Red Sox nearly equal Yankees in future salary expenditures

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The New York Yankees may once have been dubbed the Evil Empire by a Red Sox executive, but that kingdom is ever so close to having a true financial rival in Boston.

The Red Sox, for the first time since the Yankees' dynasty began in 1996, have nearly as much money in future player commitments than the Yankees, according to salary figures filed to Major League Baseball and obtained by USA TODAY, as well as pending contract agreements.

The Red Sox have $594.75 million in salary commitments through 2018, not quite $19 million less than the Yankees' $613.28 million. The Yankees' committed dollars are just a little more than 3% greater than those of the Red Sox.

The Red Sox nearly caught the Yankees after reaching a seven-year, $142 million agreement with free-agent outfielder Carl Crawford Wednesday night.

UPDATE: The Red Sox said Saturday that Crawford receives a $6 million signing bonus and salaries of $14 million next season, $19.5 million in 2012, $20 million in 2013, $20.25 million in 2014, $20.5 million in 2015, $20.75 million in 2016 and $21 million in 2017. He also has a limited no-trade provision.

Boston earlier acquired first baseman Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego and reached a tentative agreement on a seven-year, $154 million extension.

Of course the Yankees, who earlier re-signed Derek Jeter and reached agreement with Mariano Rivera on $81 million in contracts, could soon blow the Red Sox out of the water yet again. They are trying to sign free agent starter Cliff Lee to a contract that likely will exceed $140 million.

The Yankees and Red Sox, alone, have 16 players who will earn at least $9 million in salary next season. The rest of the AL East division has just three players with that distinction.

It was Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino who dubbed the Yankees the "Evil Empire" in 2002. And as recently as 2005, the gap between the two clubs' single-season payrolls was nearly $85 million -- with the Yankees weighing in at $208 million, the Red Sox at $123 million.

Now, as evidenced by the similarity between their first basemen's salaries, it's getting harder to tell the two apart, and the middleweights of the AL East are growing ever more concerned.

"We're going to start a mid-Atlantic states division,'' Baltimore Orioles president Andy MacPhail said.

By Bob Nightengale