The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) mandated that there would be a $197 million tax cap for the competitive balance tax (CBT) during the 2018 season, and when the dust settled for the Washington Nationals, they did not get below the CBT limit after trading Brandon Kintzler, the DFA of Shawn Kelley, and the waiver-claims and trades of Daniel Murphy, Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Madson and the waiver claim of Matt Adams. In the end, according to our sources the team’s final payroll was $204,953,657 which was $7,953,657 dollars above the CBT limit which resulted in a 30% tax penalty ($2,386,097) that the Nationals had to pay according to the Associated Press via ESPN. The penalty payment is due on January 21, 2019. Also per the AP, the Nationals had the second highest payroll in 2018 only trailing the Boston Red Sox. Continue reading
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.