Kansas City Royals VS Tampa Bay Rays 10:2
The Tampa Bay ace lasted one out into the fourth inning in his return from a broken right fourth toe as the Rays lost 10-2 to the Kansas City Royals (world series rings) on Wednesday. "It's fine," Snell said of his toe. "Happy to get back out there. It was a game where I felt just different. I felt good but it was weird. I spiked some fastballs and I never do that." The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, who hurt the toe attempting to move a decorative display in his bathroom on April 14, allowed three runs, five hits and two walks and struck out three during a 65-pitch outing. "Probably the only good thing to come out of this game was that Blake got to 65 pitches, so he should be pretty close to full-go his next time," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "From a health standpoint he was a 100-percent fine." The left-hander (2-2) had given up one run and nine hits over 19 innings in three starts before the injury.
Adalberto Mondesi hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs, Billy Hamilton had two hits and two RBI and Jakob Junis gave up one run and four hits in five innings for the Royals, who stopped a five-game losing streak. Junis (2-2) bruised his right hand on Yandy Diaz's drive that resulted in an inning-ending double-play in the fifth. His hand was swollen but tests showed no fracture. "Just a little nerve in there that's pinching," Junis said. Snell, signed to a $50 million, five-year contract on March 21, said Tuesday that he still had some discomfort in the toe when he walks, but not when throwing off a mound. The Rays decided that Snell was ready to return despite throwing just an 18-pitch bullpen session Saturday and eight pitches off a mound Monday. Snell was replaced by Ryan Yarbrough with a runner on third and one out in the fourth. "I knew they were a selective team but they were aggressive to start and then went back to selective," Snell said. "I threw a lot of good pitches that, they just almost looked like they knew what was coming."
Kansas City (cheap Kansas City Royals championship rings) greeted Yarbrough with consecutive bunt singles, including Cam Gallagher's that drove in a run, and Hamilton's RBI double that made it 4-1. Hamilton had a run-scoring triple and Mondesi hit his third homer, off Yarbrough, to put the Royals ahead 8-1 in the sixth. "Smallball worked good for us with guys running all over the place, plus the power," Royals manager Ned Yost said. Yarbrough, who set a team rookie record last year with 16 wins, including 14 in relief, was optioned to Triple-A Durham after allowing seven runs and eight hits over 4 1/3 innings.
On the surface, Major League Baseball's official Opening Day payroll numbers do not offer any surprises. The Boston Red Sox are paying the most in actual salaries as well as the number used in luxury-tax calculations. The Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees also have payrolls in excess of $200 million. The average salary is almost exactly flat year over year despite industry revenue gains. A deeper dive into the numbers offers a few important lessons as MLB and the MLB Players Association prepare to discuss the game's economics in early bargaining sessions expected to start soon. Here are five takeaways.
1) The best team in baseball has the lowest payroll
And it's not really close. The Tampa Bay Rays have MLB's (custom championship rings) best winning percentage with a 16-8 record. Their plus-48 run differential is tops in the big leagues, too. And they're doing it with a 40-man roster making slightly more than $50 million this season. The Rays' actual payroll number, as calculated by the league, is $62,143,354. The base salaries of their entire 40-man roster are $53,647,378 -- or $1.35 million less than the base salaries Detroit is paying Miguel Cabrera and Jordan Zimmermann this year. The chasm between the $53.6 million and $62.1 million comes from signing-bonus dollars -- including long-ago-paid bonuses for the since-traded Chris Archer and Evan Longoria -- and money kicked in to cover Edwin Encarnacion's salary. (More on that later.) MLB's calculation factors in only a prorated portion of Blake Snell's $3 million signing bonus on his new long-term deal, so the $53.6 million number isn't spot-on in terms of actual cash outlay. But it's close enough. It's nearly $19 million less than the next-lowest team, Miami, and not even a quarter of Boston's $220.6 million in base wages. On one hand, it's a testament to the Rays' ability to build an exceedingly cost-effective core through the draft, international free agency, trades and signings. It's also a reminder that however dreadful their stadium, however miserable their TV deal, however rough their economic reality, the Rays are spending far less than their competitors.
2) The teams that spend the highest proportion of their revenues will surprise you
Excuse the mixing of numbers here, but since MLB keeps individual teams' revenue numbers a tightly held secret, the closest facsimile that exists is Forbes' annual valuations. While the league says the numbers are not accurate, the estimated revenues are calculated using a consistent formula and thus provide a reasonable constant against which we can measure the percentage of money spent. The clear champion in terms of pouring money back into the major league team is the Washington Nationals. MLB calculates their payroll at $191.6 million, fifth behind the three $200 million-plus payroll behemoths and the Los Angeles Dodgers, at $195.4 million. Forbes estimates the Nationals' revenue last year, meanwhile, at $336 million, which is 12th among major league teams. Adding to the nearly $192 million payroll another $14,509,516 every team pays in benefits, the Nationals would be spending more than 60 percent of revenue on their 40-man roster. Using that payroll-plus-benefits-divided-by-revenue formula, other big spenders include Cincinnati (56 percent), Colorado (55.7 percent), Seattle (52.6 percent) and Toronto (51.4 percent). The lowest? The Yankees, whose $668 million in revenue dwarfs even a $200 million-plus payroll. Just ahead of them are Tampa Bay (33.6 percent), Pittsburgh (36.3 percent), Baltimore (37.8 percent) and Atlanta (38.2 percent).
3) Next to no money is spent going over the luxury tax
And when we say next to no money, we mean next to no money. Three teams are currently over the $206 million threshold: the Red Sox, Cubs and Yankees. Combined, they would pay $21,005,073 in penalties. That is 0.05 percent of the $4.55 billion total for all 30 teams' luxury-tax calculations. As in, 1/2,000th. It was even lower last year, when the Yankees and Dodgers were among the teams resetting their luxury-tax base rate, which increases for multiple-time offenders. That came off back-to-back years in which the tax penalties were at least marginally higher: five teams totaling $61.2 million in 2017, six teams combining for $74.1 million in 2016. That's still fractional. Minuscule. Nothing. It's still a sign that if the luxury-tax threshold doesn't serve as a stop sign on team spending, it is at very least a flashing red. Proceed with caution, it says, and teams do. It's reasonable to ask whether teams would spend any more if the luxury tax did not exist. When commissioner Rob Manfred during spring training said "I reject the notion that payroll is a good measure for how much a team is trying or how successful that team is going to be," the natural response was: Well, if that's true, then why does the luxury tax even exist? It's a question that the union is certain to ask during the upcoming negotiations.
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