NEW YORK — Winning came with a hefty price for the New York Yankees.
The World Series champions were hit with a
luxury tax of nearly $25.69 million Monday, according to information
received by clubs and obtained by The Associated Press.
New York is the only team to pay a tax for
this season and has crossed the threshold in all seven years since the
tax started. According to the collective bargaining agreement, the
Yankees must send a check to the commissioner's office by Jan. 31.
The Yankees have been billed $174 million of
the tax's $190 million total since 2003. The only other teams to pay
have been Boston ($13.9 million for 2004-7), Detroit ($1.3 million for
2008) and the Los Angeles Angels ($927,059 for 2004).
At least the Yankees got value for their
spending, winning the World Series for the first time since 2000 after
adding high-priced free agents CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark
Teixeira. And the Yankees did lower their tax bill from $26.86 million
last year, when their streak of consecutive playoff appearances ended
at 13.
New York's payroll was $226.2 million for the
purpose of the luxury tax and the Yankees pay at a 40 percent rate for
the amount over $162 million. To compute the payroll, Major League
Baseball uses the average annual values of contracts for players on
40-man rosters and adds benefits.
The Yankees' regular payroll — using 2009
salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses — finished at $220
million. That was a drop of $2.5 million from 2008 but more than $77.8
million higher than any other team — a gap larger than the payrolls of
the bottom 11 clubs.
The New York Mets were second at $142.2 million, followed by the equally disappointing Chicago Cubs ($141.6 million).
Boston ($140.5 million) was next, followed by
Detroit ($139.4 million) and NL champion Philadelphia ($138.3 million),
a big increase from the $112.7 million the Phillies spent when they won
the World Series in 2008.
Only two teams outside the top 11 by payroll
made the postseason: Colorado (16th at $84.5 million) and Minnesota
(23rd at $73.1 million).
Florida again was last in the majors, even
though the Marlins raised their payroll by $10.5 million to $37.5
million. San Diego dropped from 23rd at $71.2 million to 29th at $43.2
million.
Half the 30 teams cut payroll from 2008. In
addition to the Padres, Seattle dropped from $120.5 million to $102.3
million, Toronto fell from $98.3 million to $84.1 million and
Cincinnati sliced from $82.9 million to $72.7 million.
Besides the Phillies, other teams with big
increases were Tampa Bay ($51.0 million to $71.2 million), San
Francisco ($82.1 million to $95.2 million), Kansas City ($69.2 million
to $81.9 million), the Cubs ($130.5 million to $141.6 million) and
Washington ($59.7 million to $69.3 million).
Overall payroll rose 1.2 percent to $2.91 billion from $2.88 billion, down from a 6.3 percent increase the previous year.
Payroll figures are for 40-man rosters and
include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses, earned
incentive bonuses, non-cash compensation, buyouts of unexercised
options and cash transactions, such as money included in trades. In
some cases, parts of salaries that are deferred are discounted to
reflect present-day values.
The commissioner's office computed the
average salary at $2,882,336. The players' association, which uses
slightly different methods of calculation, had its average at
$2,996,106.