Timing of A-Rod decision has to be just right for cost-saving Yankees

It is not quite wait until next year yet for the Yankees. They are just close enough to a wild-card spot with just enough games against divisional foes remaining to continue a playoff chase that falls somewhere between long shot and delusion.

So they will not be dealing any veterans before the Aug. 31 playoff-eligibility deadline like the Mets did in moving Marlon Byrd and John Buck to Pittsburgh.

But let us not kid ourselves. The Yankees front office could insist the entire organization is invested in only the here and now. However, it is thinking plenty already about next year's club.

Anthony J Causi

Alex Rodriguez

Except here is a key: One of the most important factors in how the 2014 Yankees are constructed and the time frame in which the organization could do the heavy lifting is completely out of its control.

It remains a possibility Alex Rodriguez wants to play the rest of this season and then will be more amenable to working out a settlement of what is his pending 211-game suspension. For now, though, his side has vowed to fight to conclusion and so has the Commissioners Office. And that conclusion, both sides plus the players' union concur, will not come before November and possibly not even December.

And the later the date, the worse and worse for the Yankees.

Look, it is possible the Yankees are going to blow up plans to get under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold for next season. In 2008, the Yanks didn't make the playoffs for the only time in the last two decades and responded by spending $423.5 million on Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. But they did have the pressure point of opening a new stadium in 2009 with exorbitant prices, which pushed them to field a no-doubt contender loaded with stars.

This time around there is no such overt pressure point. I am hearing even the more financially aggressive members of the organization talk about the significant long-term value of getting under $189 million next year, which — among other things — would save $40 million-ish in 2014 payroll and $20 million-ish in tax.

It also means the next time the Yankees go over the threshold the tax would re-set at 17.5 percent rather than 50 percent. And so, for example, if Clayton Kershaw or Max Scherzer or both actually get out into the free-agent market after the 2014 season, then you would see the Yanks flexing $400 million-ish in muscle again, because the penalty would be so much less.

No single action would make getting under the $189 million goal easier than if Rodriguez's suspension is upheld in full or even is minimized to just next year. That not only would erase $27.5 million from the ledger. But also the threat of a $6 million bonus should Rodriguez pass Willie Mays' 660-homer mark next season. That's right — there are scenarios in which Rodriguez could cost the Yankees zero next year or $33.5 million, which is 17.7 percent of the whole $189 million by itself. Or maybe something in between, if arbitrator Fredric Horowitz lowers the penalty to, say, 50 or 100 games.