The Rusney Castillo sweepstakes are over and the Boston Red Sox have come out as victors, but not after other teams showed a serious interest in signing the Cuban star this week to his first deal.
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One of the teams who showed an interest in Castillo were the New York Yankees, but no bid was ever put in to try and acquire him this week. There’s good reason for that too as Joel Sherman from the New York Post points out that the Yankees situation with the luxury tax is to blame for their reluctance to bid on Castillo.
#Yankees repeat offender so much going over luxury tax, that they are penalized at 50 pct, so $72M for Castillo would have cost them $108M
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) August 22, 2014
Sherman continues by saying that because the Yankees are repeaters in the tax, giving CAstillo a $72 million contract would have actually cost them $108 million.
#Yankees repeat offender so much going over luxury tax, that they are penalized at 50 pct, so $72M for Castillo would have cost them $108M
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) August 22, 2014
New York doesn’t always get what it wants and that’s a clear case with Castillo. As exciting as Masahiro Tanaka has been, adding in Castillo could have been a huge deal for the Bombers. But years of overspending have caught up with the team and losing out on Castillo is a way for the baseball gods to even the score.
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