The Boston Red Sox will venture back into luxury tax territory in 2018 after ducking the threshold last year to reset the penalties levied against repeat offenders. We expected this would happen. The only question was how far would their spending go.
The signing fo J.D. Martinez pushes Boston’s payroll well beyond the $197 million tax threshold this year. The penalties vary depending on how far over the tax teams go and how many consecutive seasons they have gone over the threshold.
As a first time offender, the Red Sox would pay a 20 percent base tax for going over the threshold by less than $20 million.