

I also had .45 for Edwar and Albaladejo, but I guess I shouldn’t include those. If they aren’t in the majors, they won’t get paid. Still, that drops me to ~$194M ($194.1958333M to be precise).

I also like the idea of Sheets, but the early word is he wants in excess of $12mn, which is absurd.