There are a few upcoming moves I am excited to see play out. Dezenzo to Sugar Land to fill the hole left by Joe at 3rd. Wrobleski to catcher in Corpus. I just spent ten minutes and moved about ten dominoes resulting from the deadline moves the team just made.
This sounds correct. I would believe the contract is complete after 2024 and a new contract would need to be made. I'm not 100% sure the Astros would want to even pay $17.5 mil for 2025 anyhow (unless they felt they were still getting elite or even above average Verlander back). So to Crane it probably would be a win in either direction.
My math says the Mets pay $19 of $35 million for 2025 if the player option triggers (JV has 140+ IPs in 2024) AND JV accepts the option.
I don't have the contract language or know what the Mets and Astros agreed on - so it is hard to say. Your point is well taken though, if the language of the contract states "only" then it is likely not allowed unless the Astros and Mets negotiated something different.
Interesting comments from John Heyman who covers the NY and NY area baseball teams: "Justin Verlander really enjoyed living in New York and the atmosphere. He was happy with the stuff off the field all the way until the end." "He (Verlander) really has a strong connection with Houston and that organization (Astros) down there. It felt like the Mets were just renting him sometimes." "I had a teammate of his (Mets teammate of Verlander) say that Justin was asked to give a couple teams he wanted to be traded to and his answer was Astros and Astros." Now - Heyman is not someone that typically just reports stories, he tends to have some level of an agenda. I also don't entirely believe that Verlander would have turned down the Dodgers if the Astros were out of the running...... but I will say I find it interesting that Verlander was so strong in wanting to come back to the Astros. Typically some players will be loyal to a geographical area like California or the North East - but not usually a city or organization. It is nice to hear though.
I'm not surprised at all. All things being equal (money), he would have stayed an Astro. He chose the Mets because of money and city. He was happy as a Met and he had a no trade clause which gave him all the leverage. He said I'm happy here so trade me to the Astros or keep me here. Worst case scenario is that I get to live in a city I like making a **** ton of money. Best case scenario is I get to play for a team I really like in a city I'm really comfortable in, that is only a 2 hour direct plane ride to Florida, to compete for another world series title with my buds I've gone to war with. I also get to sleep with a supermodel that is cool AF. It's good to be Justin Verlander.
I wrote sometime early yesterday or the prior day that if Verlander was really open to the Ranger or Dodgers, it would have happened early since they had the better ranked prospects and they probably didn't care as much about the Mets eating a bunch of salary. When it got into the afternoon and the Astros were still in it, I was fairly confident that Verlander said the Astros or the Astros, and all the other teams were just trying to sell him.
Here's an interesting question. Does Verlander have to pay state tax on the portion the Mets are paying?
If you asked the IRS fifty times you would get fifty different answers. Let the accountants figure it out.
It is a vesting option, so if he does not reach 140 innings, it does not vest and the Mets would be off the hook. There is no mutually agreeing to a vesting option.
I had no doubt Verlander wanted to come to Houston. He had been traded here before and loved the clubhouse plus the chance to win. His house in Florida is in Jupiter which is why when he was a free agent this past offseason I said I believed he was going to the Mets. Just made too much sense. His brother confirmed it on his podcast yesterday about why he didn't want to go to the Dodgers with their spring training being in Arizona. The only doubts I had were if the Mets would eat enough money to satisfy Crane, and if the Astros could give enough prospects/players in return to satisfy the Mets.
I think that this is how it works: For a given season, says Player X plays in 20 states. For each state with an income tax, the pro-rated salary for the number games in state will force the Player X to file/pay state income taxes.
Yes. It isn’t just athletes - anyone who earns money in a state by working there, even on a business trip, is technically supposed to pay income taxes there. In practical terms there is a materiality threshold (number of days x income/day), so most people don’t qualify. But at athlete salaries, they do. Then they deduct what they pay there against their home salary tax. Of course in Texas that is zero so all out of state tax is a direct loss, but if he was in NY for example, the delta to other states would be close to zero. I once paid 5 states in one year. It’s not fun.
