After the Yankees worked to get under the luxury tax limit last offseason, many New York fans expected a classic Bronx Bombers spending spree this winter, particularly with Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in the free agent market. While that type of splurge hasn’t happened, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner rejected criticism that his team hasn’t been willing to spend. “I mean, we’re well above $200 million [in payroll] — we’re at $220 [million] right now — and we’re well above where we were last year,” Steinbrenner told ESPN News Services and other outlets. (Roster Resource projects the Yankees’ at a little under $203MM in dollars, though at just over $217MM in terms of luxury tax value.)
“I think we’ve definitely got a better club Opening Day than we did opening day last year, particularly in pitching, which is my biggest area of concern,” Steinbrenner said. In regards to the argument that the Yankees’ enormous revenues should necessitate a league-high payroll, Steinbrenner also pointed to the team’s high costs, as well as future money that is being earmarked to retain members of its young core. That said, Steinbrenner also didn’t rule out the possibility of more notable additions: “I’m never done until I’m done, and that’s usually not until Opening Day. Proposals come to me every day with these guys, between the analytics guys and the pro scouting guys, and I’m going to consider every single one of them.”
Here’s more from around the AL East…
- The Blue Jays have shown interest in veteran reliever Sergio Romo, Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman tweeted earlier this week. Romo is close to signing a new contract, as per Heyman’s earlier reports, though the mystery team may not necessarily be Toronto, as multiple clubs have been engaged in pursuit of the right-hander. Romo, who turns 36 next month, posted a 4.14 ERA, 3.75 K/BB rate, and 10.0 K/9 over 67 1/3 innings for Tampa Bay last season, which included 25 saves and five “starts” as the Rays’ opener. It isn’t out of the question that the Jays could also look to deploy Romo as an opener, given the number of young arms in Toronto’s starting mix as well as the veterans (Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Clayton Richard, Matt Shoemaker) who carry some injury-related question marks. It’s probably more likely, however, that the Jays see Romo as an experienced bullpen addition, in the same vein as their signings of Seunghwan Oh, J.P. Howell, and Joe Smith in the last two offseasons. By that same ilk, Romo could also become a trade chip for Toronto by midseason.
- The Rays are on the verge of a new TV contract that should be finalized sometime during the 2019 season, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. The team’s last deal with Fox Sports Sun expired at the end of last season, and the two sides have agreed to “basically…a placeholder deal” for the coming year while the new contract is completed. Some notable obstacles remain, however, such as the exact length of the deal, as well as bigger-picture issues as the sale of Fox Sports Sun and other regional Fox cable networks, plus how the threat of the Rays leaving the Tampa/St. Petersburg area could impact the contract. “There still things in flux,” Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said, though “It’s going to happen. There’s a structure of a deal.” Exact figures of the new contract aren’t likely to be revealed, though Sternberg estimates the Rays will rank around 20th of the 30 teams in terms of TV revenue — the previous contract paid the Rays around $30MM per season, ranking them near the bottom of the league. Previous reports indicated that the Rays would earn $82MM per year on the next contract, though Sternberg says the actual total is “well, well, well under” that figure, and some of the expected increase has already gone into player payroll. “Much of the reason we’ve spent all that we have is because we knew we had some more revenue (coming) off of TV. Unfortunately [the contract is] going to fall reasonably short of what we anticipated four years ago,” Sternberg said.
- Under GM Mike Elias, the revamped Orioles’ front office has taken a big step towards modern statistical analysis, though some seeds towards this direction were planted last summer before Elias was hired. As Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun notes, several young pitchers acquired by the O’s last summer were obtained from teams (such as the Dodgers, Braves, and Yankees) that have already embraced analytics, leaving the prospects already well-versed in modern data and eager to learn more. “I’m big into the new analytics and stuff like that, so I like to see the data that I produce, I guess, with how my pitches play off each other,” said right-hander Dean Kremer, one of the youngsters Baltimore acquired from Los Angeles in the Manny Machado trade in July.
K.
MLB baseball and all of the small market teams have been sucking blood off the New York Yankees for the last 15 years. The truth is the Yankees make baseball go. It’s the media capital of the world.
The Yankees are good for baseball. All of these other major league teams are taking advantage of the Yankees. I assure you they feel no sympathy what so ever.
