The Yankees have been uncharacteristically quiet on the free agent front over the past couple of years, instead leaning towards obtaining compensation draft picks and developing prospects. It appears this mantra will continue, at least for the foreseeable future since there are still some big money contracts on the books.
Hal steinbreener: “i’m not comfortable with the payroll being too much higher than it is now.” #yanks
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 20, 2016
This offseason, the Yankees didn’t even crack the top seven highest spending teams:
Updated free-agent commitments this off-season: CHC: $276.25M, DET $272.25M, SF $251M, BOS $230M, BAL $214.8M, AZ $206.5M, KC $178.5M/
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 19, 2016
Fans who cry about the contracts of CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira are the same ones who want the team to go out and spend $200M over 7-8 years on the ace pitcher or power OF bat. You can’t have it both ways.
The luxury tax also plays a big role in free agent decisions now. Remember when the organization tried to get under the $189M threshold? That was to reset the penalty. This season, the team paid $26M in luxury tax (Dodgers paid a record $43.7M – yikes!).
The Yankees, at least on the surface, are trying to grow their own prospects, who can produce at a high-level but also come at a cheap price tag. It’s looking more and more that when the big contracts expire, that’s when they’ll supplement the young talent (Greg Bird, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez etc) with a big free agent (cough Bryce Harper cough). Unfortunately for the fan base, that won’t happen until 2017-2018.
Back when the Yankees were winning 95-plus games every year, you had the Core Four (plus Bernie), and then veteran guys who were added via trade or free agency. The Yankees have entered a new era, and are hoping that by doing the same thing that history can repeat itself.
Steinbrenner has continuously said he doesn’t believe the team needs a $200M payroll to win a World Series, as evidenced by the Kansas City Royals recent run of success. While it may not be the sexy way of going about building a team, it might be the smartest.
For Yankees fans and the win-now attitude that comes with the New York market, It’s going to take some time to get used to.
