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We’ve already seen a few teams plan to cut payroll for the 2025 season, despite their performances in 2024 suggesting maybe some spending would help things. The White Sox leaked that info before the summer’s record-setting disaster had even come to a close, and the Rockies, another 100-game loser, followed suit in October. Then you’ve got clubs like the Cubs, who aren’t actively slashing, but they also are avoiding doing super obvious things they could afford to do and should do like attempting to sign 26-year-old free agent Juan Soto. You know, because of financial flexibility. What good is financial flexibility if having it precludes you from acquiring literally Juan Soto? An important question the people espousing its usefulness do not want you to ask.
The Giants are the latest to let it slip that spending is going to drop, via The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly. The Giants were 10th in Opening Day payroll for the second year in a row, after ranking 12th, 11th, and 11th in the previous three campaigns. They sat between second and eighth from 2011 through 2019 — their 2018 payroll of was a franchise-high until 2024’s $208 million — and just one season of having to pay the luxury tax has them reversing course for 2025.
Of course, it’s not the pittance of a tax penalty that has the Giants backing off, but the other punishments that would come with one should they exceed the tax again in 2025. Adding a player who rejected a qualifying offer costs teams over the tax in terms of both the draft and their international bonus pool, in addition to a higher tax rate for consecutive years over the threshold. That’s what the Giants will try to avoid by cutting payroll, but whether that’s a good enough reason is question worth asking.
It’s not like the Giants can only build through the draft or international signings. Principal owner Charles B. Johnson is worth $6.1 billion, and while there are other owners and investors, they could certainly all spend more — and make it all back and then some — if they wanted to. Instead, the team is going to worry about these little penalties, and continue to cede the NL West to everyone besides the Rockies.
Though, maybe with new president of baseball operations Buster Posey strolling in and starting to gut the analytics department in order to deemphasize it, now isn’t the best time for the Giants to start handing out big contracts. Though it’s not like you need a cutting-edge analytics team to tell you that Juan Soto is worth whatever he agrees to sign with you for. Then again, why the San Francisco Giants would ever want a left-handed power hitter who can deposit ball after ball into McCovey Cove is a real mystery we’ll never be able to solve even with analytics.
There have been three major questions that needed to be answered regarding the repair of Tropicana Field’s roof, which hurricane Milton ripped right off of the building in October:
- How much will repairs cost?
- How long will repairs take?
- Who is going to pay for the repairs?
We have answers to the first two, thanks to a report submitted to St. Petersburg’s city council. The 2025 season, in its entirety, is out of the question, but the roof can be repaired in time for 2026, at a cost of just under $56 million. The last question is more up in the air, as Neil deMause detailed at Field of Schemes, which also means whether the roof will actually be repaired remains floating up there, too.
Some of the cost — nearly half, at $25 million — can be offset by insurance that St. Pete is set to receive for the damage inflicted on the roof. Which leaves another $31 million to worry about. deMause has the right idea here, in trying to get the Rays themselves to pick up the tab, especially since playing in Tropicana Field will certainly be better for him and the Rays in 2026 and 2027 than playing in a minor-league stadium that isn’t near the heart of their fan base. It’s not like the Rays dominate in attendance or anything, but leaving what they’ve got behind probably isn’t going to work out well, either, even before you get into issues like what regions their current TV deal will actually cover, or if they’d still get paid in full in that arena if they have to go elsewhere, etc.
There’s also, as mentioned at Field of Schemes, the ongoing issue of whether the Rays will actually get their massive public financing for the new stadium, now that the sentiment seems to be turning against it post-initial approval. Basically, figuring out ways to calm those storms might be in their best long-term interests, as well as their short-term ones. It’s a story to watch, for sure, especially to see if the Rays start to trim their own payroll to account for whatever changes end up coming to their home(s).
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