The Pujols Contract, part II

Last week I posted about the Albert Pujols contract when it looked like it was down to the Marlins and Cardinals.  I was definitely a little taken aback by the sudden announcement of the Angels contract.

The post centered around a claim that Pujols would be paying way more in state taxes in St. Louis.  I got a comment, which is still rare on my blog, asking about the difference from the Angels, so I figured I might as well run the numbers.  Here they are.

City	State	Rate	Angels	Income	Tax	Cardinals	Income	Tax
HOU	TX	0.00%				9	12.22	0
MIA	FL	0.00%				4	5.43	0
SEA	WAS	0.00%	10	16.08	0
TB	FL	0.00%	3	4.82	0
TEX	TX	0.00%	10	16.08	0
PHI	PA	3.07%				3	4.07	0.13
PIT	PA	3.07%				6	8.15	0.25
DET	MI	4.35%	7	11.25	0.49	3	4.07	0.18
ARI	AZ	4.54%				3	4.07	0.18
COL	CO	4.63%	3	4.82	0.22	3	4.07	0.19
CHC	IL	5%				9	12.22	0.61
CHW	IL	5%	3	4.82	0.24
BOS	MA	5.30%	3	4.82	0.26
BAL	MD	5.50%	2	3.22	0.18
CIN	OH	5.93%				9	12.22	0.72
CLE	OH	5.93%	6	9.65	0.57
ATL	GA	6%				3	4.07	0.24
KC	MO	6%	3	4.82	0.29	3	4.07	0.24
STL	MO	6%				81	110.00	6.60
MIL	WI	7.75%				6	8.15	0.63
MIN	MN	7.85%	6	9.65	0.76
DC	DC	8.50%				4	5.43	0.46
NYM	NY	8.97%				4	5.43	0.49
NYY	NY	8.97%	6	9.65	0.87
LAA	CA	9.30%	81	130.22	12.11
LAD	CA	9.30%	3	4.82	0.45	7	9.51	0.88
OAK	CA	9.30%	9	14.47	1.35
SD	CA	9.30%	3	4.82	0.45	3	4.07	0.38
SF	CA	9.30%				2	2.72	0.25
TOR	Canada, eh		4	0	0
			158	254	18.22	162	220	12.45
					Profit of LAA over STL			28.22

To deal with the fact that the Angels do travel to Toronto, I just spread the income over just the 158 games in the US.  This essentially treats Toronto as the weighted average of the other games.  I'm sure it doesn't throw off the end number by much, but I have no idea what those games do to the tax bill.

This contract was also $34 Million more than the reported $220 Million Cardinals offer.  If the Cardinals had decided to match it, Albert would have been $3.85 Million better off in St Louis, due to the high tax rates in California (although somewhat alleviated by the games in Texas).  In fact, for $249.92 Million, the Cardinals could have had Albert for the same after-state-tax price.  That high tax average may come down a bit once Houston moves to the AL West, however, giving him another in-division 0% tax opponent.

In the end, Albert didn't have to look at nickels and dimes, or even hundreds of thousands, to make his decision.  He got tens of millions more, and I hope he's happy in Southern California.  I also hope the Cardinals are ultimately happy with their decision. Landing Pujols would have certainly cost a lot of money, but would have paid some returns in ticket sales and wins.  Hopefully we'll be able to parlay some of that money into 2 or 3 good players to help the team win even more.