For the most recognizable and successful singular brand of the last century in North American professional sports, the New York Yankees sure sound like they do not want to be the preeminent force on the open market — a role they once dominated with little competition.
A slow start to the offseason and inactivity at the Winter Meetings down in Orlando prompted general manager Brian Cashman to play damage control. Instead, he’s implying that a franchise valued at $8.4 billion lacks the resources to improve the team.
“Fans don’t really care about those details. They want what they want,” Cashman said on Wednesday (h/t Brendan Kuty). “Ultimately, what we both want is to have a team that’s going to rack up the win totals to push themselves into the postseason and win it all. But it’s just the nature of the beast where you get into the frenzy of the winter times. ‘Anything at all costs, doesn’t matter.’ But in reality, it does matter. Everything adds up. Everything counts. We’re an aggressive franchise, but while being aggressive, we already have some very large commitments, and the more of those you have, the more impact it affects you in other areas. So everything is tied together.”
The Yankees already have significant big-money deals on their books, including the final installments of Giancarlo Stanton’s mega-deal, Aaron Judge’s $350 million pact, Gerrit Cole’s $324 million contract, and Max Fried’s $218 million deal. But what is currently in place is simply not good enough. The American League is by far the more winnable circuit compared to the National League, and the Yankees are wasting what should have been a window of dominance.
They followed up their first American League pennant in 15 years in 2024 by getting dominated by the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS just two months ago.
We all know that George Steinbrenner would not have let this happen.
Instead, his son Hal continues to cry poverty, even going as far as saying in late November that he would ideally like to see the team’s payroll go down.
“That’s not a fair statement or an accurate statement,” Steinbrenner said when asked about profits. “Everybody wants to talk about revenues. They need to talk about our expenses, including the $100 million expense to the City of New York that we have to pay every Feb. 1, including the COVID year. So it all starts to add up in a hurry.”
Back to the Yankees’ inactivity at the Winter Meetings this week, Cashman added that the market is moving at a “glacial” pace and that they are not involved in much at this time. Partly because he has not been given the green light to spend without many limits.
“Our ownership has obviously demonstrated year in and year out how massively committed they are, but at the same time, that’s not an open, blank checkbook, either,” he said.
On the trade market, they are not being permitted to pay pennies on the dollar in potential trades for big-name players, as they normally do.
“We’re just staying engaged, trying to match up with some things, but it’s been tough so far,” he continued. “Don’t like the asks coming our way, and I guess the opposing teams don’t like what I’m trying to pull from them on the trade stuff. We do have some conversations that possibly could lead somewhere.”
