Showalter: Yanks shouldn't benefit from A-Rod ban
Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter told USA Today that the New York Yankees shouldn't be granted the payroll relief that would come when Alex Rodriguez is suspended.
Rodriguez, who is owed $86 million through 2017, is due $25 million in 2014. If, for example, he's suspended for the rest of this season and all of next, the Yankees would suddenly plummet below the luxury tax threshold of $189 million.
"If Bud lets them get away with that, they're under the luxury tax," Showalter told the paper. "If they can reset, they can spend again and I guarantee you in two years Matt Wieters is in New York."
Wieters, 27, is under contract with the Orioles through 2015.
Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $275 million contract after the 2007 season. With A-Rod not even halfway through that deal, Showalter doesn't want the Orioles' American League East Division rival to be let entirely off the hook if Rodriguez is banned as expected. However, the Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that any portion of a player's salary that he does not collect while suspended also does not count toward his team's payroll and the luxury tax threshold.
"They're the ones who signed him to that contract," Showalter said.