I compare it with like being a McDonald’s but having to give percentage of their profits to Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s Shake Shack and every other smaller fast food joint who do not invest the money in themselves or run their operations as well in MLB owners case either by ignorance or purposely.
Many of these owners are very wealthy. They are cheating their fans into making profits over performance. If you are going to throw blame around quit throwing it on the Yankees and their profits. How would you like to run a business work your tail off to build a professional entity then share your hard work profits with your competitors? Think about that the next time you want to knock your own team the Yankees and it’s management/ownership. In short go be a Rays Fan or Tiger fan see how happy you would be.
The Yankees must be so good that they could play all by themselves! Oh wait…
When you watch a road game in Baltimore, Tampa, Miami and a few other markets and you see and hear more Yankee fans than that of the home team then you understand what he means. In addition, the Yanks have paid 100’s of millions in lux tax and revenue sharing to it’s competition.
Regardless, the Yanks are spending well over $200 mil and I can’t be mad because they choose nor to go over $250 just because they can. having the highest payroll doesn’t guarantee a championship. Being able to field a talented team and having payroll flexibility that can allow you to strike big for a marquee player when it’s the right time is an invaluable situation to be in.
Not just good but historically great 27 Word Championships 40 AL pennants 18 AL East Titles 7 Wild Card to be exact.
I take it you represent a Shake Shack or Happy Burger type baseball team. If you have a team with a better history I’d invite you to share their history stats aka talk the talk now walk the walk.
Based on what I’m hearing, payroll flexibility should never be an issue for the Yankees and their unlimited resources.
Wonder how many ppl that post on this board were alive when 1.. Most 2 of those titles were won.
I been to plenty of playoff and W.S. games I guess folks who cheer for teams like Phillies 2 W.S in 133 years or White Sox 2 in 118 years are all likely dead including the past owners managers and players.
They won in 2009 so I’m guessing the vast majority are over 10 years old. Before that, it was 2000, 19 years old, when they won their 4th title in 5 years. I’d guess well over 50% are 23 or older and that give the Yankees 5 titles. In those 23 years, (using the baseball strike and canceled WS as the cutoff), the Yanks have the 5 titles, 7 pennants, and 13 division titles. They’ve had a winning record every year in those 23 years, finished 3rd or lower in the division 3 times and only hit double figures in games out of first twice, (12 both times), For comparison in the past 23 years the Red Sox have 4 titles, 3 last place finishes, 5 times finishing under .500, and 4 times finished 20 or more games out of first in the division.
At the beginning, you forget a comma after MLB? Was it suppose to be “MLB, baseball and”. Cause MLB stands for Major League Baseball, so what you wrote was Major League Baseball baseball.
Forgive me been typing since 4 am I will do better next time Professor
Thank you for asking rjsuitor what the punctuation was SUPPOSED to be in his prior post, sadosfan.
Yeah, the Yankees bring in a lot of extra money that everyone gets a piece of, but the McDonalds analogy is ridiculous. McDonalds doesn’t depend on the other chains to supply half of every burger they sell, that’s why they don’t have to share anything with them. The Yankees don’t have a product to sell if the other clubs don’t supply half the players in every Yankee game.
We could do without any of the small market cry babies team owners. If you can’t afford to play in the sandbox get out. Yankees shouldn’t have to share any of their profits other then normal game splits.
I was referring to Luxury Tax and revenue shares of MLB
Every other MLB team want’s the Yankees to come to their stadiums many otherwise mostly empty because the Yankees are the biggest draw. They make far more from the Yankees then the Yankees make from them.
McDonalds vs Joe’s Happy Burger
Very happy being a Tiger’s fan. I am sure you can’t possibly fathom that.
The Yankees have the largest market, period. That’s an advantage, whether you want to admit it or not. When the Giants and Dodgers left town, it gave the Yankees exclusive loyalty. The Mets being added later, was too late to divide that loyalty, after the head start the Yankees were given. Unless MLB goes to complete revenue sharing, the Yankees will always have this advantage. Are the Yankees the “best run” team? That’s something that’s difficult to quantify. Can they spend more money on payroll as they have more revenue streams? Absolutely. Considering how many young players they have on their roster, its amazing how their payroll is over $200mm. I’m aware the Tiger’s, because of the market they are in, cannot/could not consistently be in that stratosphere of payroll. It was nice while it lasted, and makes each win over the Yankees that much sweeter.
