Comments on: The Yankees have become cheap, and no one seems worried

By: Gregg

Gregg — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 18:48:47 +0000

Great article! However I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they are cheap. I really think it’s a shift in philosophy towards a winning formula built through all levels of the organization. Free agent signings come with more than just a financial cost. They also, in some cases, come with the cost of having to give up the compensatory draft pick. I think the Yankees are placing a much higher value on retaining their draft position in the upper rounds in order to add depth to a thin farm system.

By: brian

brian — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 06:39:44 +0000

Amen. There is a reason why they say Yankees fans are the most informed baseball fans in the world.

By: brian

brian — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 06:30:14 +0000

People complain about the Yankees when they are spending calling them the evil empire and they buy championships. Now they are being much smarter bout their investments and they still get this garbage? Where do you think those lucxury tax dollars go? They go to the smaller market teams . the Yankees competition. Baseball is the only business where if you are extremely successful you have to pay your competition to help them compete against you. If you don’t see why they want to get under the luxury tax tresholf you are a moron. We got 2 errenial all stars and a young payer with huge upside this offseson without spending a dime. That’s smart business and Boston can bring in davifd price and anyone else they won’t. The Yankees will be taking the division this year

By: JJ Morales

JJ Morales — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 02:39:02 +0000

I enjoyed this article very much. I think very valid and interesting points. While I am OK with the Yankees being a little cheap and I think his last point regarding spending and not having anything to show for it is very much how I’ve felt. It is still true that the Yanks absolutely could spend a little more which could possibly translate to additional wins and perhaps even winning the wildcard game. The one absolute is The Boss would NEVER sit on his hands for the amount of time that his boys are. Winning was always the goal and money simply came along with it. Which still remains true today. So if the Yankees spend and that translates to another championship it only makes the Steinbrenners more money. So where exactly is the downside?

By: 4cornersfan

4cornersfan — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 18:42:19 +0000

Alex, you have thought through and clearly identified several things about the new Yankee method of building a team that the rest of us have been carrying around in the back of our minds. One other thing that needs to be mentioned is the fact that for the first time in decades the organizational head of the Yankees has to answer to shareholders. George Steinbrenner was the unquestioned head of the organization and answered to no one. Hal Steinbrenner has relatives who have a vote on how the team is run, and some of them may have agendas where winning the World Series is secondary.

By: John Bertolero

John Bertolero — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 17:37:56 +0000

Alex, just because you can spend a ton of money on some of the players you mentioned, doesnt mean you should. All of those players are not any better than the players they have and at a cheaper price. All the moves you want are bad moves. Cashman knows what he is doing, how many titles have you won?

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 13:47:55 +0000

The Yankees haven’t done dittly squat I like to see the Yankees be contenders cashman and girardi needs to go bring in Lou pinella to turn this team around they are not listening to what daddy says daddy wants to spend and he benefits from it the kids are not spending do what your told George wants the best players go and get them read my lips GO AND GET THEM

By: Jeffrey M

Jeffrey M — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 13:40:45 +0000

Maybe a follow up or add on article explaining the flip side to this story which is that when you add in the luxury tax, revenue sharing and competitive balance fees that the Yankees essentially pay to other teams, and count those in the Yankees Payroll numbers they actually pay more than most if not all teams. Also adding those numbers back in to the other teams revenue or at least acknowledging that the Yankees and other higher revenue teams do “subsidize” the rest of the teams so it’s unfair to take pure player salaries because the Yankees and and soon the Dodgers pay $.50 on every dollar over the $189 million. That’s a huge tax by itself, and compounding with the revenue sharing and other competitive balance issues the Yankees do help pay all the other teams players in some ways …. An article looking at that aspect might not be sensationalist like this one but it WOULD open the eyes of a lot of fans that have no idea of the “nitty gritty” world of baseball finance. I, for one, always welcome articles in which I learn something valuable. Your article would have been much better in my book had there not been the obvious bias and the numbers are great when they tell a true story. The numbers you listed didn’t really in fact give the whole story and that is where my interest and appreciation as a reader gets lost. But then again it may get more page views being biased since everyone loves to hate the Yankees.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 13:17:42 +0000

I am a Yankees fan and have been all my life. I feel that the Yankees are being smart this offseason and planning for bigger things to come. You make being cheap sound like a sin, concluding the owners are just cheap and greedy, and I really don’t agree.
They are being cheap, but being cheap now is what will ultimately make the Yankees a powerhouse a few years from now. I’m not saying the Yankees are a lock to get someone like a Bryce Harper in 2018 free agency, which would be great, but I love what Cashman is doing with the Yankees team. There are many big contracts that need to go away such as Sabathia, A Rod, and Teixeira; however, they have made many nice additions like Castro, Hicks and Chapman without losing major prospects.
With Cashman loading the team with younger, cheaper talent now, he will be able to sign most, if not all of them back to bigger contracts later. Then when the Yankees have Judge, Bird, and Severino all playing major roles on the ball club(as well as possibly Mateo, Sanchez, Kaprielian and Refsnyder), Cashman will be able to bolster the team with free agent additions to complement the team. I’m excited for what the Yankees future holds with their youth movement.

By: Nick Sapata

Nick Sapata — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 11:12:00 +0000

I’m sorry, but the Yankees are anything but cheap. I understand your reasoning however if you didn’t notice the team is 2nd in all of baseball payroll wise. Most teams don’t even have the luxury of spending as much as the Yankees have right now let alone going beyond that. Even though the Yankees can spend money doesn’t mean that they should. Even though they cannot say it, they are not a World Series contending team right now and won’t be until those bad contract come off the books. The team is locked in with certain players at certain positions. They have no flexibility to add a player in the infield right now, the outfield is overcrowded. They need to make room for the homegrown talent. I assure you around 2018-2019 when the new players have come up to the majors and all of those contracts are gone that’s when the spending will start to fill in holes or even make upgrades. But at the moment no they are not being cheap. In fact this even shows how pampered Yankees fans are. When they complain about not spending money with a 200 million + payroll, and how the Yankees keep missing the postseason ( if you don’t count this year it has only been 3 years). Yankees fans just need to realize it’s part of the plan to not have a team filled with overpaid veterans, and having a homegrown young team.