{"id":20867,"date":"2025-01-21T01:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T01:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20867"},"modified":"2025-01-21T01:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T01:43:15","slug":"breaking-yankees-eye-top-free-agent-after-torontos-massive-deal-game-changer-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20867","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Yankees Eye Top Free Agent After Toronto&#8217;s Massive Deal \u2013 Game-Changer Ahead?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Yankees-Predicted-Alex-Bregman-Anthony-Santander.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Yankees-Predicted-Alex-Bregman-Anthony-Santander.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Yankees-Predicted-Alex-Bregman-Anthony-Santander.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Yankees-Predicted-Alex-Bregman-Anthony-Santander.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Brian Cashman on the phone\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"668\" data-dom-ready-time=\"701\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With now\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.springtrainingcountdown.com\/\">just 19 days to go<\/a>\u00a0until MLB teams open spring training for the 2025 season, the big names in free agency are slowly but surely starting to rake in the big bucks, falling off the board as the pressure of the oncoming season pushes both players and teams to strike deals.<\/p>\n<p>The latest came on Monday morning when former Baltimore Orioles free agent outfielder Anthony Santander \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/leagues\/AL\/2024-batting-leaders.shtml\">who blasted 44 home runs in 2024<\/a>, second in the American League behind Aaron Judge \u2014 agreed to terms with the Toronto Blue Jays. According\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/43493318\/source-blue-jays-anthony-santander-agree-deal\">to an ESPN report<\/a>, Santander will sign a deal for five years in Toronto at price tag \u201cworth more than $90 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1881408630421168437\">Jon Heyman of the\u00a0<em>New York Post<\/em><\/a>\u00a0reported the full value of Santander\u2019s contract with the Blue Jays to be $92.5 million.<\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_1_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-1 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/18190176,25816858\/AdThrive_Content_1\/5ad7479721520f50ab7da88e_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"google-ad-manager-fallback-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Santander had earlier been reported to be looking for a contract that would\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/mlb\/boston-red-sox\/red-sox-predicted-100-million-free-agent-slugger\/\">pay him at least $100 million<\/a>, but nonetheless a deal with an average annual value of more than $18 million has got to be impressive for a hitter who was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/santaan02.shtml#all_transactions_other\">signed by the Cleveland Indians<\/a>\u00a0(now called Guardians) out of Venezuela in 2011, could not crack their major league roster and was left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft in 2016.<\/p>\n<h2>Blue Jays Now Pushing Top Luxury Tax Cutoff<\/h2>\n<p>The Orioles picked him up and Santander developed quickly. Now, the switch hitting slugger is reaping the financial benefits of that long wait for MLB success. But Santander\u2019s jackpot could now act as a handcuff on the Blue Jays, narrowing the field of teams likely to acquire the other top remaining free agent hitter still on the market, former Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman. It could also bring down Bregman\u2019s price as his market narrows, meaning that the New York Yankees who have been reluctant to part with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/mlb\/boston-red-sox\/alex-bregman-red-sox-going-hard-3-year-contract-offer\/\">$200 million the nine-year veteran<\/a>\u00a0is reportedly seeking.<\/p>\n<p>Toronto was reported to be in on the competition for Bregman, but with the signing of Santander, the Blue Jays\u2019 payroll will\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bnicholsonsmith\/status\/1881402126636892504\">now exceed the $261 million<\/a> set as the second threshold for the MLB Competitive Balance Tax (CBT), also known as the \u201cluxury tax,\u201d meaning that the team will incur additional financial penalties for the privilege of signing him.<\/p>\n<p>They will need to pay a 30 percent surcharge on payroll expenses over the first CBT threshold of $241 million, and now another 12 percent on expenditures over $261 million. According to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Canada\u2019s TV network SportsNet, the Blue Jays payroll after inking Santander sits at $263 million. That means in addition to the at least $6 million in \u201ctax\u201d they must pay for exceeding the first threshold, they just added another $240,000 for signing Santander.<\/p>\n<h2>Yankees Bregman Deal Now Possible Under These Conditions<\/h2>\n<p>To sign Bregman would mean pushing past the third CBT threshold, adding even more tax payments.<\/p>\n<p>The Yankees current 2025 payroll is s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/mlb\/new-york-yankees\/payroll\/_\/year\/2025\">lightly over $273 million<\/a>. To avoid topping the third threshold of $281 million they would need to bring in Bregman for a 2025 payroll sum of less than $8 million. That would likely involve giving the former Astro a contract with deferred payments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Yankees were never going to engage with Bregman on a long-term, Astros-topping deal, but as he flaps in the breeze, the door to a union might open just a crack if he begins to consider short-term deals with opt-outs attached,\u201d according to the Yankees blog\u00a0<em>Yankees Go Yard<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That means for New York, signing Bregman would probably be contingent on a trade that unloads at least a portion of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/mlb\/new-york-yankees\/marcus-stroman-trade-candidate\/\">Marcus Stroman\u2019s $18 million salary<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. With now\u00a0just 19 days to go\u00a0until MLB teams open spring training for the 2025 season, the big names in free agency&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Yankees Eye Top Free Agent After Toronto&#039;s Massive Deal \u2013 Game-Changer Ahead? - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20867\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Yankees Eye Top Free Agent After Toronto&#039;s Massive Deal \u2013 Game-Changer Ahead? - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. 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