Yankees & Rangers
Submitted by: kingcong95
Yankees
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availability | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rougned Odor | 27 | Majors | 2B | Medium | 3 | -3 | 27.7 | -30.7 | -27.7 | -27.7 | -27.7 | |
| Cash | 30 |
Total Value:
2.3
Rangers
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availability | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antonio Cabello | Minors | OF | 2.1 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 2.5 | ||||||
| Josh Stowers | Minors | OF | 1.9 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.3 |
Total Value:
4
Comments
8This just in. Boy, the LHH situation at the Bronx must be brutal, because these prospects are not exactly trivial (Stowers was part of the return for Sonny Gray). At least they got the Rangers to cover most of Odor's salary, plus extra for the barber.
Per Heyman, the Rangers are covering all of Odor's salary, and the Yankees are also receiving the implied potential benefit of the CBT reduction. On paper, that's roughly $28.3M in value coming along with Odor.
The Rangers should have gotten a better prospect deal. Nothing specular but in the range 5-7. Even if the Rangers had to kick a little more money. The Yankees would have paid more for extra cap space. I think that the Yankees management is laughing at the Rangers for how cheaply they bought cap space regardless of Odor.
Is there a MLB rule that in a trade can a team give more money than the players' salaries "to buy" proscepts?
There is a rule that any deal including more money than a set amount has to be approved by the Commisioner. But prospects/minor leaguers can be and often are traded straight up for cash considerations. So not only is there no rule against "buying" prospects. it is actually a common practice...
FWIW, according to Rosenthal, the Yankees are getting an extra benefit: "By adding Odor, Yankees realize small benefit in luxury-tax (CBT) payroll. Odor makes $12M cash. His CBT number is $8.25M. Money from Rangers will drop him to $0 in that calculation. So even if he replaces someone making minimum, he will save NYY small amount in CBT payroll." But yeah, they must also figure the short porch in the Bronx might be a plus for Odor if he hits the ball at all.
NEWSLETTER? SURE, SIGN ME UP!
If the Rangers got too greedy here, the Yankees could have simply waited for Odor to clear waivers and signed him for the league minimum with Texas then taking the rest of the contract anyway and the Yankees keeping Cabello and Stowers. Really, the question is why the Yankees made this move, as they basically traded two prospects in order to save $570,000 and ensure they were the team that acquired Odor, who I would guess was not in high demand.
Odor's luxury tax hit is already lower than the amount of money the Rangers are paying the Yankees. It would not be possible for the Rangers to kick in more money to make the tax hit negative, so the most it would make sense to pay is the salary minus the prorated minimum. Also, it's hard to argue that Odor could be expected to produce substantially more on field value than what those 2 prospects are worth.