MASHANTUCKET, Conn. — The highest luxury tax threshold for 2019 isn’t going to keep the Red Sox from adding a reliever, Sox owner John Henry indicated on Friday. It’s simply the dollars overall that may keep the team that already has the highest payroll in baseball from spending more.
Per Henry, the team is already very close to the golden number of $246 million (as calculated for luxury tax purposes).
“We’re right at that,” Henry said. “How important is it [to avoid that mark] is the question? Obviously, not that important.”
The team exceeded the highest threshold in 2018. Still, the fact that the Red Sox haven’t made any moves for a reliever yet is a sign they’re trying to keep costs down, relatively speaking.
“Last year was, I think we were $40 million above everybody else,” Henry said. “We spent a lot of money last year. We hope that's not the case forever.”
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Henry acknowledged that with Joe Kelly gone and Craig Kimbrel potentially leaving as well, the bullpen is a question.
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"With the back-end of the bullpen, that’s a question you always, every year, have some questions," Henry said. "That’s probably going to be the biggest question."
Sox ownership though seems to be near the limit of what they can tolerate spending, regardless of the luxury tax.
“Would we get another reliever? Our budget is below that,” Henry said. “But last year we exceeded our budget and we went into spring training with a $200 (million) budget. We came out of spring training with $230 (million) and I think we closed at $239 or $237 (million), somewhere in that range. So you look at what your needs are and we have constraints, all of us have constraints. But it’s not necessarily the CBT that is your constraint. It’s how much money are you willing to lose.”
The Red Sox lost money in 2018 on an operational basis, industry sources said, which includes payroll and tickets and merchandise and the postseason. It does not include the money NESN makes — and the ownership group also owns NESN — nor the appreciation of the franchise value.”
“Generally, we hope not to,” Henry said. “But I would say more years often than not we probably have. But that's more of a concern I think than the CBT.
“I think every team adjusts payroll to some extent upon their competitive. Sometimes like last year, you go above and beyond, I think, because you think ‘Well, this year we're missing just one piece, or two pieces,’ you're less concerned [than] if you don't feel like this is going to be your year."
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