C.J. Wilson to Angels

[AeroFishOne]

well for what it's worth, CJ said if it was just the money he'd be a Marlin right now. Said the Marlins were totally classy, the situation would've been great there too. Said it was a win-win with either team. And had the Angels not been involved he'd have gone with the Marlins.

 

Yeah, he called the Marlins 100% awesome and said he would have been the Marlins if it was any team but his hometown team going against them. Gotta give him props for going with his heart instead of the money, though.

 

The more I hear about it, the more I'm disappointed we didn't get him. Seems like a great guy and teammate. Hope he does well in Anaheim except against us.

[PurpleHaze]

well for what it's worth, CJ said if it was just the money he'd be a Marlin right now. Said the Marlins were totally classy, the situation would've been great there too. Said it was a win-win with either team. And had the Angels not been involved he'd have gone with the Marlins.

 

Yeah, he called the Marlins 100% awesome and said he would have been the Marlins if it was any team but his hometown team going against them. Gotta give him props for going with his heart instead of the money, though.

 

The more I hear about it, the more I'm disappointed we didn't get him. Seems like a great guy and teammate. Hope he does well in Anaheim except against us.

 

^^^ All of this

[Out of the Past]

Not taking significantly more money is a sign of poor judgment imo. Yeah its very heart warming that he wants to be home and all that. But giving up that kind of $ shows he doesnt understand his own value. Just my opinion. Suck it up not being home for 6 years.

 

If I had more money than I could ever spend and have enough left over that after I die my family will be set to live comfortably then I would live where I want to live.

[Hammerhead]

well for what it's worth, CJ said if it was just the money he'd be a Marlin right now. Said the Marlins were totally classy, the situation would've been great there too. Said it was a win-win with either team. And had the Angels not been involved he'd have gone with the Marlins.

 

Yeah, he called the Marlins 100% awesome and said he would have been the Marlins if it was any team but his hometown team going against them. Gotta give him props for going with his heart instead of the money, though.

Go figure that on a rare occasion where money isn't everything to the player, it goes against us.

[...]

We were unlucky. If it had been any one of the other 28 teams, he would be here. So it goes.

 

California's state income tax will whack him for about 10% instead of Florida's 0%, but that would only be on 81 home games, the road games in other tax jurisdictions average out about the same no matter who you play for. (I did a post on some other thread sometime ago summarizing the income tax rates in all of the possible MLB tax jurisdictions, damned if I can find it, search doesn't seem to work.)

 

In any case, that's about a 5% gross advantage overall.

 

But, all state income taxes are deductible on your federal income tax return if you itemize (and there's zero doubt that any MLB player will itemize.) Recovering 39.6% of state income taxes paid in the form of reduced federal income taxes nets the FL vs. CA state income tax saving down from about 5% to about 3% overall. (Isn't that nice? We, as Florida taxpayers subsidize high state income tax rates elsewhere.)

 

3% of 15 million is 450K per year. If we were going to pay him a million more (16 versus 15) per year, that would add ~600K after federal income taxes. Plus another 30K for the net state income tax differential.

 

He probably sacrificed somewhere between 450K and 1.08 million per year. Not something to sneeze at, I'd go for the additional money, but he obviously had other priorities.

 

To him it could have been 9 million net (ignoring agents and managers) and live in CA versus 10 million net and move to Miami. Since he'd probably be hard-pressed to make more than 50K per year if he weren't playing baseball, why would he care? Either way, he's fabulously wealthy beyond even his wildest dreams.

 

Not at all surprising that he'd opt for his home ground.

[Schnellders]

Not taking significantly more money is a sign of poor judgment imo. Yeah its very heart warming that he wants to be home and all that. But giving up that kind of $ shows he doesnt understand his own value. Just my opinion. Suck it up not being home for 6 years.

 

Not sure on this but he could have been an Angels fan as a kid and so then it would be understandable to take less money to play with them.

