Most athletes have grown up trusting their coaches, friends and parasites and never done the financials. Correa seems to have spent some of his off time (both in season and out) learning about the accounting. I just want him to look at the price of his current home and the cost of that same home anywhere else he's contemplating an offer from. COST of LIVING comes after the BOTTOM LINE. Many players make their off season homes in low tax states. How many times have you heard of former Astros who maintained their off season residence acquired when they were an Astro and just keep an apartment in their new home during the season? Of course, Carlos could do the same. Anyway, the tax penalties and breaks are 1/2 the rate difference because you play 1/2 your games at home. The jock tax applies to road games only. Of course, if California decides wealth taxes can be assessed on FORMER residents, there's a whole new level of taxes on TOTAL WEALTH. And if they're successful, it will spread to the East Coast. Anyway, it's all arguing about Monopoly Money anyway these days.
You get a torpedo from the Navy for tax avoidance. And they'll claim it was the Spanish. (ref to the USS MAINE for public 'school' grads of the last 30 years.)
Just a couple points because I've paid multiple state taxes for a period of time: The rate difference is well more than half. If your home is in New York (for example), they will tax all of your income. You can deduct taxes you paid to other states (so if you travel to California and pay there, you aren't double taxed) but if you live more than half the year in NY and are therefore a resident, they will tax 100% That's why so many athletes live in TX. They establish that this is their resident for at least half the year (days they are traveling for games are business trips from their home) and then only pay road tax. The cost of living doesn't matter at all. It's only about taxes. For someone making $30M a year, $2M more one time on a house or an extra $100K in dining is a rounding error. 8% every year on income tax ... that's what matters. Irrelevant to this, but annoying to me as I live overseas ... the US is only government that taxes expats even if they never live in the US. Anyway, glad Correa seems good at finances. It certainly can't hurt, though I do think this is more about ego and perception than the bottom line $.
Great points. I think the last comment you made about ego/perception is the crucial factor here. Sure Carlos is a pretty smart guy and, based on that interview, he is aware of how the bottom line looks if he signs with X team or Y team. But, as we see more often than not, it's the ego that typically trumps all. What's is he wanting: a contract with a higher total value (but with a less AAV) than his peers or a contract that offers him bragging rights that he's the 2nd highest paid position player (behind Trout) in terms of AAV? Or hell, is he shooting for both?
I'll understand not wanting to match a $300M+ offer this off-season, there are plenty of other ways to keep this team competitive besides signing a monster deal with Correa. However, I think had we made a serious offer to Correa in the past off-season (something in the $200M-$250M) range then I think there's a possibility Correa would have accepted and it would have been a good deal for Houston. Some have argued that Correa's value has somehow skyrocketed this season but he's been more or less the same guy he's always been (but with steadier defense) when healthy. Regarding his injury history, it's not like he's been plagued with a chronic injury throughout his time here. A lot of his downtime has come from bad luck with the only serious issue being his back which hasn't been a problem in years. Also, while he had a down season last year, so did practically the entire team and like Altuve and some of the other players he looked like his old self in the post-season. With all that in mind, I think it would have been a bold, smart move to make a serious run at him the last off-season when we had a real chance to sign him. Now that opportunity is gone so is he in another month.
I’m not going to say anything negative about how Carlos is acting right now because he is our best player and best clutch hitter. I also really want him to get another ring with us.
Carlos was clearly valuing himself as healthy and is looking for a $300M plus offer. Why do you think he would have signed for $200M if he thought a team was going to offer him $300M the next year? Nothing he has said indicates he felt playing this season was a risk or that he was willing to take any discount from what he views as his full value.
Correa wants the contract that gets closest to 10 years 400 million. Correa will consider starting the price at the cheaper deal of New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor and his 10-year, $341 million contract.
Maybe this is just me trying to be okay with the fact we’ll probably lose him. But if it mean signing Alvarez and Tucker through their primes the offense can stay this good for a while. While they’ll obviously lose offensive value without Correa at SS, it could lessen the blow if Korey Lee is above average or they sign a good hitting catcher.
CC is in the same league as Tatis and Lindor. Let's hope the big crop of good SS free agents depresses the offers. I doubt it since Correa is still the best of the group but I can hope.
Tatis is 5 years younger and got ~$24.3M per year over 14 years. Lindor was a year younger than Carlos when he signed his extension and got 10 years and 34 million per year. It's worth noting $50M of the contract is deferred. So both those contracts adjusted for age would be 9 years for Carlos. There is also a new CBA to negotiate that could have a significant impact on salaries and several other big name SS on the market. I'm not sure he's going to get 10 years from anyone. 7-8 or is my guess. I think the AAV will be between Tatis and Lindor.
Tatis's contract took into account a bunch of years that were under the clubs control. Years that he would have made pennies on the dollar. If you look at the post arbitration years, he's making 30 million per.
Right, that’s why I think he will get more than the AAV for the whole contract. I don’t think he’ll get 35M on a 9 year or longer contract. Hence the between the two.
Because anything can happen and it eliminates all the risk (his health, covid's impact on the sport, new CBA rules, etc). You could be right that he wasn't interested in any discount at all. But unfortunately, we'll never know if he would have accepted a discount last year because the Astros never even pretended to make a reasonable offer. At least if they had offered say $210MM over 7 years, it might have been a legitimate decision to make with pros and cons. As it was, they made the decision super-easy for Correa to go to free agency because outside of a career-ending injury, there was no scenario Correa would have made less than what he was being offered.
