Salary Commitments for 2011 and Beyond

I'm not quite sure why I felt that this exercise would be interesting - to myself or our fine readership - but it seemed better than sorting through the inconsequential rumors and musings that fill-up baseball news this time of the year. While the Yankees do not have the sort of salary constrictions that most everyone else in professional sports must deal with, it does seem clear that they are scraping the ceiling of some self-imposed cap (as high as it may be). With that in mind, I was curious to see how things would shake-out as this decade progresses - which may be particularly intriguing, as Cashman's contract is up at the end of this coming season.

These numbers are courtesy of Cot's Baseball Contracts - an indispensable resource for all things related to player contracts, arbitration figures, and free agency.

2011 - $191.45 MM
2012 - $171.5 MM
2013 - $149 MM
2014 - $73.5 MM
2015 - $66.5 MM
2016 - $42.5 MM
2017 - $20 MM

A few notes:

1. Sabathia may opt-out after this year - if he does, $23 MM would be subtracted from 2012 - 2015.


2. Soriano may opt-out after this year, in which case $11 MM would be subtracted from 2012 and $14 MM from 2013. He may also opt-out after 2012, in which case the $14 MM would be subtracted from 2013. If he opts out, the Yankees would owe him a $1.5 MM buy-out.


3. I included the club options for Swisher (2012) and Cano and Granderson, which run through 2013. I simply cannot see the Yankees letting them go at what appear to be relatively team-friendly salaries.


4. I did not include the options for Jeter, Marte, and Feliciano. I expect Jeter to decline his option for $8 MM and seek a raise, and I doubt that Marte and Feliciano are in the team's long-term plans.


5. I did not include the salaries of Gardner, Pena, Nunez, Robertson, and the other league-minimum players - I can't imagine those numbers bringing the payroll up much more than a couple million dollars.

For comparison's sake, you can take a gander at the Blue Rays salary obligations at MLB Trade Rumors - suffice it to say that the 2015 Yankees will likely be paying more for three mid-to-late 30s players than the Blue Jays will pay their entire roster this season.

What should you take away from this? To be honest, I'm not quite sure. The Yankees finances do seem to negate some of the worries of overpaying players, but I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with Teixeira and Rodriguez earning a combined $42.5 MM in 2016 - particularly when both players are expected to be firmly in their decline phases at that point. As it stands, the Red Sox are the only other team with a player locked-up through 2017 in Carl Crawford. At this juncture, they don't approach the Yankees mid-decade commitments, though that is likely to change with an extension for Adrian Gonzalez.