[Hotcorner]

Not taking significantly more money is a sign of poor judgment imo. Yeah its very heart warming that he wants to be home and all that. But giving up that kind of $ shows he doesnt understand his own value. Just my opinion. Suck it up not being home for 6 years.

 

If I had more money than I could ever spend and have enough left over that after I die my family will be set to live comfortably then I would live where I want to live.

Thats not how it works and he doesnt have more money than he could ever spend. If you can increase your net worth by a significant amount guarenteed, you do it. Not willing to sacrifice 6 years for millions of dollars is stupid. Plus he could have bought a house and stayed there in the offseason. Its very nice to hear these stories, but also painful.

 

that's not how "it" works? how what works? the guy can live however he wants, and like .... said, he's fabulously wealthy beyond his wildest dreams either way. This wasn't the difference between night and day here. Why not live and work where you want to? I understand you'd choose differently but to call it stupid is well... stupid.

[Hotcorner]

And the general belief that once you earn enough money to live a modest life than all other opportunities to earn money should be ignored. That's now how it works.

 

If he values 972 days away from home over 6 years more than millions of dollars then he's dumb.

 

 

 

a modest life, got it.

 

He's not ignoring it, he weighed his options and made a choice I assume based on the things that are important to him. Not the one you'd make clearly. Maybe not the one most of us would make. Still don't think that makes it stupid, we'll just disagree there.

 

But yes you're correct, it's possible to spend any amount of money. There you go.

[...]

a modest life, got it.

 

:lol

 

There certainly does seem to be a bit of disagreement about the definition of "modest."

 

Wilson will NET almost 40 million over 5 years after all federal and state income taxes (assumed to be about 46%, combined, net) and fees to his agent/managers (assumed to total about 5%.)

 

That will definitely put him in the top 1/10th of one percent of all US taxable incomes (that only takes about 2 million/year, more likely his 15.5 million gross means he's top 1/50th of one percent.) Way, way beyond allowing a "modest" lifestyle. With that kind of money, you can live any damned lifestyle you wish.

 

He's 31. When he starts signing one-year deals in 2016, there's still another 10 to 20 million net (maybe more) to be made.

 

As Wilson said, in Uggla-style, bumbling verbiage:

 

“Being close to home was the only factor that allowed me to make an emotional decision as opposed to a financial decision�

 

http://espn.go.com/b...place-like-home

 

Well, no. Assuming he's being quoted accurately, he's putting the cart before the horse. The gigantic pot-of-gold 77.5 million 5-year offer from the Angels was what allowed him to make an emotional decision to live close to home and ignore slightly more money (~10%) from the Marlins.

 

The article goes on to mention that "He’s a Taoist who follows the “Straight Edge� way of life, which discourages drug and alcohol use." The article doesn't mention that Taoism also eschews promiscuous sex and that Wilson is single.

 

Clearly, South Beach was not a selling point.

 

Over 5 years, the Marlins' offer was worth about 2.5 million of additional net income. The 6th year the Marlins offered is only significant if he gets injured or his performance declines precipitously, otherwise someone is going to be happy to pay him a lot of money year-by-year in 2016 and thereafter. Ask Jamie Moyer how that works.

 

Even if he manages to blow 10 million of his 40 million amusing himself with race cars (a hobby, he wants to turn pro after baseball) and whatever else over the next 5 years, he's still got 30 million earning income for him in 2016.

 

He could actually buy Miami-Dade Marlins' stadium bonds with it and have about 1.8 million a year of income with zero federal income taxes. If he buys California municipal bonds instead, his state tax bill would also be zero.

 

Almost 2 mill a year forever with no effort? Yeah, he could probably scrape by on that.

 

All while his 30 million of principal is intact. Not to mention baseball earnings from 2016 forward, endorsement earnings over the entire period commencing in 2012, and the investment income they will throw off. He's guaranteed to be wildly wealthy and set for life.

 

He strongly prefers to live in his home state. He's not a total moron likely to blow his entire 40 million. Why would he give a flying fig about a couple of extra million over 5 years from the Marlins?