Thursday, November 10, 2022

Starter Jacob deGrom passed Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera in career innings. What's deGrom worth?

Mariano Rivera was elected to the Hall of Fame despite pitching only 1,283 career regular season innings, plus another 141 in the post season. Rivera pitched at least 100 innings only once when he was a setup man in his second season. Rivera pitched in 1,115 games but started only 10. Rivera was credited with 652 saves. ERA+ 202

Babe Ruth pitched 1,221 innings in the regular season, plus 31 in the World Series, 29 of which were consecutive shutout innings. Ruth pitched over 300 innings twice. ERA+ 122. Ruth also hit 714 Home Runs in the regular season and another 18 in the World Series. He was elected to the Hall of Fame.

Jacob deGrom`s 64 innings in 2022 finally pushed him passed Mariano Rivera in career regular season innings: 1,326 to 1,283. But deGrom has only 31 post season innings, so Rivera still leads deGrom in total innings: 1,424 to 1,357.

deGrom has thrown fewer than 100 regular season innings in each of the last three seasons. He did throw over 200 regular season innings in each of the previous three seasons and over 140 innings in each of the three seasons before that. ERA+ 155.

deGrom won the Cy Young award in 2018 and 2019 with ERA+ 218 and 169 but only 10 and 11 wins. In his 300 inning seasons Babe Ruth won 23 and 24 games.

deGrom will be 35 on June 19, 2023. How does it make any sense to pay him $40 million for each of the next few seasons, especially if that causes the team to pay the luxury tax?

Competitive Balance Tax ("luxury tax")

Each year, clubs that exceed a predetermined payroll threshold are subject to a Competitive Balance Tax -- which is commonly referred to as a "luxury tax." Those who carry payrolls above that threshold are taxed on each dollar above the threshold, with the tax rate increasing based on the number of consecutive years a club has exceeded the threshold...

The following thresholds were put in place per the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement:

2022: $230 million
2023: $233 million
2024: $237 million
2025: $241 million
2026: $244 million

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