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Thread: Are the (Red) Sox planning a spending spree?

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    Are the (Red) Sox planning a spending spree?

    Are the Sox planning a spending spree?
    Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff November 10, 2009 08:30 AM

    So we're talking to Theo Epstein Monday afternoon and he mentions that restructuring Tim Wakefield's deal will save the Sox $1.5 million on the CBT, which is GM-speak for the payroll luxury tax, or collective bargaining tax.

    "That's important because there's some things we want to do this winter and we don't have a ton of room under the CBT," Epstein said.

    The tax threshold for 2010 will be $170 million. Are the Red Sox actually planning to approach that?

    I mean, zowie. They were around $125 million this season.

    Keeping in mind that is an extremely rough estimate, I have the Red Sox committed to approximately $109 million for next season. That's figuring arbitration raises for Jonathan Papelbon, Jermey Hermida, Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez and $500,000 each for the assorted 0-3 service-time players.

    Let's say they sign Jason Bay for $18 million. So now they're at $127 million. Where is that extra $43 million coming from that Theo seemed concerned about?

    Are the Red Sox leaving room for Roy Halladay and some other superstar?

    This is total conjecture, of course, and perhaps Epstein was just musing out loud. But perhaps that was a clue that the Sox are, if nothing else, giving themselves the option to make a huge splash.

    UPDATE, 11:54 a.m.: The CBT is actually the "competitive balance tax" as an astute reader pointed out.
    http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...e_sox_pla.html


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    Member blumj's Avatar
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    Re: Are the (Red) Sox planning a spending spree?

    I think Peter Abraham is way off there, on just about everything, but especially on how payroll is calculated for luxury tax purposes(average annual value of the contract) and how much the Red Sox already have committed to 2010 payroll by AAV and also the rather significant amount of money for benefits that also counts toward the luxury tax payroll calculations. The Red Sox have several players on long term contracts who will make much less in 2010 than the AAV of their contracts.

    Just to be more specific, by the calaculations of someone who did this the correct way, if the Red Sox were to re-sign Jason Bay for $18M a year as Abraham suggests, re-sign Alex Gonzalez to a 1 year deal at $4M, re-sign Saito to a 1 year deal at $4M, and sign one Smoltz/Penny type pitcher to a 1 year deal for $5M, essentially rebuild their almost exact same team from last season, they would go over the luxury tax threshold of $170M without spending anywhere close to $170M on actual 2010 payroll.
    Last edited by blumj; 11-11-2009 at 09:06 AM.
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