DugoutDollars

The Yankees also avoided arbitration with Gabe White, signing a $2.15m / 1 year deal.

• Jay Bradley of Home-Plate.net let me know about deferred money in Fred McGriff's old contract that the Devil Rays will be paying out in 2004 and 2005.
• Michael Laureano questioned why Adrian Hernandez is still counting against the Yankees luxury tax payroll - I've addressed this question more broadly in the FAQ.
• WoodyWoodward182 helped me out with the particulars of Tony Graffanino and Brian Anderson's contracts with the Kansas City Royals - but we're still looking for the details on Joe Randa's mutual option for 2005.
• Dave from baseballgraphs.com sent over some very interesting information about the buyout of Bobby Bonilla's contract by the Mets back in 2000 - the article says that "instead of picking up his $5.9 million salary for the 2000 season, the team pledged to pay him $1,193,248.20 each July 1st from 2011 to 2035". Seems staggering at first, but when you think about it in present value terms (using 2000 interest rates), it probably saved the Mets some money (assuming they made some smart investments). Any NY fans out there remember this as well?
• Both Karl Kreisher and David Cox emailed to let me know I'd incorrectly listed Pedro Martinez's deal on the Red Sox payroll. He's due a $2.5m buyout plus $15m in salary this year, and as they both correctly noted, that buyout should not count against the 2004 cap, as it was already counted against the 2003 cap. David also pointed out that I'd made a small error on Schilling's luxury tax number for 2004, as it should have taken into account the previous years on the deal. Both corrections have been made, dropping Boston's luxury tax payrolll to $130m for 2004.
• Seth Stohs sent me a link to his site, which had some great details and analysis of the Mientkiewicz contract - I've updated the Twins payroll with this information.
• Scott of the always entertaining Yankees, Mets, and the Rest and the staff over at Elephants in Oakland both wrote in with the idea of tracking a player's agent along with his contract details - it's a fantastic idea, and I'll be considering it when I work on the redesign of the payroll pages due this Spring to make them more "brower-friendly". If anyone's seen a site or resource that might have a start on this type of information, be sure to pass it along.
• Vinnie checked in with some details on the non-roster deals the Mets have signed - thanks Vinnie!

And yes, I still haven't caught up on the detailed payroll analyses that were sent my way on the Cardinals, Reds, Orioles, and Padres. As soon as time permits, I'll be delving into them and posting any resulting updates - thanks for your patience!

• The Yankee payroll for 2004 is greater than the payrolls of the Twins, Indians, Expos, Pirates, Devil Rays and Brewers combined.
• The Yankee payroll will account for approximately 9.6% of total MLB payroll in 2004.

I haven't updated the Summary page yet - I'll get around to that later on today.

• Pending Gabe White's arbitration hearing and some minor league deals, the Yankees' pre-tax 2004 payroll should clock in between $185 and $190 million dollars.
• The Yankees' luxury tax bill for 2004 stands at $22.7m right now
• The Yankees' luxury tax bill for 2005 is already at $16.2m
• With only eight players under contract, the Yankees are pushing a tax number of $117m for the 2006 season - only $20m under the threshold
• The Yankees have nearly $80m wrapped up in four players for the 2007 season (Giambi, Jeter, A-Rod, and Vasquez). If they pick up options on Mussina and Posada for 2007, it will be nearly $110m for six players.
• The Rangers will clear $17m in payroll for 2004, another $17m in 2005, and $15m in 2006

I'll have updated payrolls up as soon as the deal goes official - along with some other updates and a quick mailbag entry.