According to USA Today, the Red Sox began this major league season with a payroll of just over $173 million, about 24 million less than the Yankees and nearly equal to that of the Phillies.
So why do the Red Sox suck so bad? Well, they are now get NOTHING out of the seven highest paid players they started the season with:
Adrian Gonzalez $ 21,857,142 Traded
Carl Crawford $ 20,357,142 Traded
Josh Beckett $ 17,000,000 Traded
John Lackey $ 15,950,000 Out for year, Tommy John surgery
David Ortiz $ 14,575,000 Out for remainder of year
Kevin Youkilis $ 12,250,000 Traded
Daisuke Matsuzaka $ 10,333,333 Tommy John surgery "recovery", now just being dangled, unsuccessfully, for trade.
That's $112,322,617 million dollars in noncontributing payroll, leaving them with just $60,864,001 million dollars worth of their original roster. That is roughly equal to the payrolls of the 27th and 28th lowest in the league, the last place Kansas City Royals and the last place Houston Astros.
Then, subtract $6,000,000 for their eleventh highest player they started this season with, retired Bobby Jenks, and they now have a playing payroll of $54,864,001, which would be the LOWEST payroll in all of major league baseball, though in actuality, it is a couple million dollars above that because of the half a dozen Triple A players getting the pro-rated major league minimum for filling those roster spots.
There has never, ever been a salary dump like this in the history of professional sports. I have to wonder whether the activist Attorney General Office in Massachusetts might consider taking a consumer fraud case against the Red Sox on behalf of the season ticket holders, claiming that ticket holders who commit to paying the highest ticket prices in the major leagues have a reasonable expectation that the team would be paying a larger portion of that money for salaries of players that the fans are paying to see.
So why do the Red Sox suck so bad? Well, they are now get NOTHING out of the seven highest paid players they started the season with:
Adrian Gonzalez $ 21,857,142 Traded
Carl Crawford $ 20,357,142 Traded
Josh Beckett $ 17,000,000 Traded
John Lackey $ 15,950,000 Out for year, Tommy John surgery
David Ortiz $ 14,575,000 Out for remainder of year
Kevin Youkilis $ 12,250,000 Traded
Daisuke Matsuzaka $ 10,333,333 Tommy John surgery "recovery", now just being dangled, unsuccessfully, for trade.
That's $112,322,617 million dollars in noncontributing payroll, leaving them with just $60,864,001 million dollars worth of their original roster. That is roughly equal to the payrolls of the 27th and 28th lowest in the league, the last place Kansas City Royals and the last place Houston Astros.
Then, subtract $6,000,000 for their eleventh highest player they started this season with, retired Bobby Jenks, and they now have a playing payroll of $54,864,001, which would be the LOWEST payroll in all of major league baseball, though in actuality, it is a couple million dollars above that because of the half a dozen Triple A players getting the pro-rated major league minimum for filling those roster spots.
There has never, ever been a salary dump like this in the history of professional sports. I have to wonder whether the activist Attorney General Office in Massachusetts might consider taking a consumer fraud case against the Red Sox on behalf of the season ticket holders, claiming that ticket holders who commit to paying the highest ticket prices in the major leagues have a reasonable expectation that the team would be paying a larger portion of that money for salaries of players that the fans are paying to see.
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