MAJOR League Baseball, more than most huge businesses in this country, is doing fine financially during these difficult economic times.
Attendance is down (but not by nearly as much as was feared), but other entities such as the Internet and MLB Network are thriving.
HARDBALL: All The Contracts That Should Go
Still, the more I talk with team executives, the more I hear that this could be a dud season for trades because so many clubs claim they cannot afford to add salary. Even the Yankees are making such pronouncements (please cue the laugh track).
So though no government bailout is necessary, I do believe financial assistance is necessary. After all, what sport would know best what to do with a TARP. No, not The Troubled Asset Relief Program. This is Take Away Ridiculous Payroll.
What we are suggesting the Commissioner’s Office do — to save the trade deadline for gossip junkies like me — is to offer a one-time, one-contract reprieve for all 30 teams. Remember the Allan Houston Rule from 2005 when the NBA allowed every team to release one player so that the player’s contract no longer counted toward the luxury tax. The rule, however, did not remove teams from having to pay the contract, just any luxury-tax obligations.
Well, the only team that currently projects over MLB’s luxury tax is the Yankees, so what our TARP would do is have Central Baseball use all of those dollars from the Internet, merchandising and the new network to absorb one contract from every team. That would throw 30 free agents into the market place immediately, including players such as Colorado’s Todd Helton, Toronto’s Vernon Wells and San Francisco’s Barry Zito.
It also would create financial flexibility for all 30 teams. And what would be fascinating is how many teams would be faced with difficult decisions. Do the Red Sox take the opportunity to get out of longer, more expensive dollars with J.D. Drew or just lop of their most useless deal with Julio Lugo?
Since the name on this paper is “New York” Post, we will focus on the Mets and Yankees, but you can go to my Hardball Blog to see the reasoning behind who I would pick for each of the other 28 teams.
For the Mets, this decision essentially is Luis Castillo vs. Oliver Perez, and you can make a good argument for removing either.
Castillo is owed $6 million in both 2010 and 2011. So that would be $12 million in future money to pursue a more helpful second baseman such as Orlando Hudson, who is a free agent again next offseason. For the rest of this season, the Mets could get by with Alex Cora as the main second baseman, assuming Jose Reyes one day
actually plays baseball again.
But if this were my decision, I would tell the Commissioner’s Office that Perez is yours. The Mets would get greater financial flexibility because the lefty is paid as much next year ($12 million) as Castillo is in 2010-11, and Perez also has another $12 million due in 2011, as well. Plus, the Mets have to see now what folly it was to trust someone as untrustworthy as Perez with long-term dollars. The Mets can’t get the Derek Lowe vs. Perez choice back. But the next option after that was Perez vs. Randy Wolf, who signed for just $4 million with the Dodgers and will be a free agent again this coming offseason.
As for the Yankees, they too could go a couple of different ways. They simply could keep their current team intact and end the long national nightmare known as the Kei Igawa experiment. Beyond this year, he is owed $4 million in both 2010-11, and it is understood within the organization that Ed Whitson will pitch for the big club before Igawa. Of course, the Yankees do not get a penny back of the $26 million posting fee to get the rights to negotiate with Igawa. The Yankees are paying Jorge Posada $13.1 million this year, and then again each season through 2011. He has broken down physically each of the past two seasons and the dirty little secret is now out that most of the Yankees staff prefers not to pitch to Posada, and instead would rather throw to Jose Molina or Francisco Cervelli.
The ultimate now team, the Yankees could decide instead that their best 2009 roster construction would entail Central Baseball eating the remainder of the $13 million they are paying Hideki Matsui this year. That would allow Posada to become a once-a-week catcher and the prime DH in conjunction with Xavier Nady — if Nady can make it back from elbow woes.
But with all of that said, the Yankees would have to wave goodbye (or in this exercise is it waive goodbye?) to Alex Rodriguez. It probably would hurt the 2009 team as the Yanks would have to go with Ramiro Pena at third or scramble for an alternative (a trade of Adrian Beltre, anybody?).
Nevertheless, the long-term risk financially, physically and temperamentally with A-Rod would be just too great. Beyond the $32 million A-Rod is being paid this year, the Yankees still would owe him $206 million in straight salary through 2017, whatever portion of the $10 million signing bonus they have yet to pay him and must fork over by January 2014, and as much as $30 million in career homer milestones.
Rodriguez would be 42 when the contract ends, and look at what he is now, at 33, with his hip surgically repaired. It is one thing to pay a prime-aged player beloved by your fan base and with a pristine off-the-field rep these kinds of historic dollars. But given a do-over with all that the Yankees know since signing the A-Rod deal involving steroids, the hip and more sordid behavior, how could the Yankees agree to keep paying Rodriguez during what certainly will be a fade from third baseman to first baseman to DH and from all-time power hitter to 19 homers and 72 RBIs?
See, even the Yanks could use a bailout now and then.