LA Angels Tuesday News Crash: Awardless

I know the hitting instructor for a pile of MLB hitters. Two of them are ex-MVPs, so they have money. He’s told me he asks why none of them will play in California, mostly because it would make his in-season life easier. A couple of these guys are from here.

They laugh and mention the taxes… and one of the MVPs said he can winter anywhere. The taxes matter. Not just the tax on their salary, but apparently it also matters when you are trying to maybe invest in other areas of life with all that baseball money. I may think I wouldn’t care if I had 200M but apparently I would.

Instructor also told me a lot of players actually are VERY aware of how much they pay in taxes and get kind of hung up on how a place like California spends their huge tax gouge. He thinks they make too big a deal out of that cause most states suck. But I also get it. If you are literally taking 10M off me every year and I don’t see where ANY of that money is doing anything good I might get a little uptight.

It sounds like, unless a player is getting an extra huge contract or thinks he’s much more likely to win a ring California teams are kind of boned. It’s not just us. Look how easy a time the Giants have getting players to sign… Padres too to an extent. It’s not like it’s impossible. But San Francisco, San Diego, Orange County? Those are desirable places who mostly have good fans but they don’t seem to land the bigger names all that easy.