Mark Berman: Astros offering Carlos Correa a 5 year/160 million dollar contract

Try same cities… different teams.

 

That’s no longer of concern or else he wouldn’t be getting even the 5 or 6 year $30 million dollar deals from the Astros (who know his medicals better than anybody). Seager has missed more time the last four years than Correa has.

The market has now been definitively set… stupidly so by the Rangers, but this is now the market. Correa could be enticed to a shorter contract but would have to get even more per year to sway him.

 

Maybe, but the same happened with Pujols.

Now sure, Correa would be signing at 27 instead of 31, but he's got a much worse injury history and he's nowhere near how good ARod or Pujols were when they were in their prime.

 

It is an issue. People start to really have trouble with their backs in their 30s, if they had previous issues. The longer the contract, the more the risk for the team. Risking 5 or 6 is different than 8-10 years.

 

Offer Correa 4 years 160.

 

The fact that Correa is insistent upon a super-long contract tells us that he wants the protection against the injury risk. That's information.

 

Why did Semien want a long contract? Seager? Cole? Franco? Lindor? Betts?

 

In fairness, 10/$252 is very different after 20 years. The equivalent is 10/$393M today.

 

Correa’s back issues were not deemed degenerative or structural.

The Astros won’t offer anybody a 10 year deal back or not. They won’t offer anybody a 5-6 year deal, minus Correa.

 

Anyone post this ?

 

On Monday, the Texas Rangers signed All-Star shortstop Corey Seager to a 10-year, $325 million contract, a deal that his former team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, likely could have matched. Valued at $4.62 billion, the Dodgers are MLB’s third most valuable franchise, behind the New York Yankees ($6.75 billion) and the Boston Red Sox ($4.8 billion). But the Dodgers would have needed to pay Seager as much as $76 million more to provide him equal value after taxes. The team could have also risked confronting potential salary limitations in the next CBA.

By signing with the Rangers, Seager chose a team located in one of nine U.S. states without a tax on wages (Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming—though New Hampshire and Tennessee tax investment income). If Seager, who was raised in North Carolina, resides in Texas, he will not pay any state income taxes.

Seager will still have to pay other income-related taxes. Almost all of his salary—the amount exceeding $622,051 if he and his wife jointly file—will be subject to the highest federal income tax rate (37%). And, should the “Build Back Better” bill become law, Seager would face escalating federal surcharges on wages in excess of $10 million. Plus, if Seager resides in a state with an income tax, he would need to pay that tax, too. Seager also faces payroll taxes and, in certain cities and states, jock taxes as a visiting Rangers player. That said, Seager is joining the AL West, a division where three of the five teams—the Rangers, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners—play in states without an income tax.



For the Dodgers to have provided Seager equal “take home” pay, the team would have needed to offer him as much as $401 million. This is mainly because of California’s state income tax, which is the highest in the country. The state imposes a 13.3% tax on those who earn more than $1 million a year. It also reflects the interaction between him earning more and paying more in federal income taxes, since a portion of each dollar he earns is taxed by the IRS.

The calculations would be different if Seager stayed with the Dodgers but resided in a state with no taxes or lower taxes, though he would still pay a substantial amount to California. We acknowledge there are factors other than money at play in Seager’s decision. Family considerations, expectations for the team, quality of life, proximity to relatives and friends, among other considerations, likely influenced his decision. Even financial considerations are not as simple as calculating taxes. He might have landed more lucrative endorsement deals by playing in Los Angeles. But his housing and other cost-of-living expenses will be lower in Arlington, Texas. What is certain is that his take-home pay will be much higher in Texas than in California.

Seager’s decision highlights how teams in states with higher income taxes might be disadvantaged should MLB and the MLBPA negotiate greater penalties on teams with high payrolls. MLB has proposed lowering the threshold for the luxury tax from $210 million to $180 million in exchange for a requirement that teams spend at least $100 million. With a potential lockout that could begin as soon as Thursday, it’s unclear what provisions the next CBA will contain. But to the extent teams are penalized for spending money, those in higher income tax jurisdictions (California, Minnesota, New York, Washington D.C., Wisconsin) might feel the penalty more acutely. This is not a new phenomenon in pro sports. NFL, NBA and NHL teams are subject to salary caps while being located in jurisdictions with varying income tax rates. But it demonstrates how income tax laws and collectively bargained payroll policies operate in the same space.

 

Will the reported 4 year deal between LAA and Iglesias take LAA out as possible Correa suitors?

4 years/ 58Mm

 

Lakers or Knicks?

 

Be hilarious if the new York teams are out bc of his Jeter comments and dodgers refuse to go after him bc players hate him. Then he will come to us and we will win the world series and to celebrate the marching band will bang on trash cans instead of drums during the parade.

 

It’s interesting to me that these other teams are out there making big splash signings, yet none of them involve Correa. Conventional wisdom in some quarters has been that the signings are pricing the Astros out of contention for re-signing him, but maybe they’re actually increasing the odds of that as alternative options dry up.

 

Maybe not to you, but to other teams it appears to be an issue. Give me Seager and his getting hit in the hand and knee surgery 2 years ago over a guy with back issues if I'm looking at giving out a 10 year 325 million dollar contract. Backs dont get better as you get into your mid-late 30's and I love Correa. I wouldn't give Correa more than 6 or 7 years and that's knowing that I'm probably going to have to eat the last two years of a 7 year deal.

Click's doing the right thing. That's for all of y'all that think I hate Click and crap on anything he does.

 

Nothing “gets better” in one’s mid to late 30’s… but 2 years ago, people didn’t think Correa deserved anything. As of last off season, people thought 4-100 was a fair offer and 5-120 was an overpay.

The Astros know his medicals better than anybody. The fact that it’s gotten better with simply better training, and not surgery, bodes extremely well for him.

In the end, any player over 10 years is an injury risk no matter what the sport. The Correa back that was a major issue at age 24, but resolved for age 26-27… but may become an issue again at age 37… isn’t going to be a determinant any more than being leery of signing a 31 year old to a long term deal.

 

Knowing that the dodgers offered Seager an eight year $250m extension last season that he rejected makes the Astros offers to Correa even more insulting and a clear indication that they have and have had no intention of ever resigning him.

Like it or not this is the price to pay for top tier talent these days. Kinda funny that we’ve all just accepted that our club will never be players for top FA’s.

 

This could go either way for Correa, but the team getting boxed in from a roster perspective is the Yankees, and they have the fat wallet.

It might even be strategic for them to already have a deal with Correa in hand, but wait patiently, so that they can bargain the decision with the fans as a last resort we had to do it thing. It removes the baggage to a degree because hey, we still got the best player despite how it was looking, so let's all rejoice in it, we got the free agent everybody coveted in the end.