The Dodgers’ luxury tax bill for the year came to $43.6MM, Ronald Blum of the AP reports. For luxury-tax purposes, the Dodgers had a payroll of $297.9MM. As luxury-tax offenders for the third consecutive year, they were taxed at a 40% rate for the amount by which they exceeded the tax threshold of $189MM. The Yankees, meanwhile, will pay $26.1MM, while the Red Sox owe $1.8MM and the Giants $1.3MM. The $72.8MM between the four teams amounts to the record amount of luxury tax collected in a season, Blum reports. That the Dodgers’ bill was so steep comes as little surprise, of course — their 2015 payroll, headed by large expenditures for players like Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, was the highest in MLB history. Here’s more from the West divisions.
- Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune profiles new Padres outfielder Jabari Blash, who the Athletics selected from the Mariners in this month’s Rule 5 Draft and then traded to San Diego. The 26-year-old Blash looked like one of the best potential power sources available in the Rule 5 — he batted .271/.370/.576 and hit 32 homers between Double-A Jackson and Triple-A Tacoma in 2015. Interestingly, Blash grew up in the Virgin Islands, and one of the first offers of congratulations he received was from Callix Crabbe, a former infielder from the Virgin Islands who the Padres selected in the Rule 5 Draft in 2007.
- The surprising package the Astros gave up to get Ken Giles from the Phillies reflects an industry-wide trend in which relievers capable of pitching high-leverage innings are valued more highly, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle writes. The Astros gave up Vincent Velasquez and Mark Appel in the Giles deal. They re-signed another reliever, Tony Sipp, to a hefty three-year, $18MM contract. The belief that good relievers are fundamentally less valuable than good starting pitchers or position players has long been widely held, but perhaps that’s changing, at least to a degree. “You’d have to say that as an industry, we’re valuing a team that’s in contention needs to have those guys at the back end of the bullpen,” says Astros GM Jeff Luhnow. “We’ve seen what the Royals have been able to do with a successful execution of that strategy, and the Mets with (Jeurys) Familia, and there’s good late-inning relievers on the teams that make it to and win in the playoffs.”
Gotta love the Dodgers luxury tax amounting to more than half a small teams budget.
We’re working on it
Actually we’re paying for it. Though I guess it depends on who you mean by we.
The Dodgers you can see and understand. Several bid, bad contracts and it goes away. The Giants is the one which is hard to understand, it’s like death from a thousand knives.. Giving Peavy 24m last year, continually giving the finished Lincecum nearly 20m to stay around. Giving Lopez 5m a year 2012-2016 for LH hitters only when he can’t buy an out vs righties and there are people, getting near league minimum (Tommy Layne for example) just like him that have been released by organizations because it’s hard to carry someone with splits like that..
I understand they have won 3WS of late, but rewarding players for those rings and some being mediocre is bound to catch up if you look at Cots and see the ones getting 5-10m over long term deals. It’s shocking.
Without Peavey the Giants don’t make the post season in 2014. Lincecum is a fan favorite and the Giants are loyal to those that get them rings, even though Timmy is far from his 2010 self. But he did throw 2 no hitters. As for Lopez, he’s a lefty specialist. They don’t use him for righties. And he’s a big reason they’ve had the best bullpen during their 3 WS championships. It’s money well spent and not over spent like the Dodgers.
Take Peavey in 2014 away and replace him with a .500 pitcher….SF still makes the postseason. They probably also still win the WS since his only good game was in the NLDS when they won 3-1. His other 3 starts resulted in an 0-3 record with 10.1 innings and 11 ER. Timmy threw 2 no hitters but was garbage outside of that. Lopez was actually used quite a bit against right hand batters. On average he faced 1 right hand batter for every 2 left hand batters. Other than his 19 innings in 2010…..his WHIP/FIP was sky high for a “specialist”
You just echoed the reasons for not giving out those contracts.. Lincecum was a shell of himself the last 3 seasons, worth half (or less) the 18-20m they kept giving him. I’d argue that Peavy would have returned for far less than 12m annually as a #4-5 starter and thought made an excellent point already with regards tp Lopez’s lack of any effectiveness vs RH hitters, one of the reasons he found his way out of Boston years ago. No problem being dominant vs one side, but must be able to get that 1 out on occasion vs a PH.
Am not trying to tear the team apart here, it’s like the old NYY reward odd guys for past history longer than they should and with more than they should. Just think it’s going to catch up when they get old at once.
The Dodgers luxury tax bill was almost as much as the Marlins paid in total in 2015/where they are currently at for 2016. The Marlins “payroll” was $62 million in 2015, but the Dodgers and Yankees paid $15.5 million for Dee Gordon, Dan Haren, and Martin Prado. Then we’d also have to factor in what the Dodgers took on with Michael Morse….It was recently reported that Arizona received $80 million over the last 3 years in revenue sharing. The Marlins get more than that. They cited “needing to allocate our funds to whats on the field” when referring to the reason they non-tendered Henderson Alvarez over a potential $4 million, b/c he was going to miss the first month or 2. What a joke
They seem unwilling to invest a lot into the franchise that’s for sure.
espn.go.com/mlb/team/salaries/_/name/mia/miami-mar…
I love the shoutout to Familia by Lunhow. He doesn’t get enough love for being a top reliever in the National League.
Padres 2016 Starting LF? Jabari Blash. Either that or BJ Upton.