2013-14 MLB Hot Stove thread

There was a time back in the 1990s where it felt like the Astros were always a big FA destination, and I recall it being mentioned as a factor then. Not to mention A-Rod to the Rangers.

 

Look, the only person putting out this information about state income tax is Scott Boras. Not Choo, not "sources close to Choo." Not Robinson Cano, either, who just signed to play home games in Washington state.

It strongly benefits Scott Boras to spin this deal to make it look like Choo took the highest offer. Boras is not wrong about the state income tax, of course. But again: I do not believe it is a serious factor in any free agent's decision. Choo had many reasons to want to sign with Texas. But I do not believe state income tax was one of them.

If you believe it is, then show me some actual evidence that he or any other free agent is including that as a factor in their decision.

 

There's also less media pressure in Texas than there is in New York. Choo may not have wanted to be in the New York fishbowl.

 

Surely, BuckW, Scott Boras has never tried to deceive you. At least not if you've never met him.

 

I did a very little bit of googling on this and found that New York state's highest marginal tax rate is 8.882% and New York city's highest marginal tax rate is 3.876%. The highest federal marginal rate is 39.6%. For a player considering the New York vs. Texas question, it shakes out that purely from an income tax perspective, $1 million in salary is worth about $77,000 more in Texas than it is in New York. To actually get it nailed down exactly how dollars compare requires more numbers-crunching than I'm up for right now, but Boras' numbers are about right.

 

Or perhaps Boras simply overplayed his hand and blew the best offer, the one from the Yankees, and this was the best fallback he could come up with.

 

I am not sure why Boras pointing out something that is an indisputable fact is a rationalization or a red herring. Choo will get more money over the life of the contract by playing in Texas than he would in New York. Period.

buck, I think your first comment on the topic many weeks ago was that no free agent in the past 40 years has given serious weight to state income tax. That's a very un-buck-like hard line and I don't know why you'd stick with it. I also don't know what qualifies as "actual evidence" since there have been several instances pointed out to you about players and income taxes, and all you say is "well that's not really why he did it."

Here we do have a case where it comes into play, and you're dismissing it. Yet you include an alternative explanation that Dallas-Fort Worth's burgeoning Korean community played a role. Seriously? You're going to go with he signed in Texas over New York because of all the Koreans, and you're going to dismiss the idea that millions of dollars of extra income (because of the taxes) didn't sway him?

I don't get it.

 

Too bad there's no Korean community in NYC. LOL.

 

Do we, though? I think what we have here is typical Scott Boras spin when his player didn't take the highest offer.

Choo's people said that about the Korean community, not me. The reason I posted those two paragraphs is because Crasnick directly quoted Boras Corp. when talking about the state income tax implications. He quoted "sources close to Choo" about everything else (and it's entirely possible those sources are also employed by Boras Corp., of course.)

Do you believe Cano went to Seattle because of state income tax, too? I don't.

 

It would be interesting if anyone added up all the local endorsements Cano or other NYC players had compared with stars in other markets.

 

I don't think there was a competing offer for Cano from the Yankees or anyone else that was anywhere in the ballpark of 10/240, so I don't think there was any need to weigh the state tax implications.

But I do think it was a factor for Choo, and I think it has probably been a factor in quite a few cases over the years. Who knows if guys like Sheffield, Buehrle, Jeff Kent or other free agents had competing offers close enough to weigh the difference -- and without that information we're all ultimately guessing -- but I don't know why you would dismiss it out of hand for every free agent of the last 40 years. We've all seen cases where someone switches teams for what we think is an incredibly paltry difference in pay.

 

But he did take the highest net offer.

And, only LA has a larger Korean population than New York City (and that doesn't include the large Korean community in Northern New Jersey, around Ft. Lee).

The Korean community in the Dallas area is a mere fraction of New York's.