Winning the World Series came with a hefty price for the New York Yankees. The Yankees were hit with a luxury tax of nearly US$25.69 million on 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 pay the commissioner’s office by Jan. 31.
The Yankees have been billed US$174 million of the tax’s US$190 million total since 2003. The only other teams to pay have been Boston (US$13.9 million for 2004-2007), Detroit (US$1.3 million for last year) and the Los Angeles Angels (US$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 C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. And the Yankees did lower their tax bill from US$26.86 million last year, when their streak of consecutive playoff appearances ended at 13.
New York’s payroll was US$226.2 million for the purpose of the luxury tax and the Yankees pay at a 40 percent rate for the amount over US$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 this year’s salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses — finished at US$220 million. That was a drop of US$2.5 million from last year, but more than US$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 US$142.2 million, followed by the equally disappointing Chicago Cubs (US$141.6 million).
Boston (US$140.5 million) was next, followed by Detroit (US$139.4 million) and National League champion Philadelphia (US$138.3 million), a big increase from the US$112.7 million the Phillies spent when they won the World Series last year.
Only two teams outside the top 11 by payroll made the postseason: Colorado (16th at US$84.5 million) and Minnesota (23rd at US$73.1 million).
Florida was again last in the majors, even though the Marlins raised their payroll by US$10.5 million to US$37.5 million. San Diego dropped from 23rd at US$71.2 million to 29th at US$43.2 million.
Half the 30 teams cut payrolls from last year.
The commissioner’s office computed the average salary at US$2,882,336. The players’ association, which uses slightly different methods of calculation, had its average at US$2,996,106.
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