Shit or get off the pot time for Moreno. Over the whole period of his ownership the mantra is: STAY BELOW THE LUXURY TAX LIMIT.
Which is OK, except for the fact that he then goes out and signs a few players at sky-high salaries, leaving peanuts for the rest of the team.
Presently Trout gets $35,450,000, Rindon gets $28,000,000, and Upton gets $23,000,000. A total of $86,450,000, leaving about $120,000,000 to be split among the 39 other players on the roster.
An average of about three million dollars per player. And you know what they say – if you need workers but are prepared to only pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys working for you.
Moreno recently closed a deal to buy the land on which the Big A is located for about one third of a billion bucks. A massive redevelopment scheme has been proposed:
Housing: 5,175 apartments and condominiums, including affordable apartments throughout.
Office: 7 million square feet Commercial: 1 million square feet of retail, restaurants, hotels.
Hotels: 943 rooms.
Parks: 5-acre urban park, plus at least 5 additional acres of community park space; city park requirement is 5 acres.
Parking: 12,500 spaces in structures, surface and underground
The entire project aims to create 45,000 jobs and have a $7 billion impact on the neighbourhood. Arte will make a pile.
Arte Moreno is rich and will get richer.
So – this off-season:
scrap the luxury tax salary limit and get some pitching, a SS, and upgrade the farm system to become one of the top three in MLB.
The outfield should one of the finer one since since Darrel Erstad, Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon.
The DH is “pretty good”.
First second and third (Walsh, Fletcher and Rindon) are solid.
Lots of good SS FAs on the market and the catcher is solid.
The potential to turn the team around dramatically is there; it is up to ownership to open up his wallet………..
I don’t have a problem with spending, 4 starting pitchers, 4 bullpen pieces and a shortstop should do. That’s all.