Could Obama speed up the free agency process?

With President-Elect Barack Obama set to take office on Jan. 20th, 2009, some big baseball deals may want to hurry the process along to see as much of that money as possible.

I don't want to get political here, so just stick with me. Feel free to post your love / hate for politics in the comments.

Obama has planned to raise the federal income tax rate from it's current 35 percent up to 39.6 percent. This may not affect you and me, but for the multi-million dollar deals that go down in Major League Baseball, this is a big issue.

From the AP:

Next year's major league minimum is $400,000. Agent Scott Boras, negotiating eight- and possibly nine-figure deals for free agents Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira, already has thought about the possibility of asking for larger signing bonuses payable this year in some of his contracts.

"There's some consideration to be had with the impact of the election," he said.

Free agents can't start negotiating money with all teams until Nov. 14. Only a relatively small percentage of contracts are finalized before Jan. 1.

Still, for a big-money free agent earning $10 million in 2009, Obama's plan could increase his federal tax by more than $400,000.

I never really thought about how the election affects baseball and it's players, mostly because they earn enough money as it is. Still, it should be interesting to see if any players jump right in to save a chunk of change on their new contract.