There is a limit to what the Yankees will spend to retain Robinson Cano. The question is: What is it?
Team president Randy Levine was referring to the superstar second baseman and pending free agent when he said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg Television, “Nobody is a re-sign at any cost.”
“Robinson Cano is a great player. We will sit down and talk to him,” Levine said. “Hopefully he’s a Yankee. Nobody is a re-sign at all costs, but we want him back and we feel good about negotiating something with him.”
Yankees brass routinely has expressed the desire to keep payroll below the $189 million luxury-tax threshold for 2014 – a look at their latest tax bill shows why – and the organization has been burned on long-term mega-contracts in recent years. Cano, who turns 31 in October, has 26 home runs and 98 RBIs with a .308 average, .382 on-base and .510 slugging. Since the beginning of August, those numbers are at .347/.405/.535.
The cash-rich Dodgers are the other suitor most frequently linked to Cano, who is represented by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation partnership with CAA.
The Yankees are on the hook for a record $29.1 million in luxury-tax payments this season, according to USA Today Sports, paying at rate of 50 percent. The Yankees have a $236.2 million payroll for tax purposes, $58.2 million over the current $178 million threshold. If they are able to dip below next season’s $189 million line, the rate resets to 17.5 percent.