I could not fathom it because I grew up hating the Detroit Tigers. I don’t even not like Paws for all I care he can tumble down down off the dugout where he makes a fool out of himself and breaks his fool hardy neck.
Other then Tigers clown show on the field I thought the highlight of the season was Tigers laughing stock of baseball broadcast announcers to see your deliriously bored half witted TV announcers Mario and Rod duke it out in the broadcast booth.
More to the clown show are those awful contracts the Tigers have with players nobody in baseball want to touch. Other then Nick Castellanos a very decent hitter who sadly couldn’t play anywhere on the diamond to save his life the Tigers are the equivalent of a minor league ball club
Between your owners Pizza Pizza family so busy getting high and stoned out of their mind could give to shakes of a Tigers tail about the ball club.
What is adds up to is you are in for years of misery with the Detroit Puddy Tats I would highly recommend you pick a new team to cheer for. We would consider having you for a Yankee fan but we don’t need anymore complainers….Maybe you can cheer on the White Caps or Loons for amusement…Good luck you’ll need it
Dude I have been screaming that from the rooftops. There should be a salary cap floor. I find it disgusting that there are half empty buildings and the Yankees still have to fork over cash. They should be forced to sell 70% of all of their tickets for the season in order to maintain the revenue sharing.
The floor is a bad idea. When bad teams have to give bad contracts to bad players it destroys the market in a bad way.
Yankees and others handing money over to “small market teams” that pocket the money isn’t fair either. There should be less punishment for teams willing to spend, and if MLB wants more competitive balance then hurt the big spending teams at the draft rather than take their money away.
First I’ll be honest–I’m a Red Sox fan and I loathe the Yankees because of the exact argument you’re making. I’ll spare you this–call it sour grapes or whatever you want.
Many Yankee fans that love to spout those bloated championship stats, and sadly many people chose the team because of them.
But please don’t be delusional. Don’t make the mistake of believing that organization has somehow always been savvier or better run than other teams. They are based in NY, for many years the largest market…and that is it. They weren’t run better. They haven’t been smarter. They simply had more resources.
McDonalds can exist without Burger King but the Yankees can’t exist without the A’s, Marlins, Royals and Rays. It’s a closed system, not an open market.
Let’s be straight, too:. NYY have one championship this century–after spending a half a billion for it. And looking a little further back…
1977&78: This was the beginning of free agency and NYY were right out there writing the checks other teams couldn’t.
1998-2000: How many ‘prohibitively expensive roid heads did they buy for their bench? (And pssst don’t tell anyone but those bench players that lengthened the lineup are the “ghosts.”)
And here is the biggest point:
Pre-1970: do any of these “championships” prior to integration even matter? And this was the time where they REALLY had the most unfair advantage. You’re proud of how many of these?
First of all
Fact: Boston Red Sox fans are completely preoccupied by the N.Y. Yankees. more so then Yankees are of who? Oh yes forgot Boston Red Sox
Fact Lets not forget your Red Sox are the highest based salary team in MLB. It’s only going to be worse when your top guys opt out of their contracts it’s coming.
Fact Red Sox have won 9 WS titles Yankees 27
Fact Red Sox have won 14 Pennants Yankees 40
Fact Red Sox have won 10 Division Titles Yankees 18
Fact Red Sox have won 7 wild cards Yankees 7 wild cards
Fact Red Sox do not lead in any of these categories that demonstrate a franchise history and culture of wining. The Yankees do.
Fact: People around the entire planet who do not follow baseball or know very little about baseball can tell you Babe Ruth Lou Gehrig Joe DiMaggio and Micky Mantle. Almost none will say Ted Williams. They know the New York Yankees hardly none say Boston Red Sox
Fact: I never heard a top song say Where have you gone Ted Williiams the nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you. Most people who know music could tell you one song they know for sure Simon and Garfunkle Mrs. Robinson says where have you gone Joe DiMaggio now don’t they?
Fact: New York City makes Boston look like a farm town in comparison. Boston is obsessed with the City of New York.
Fact Boston Red Sox are a fine baseball club. I never said anything negative about them in my post on this blog article. I only mentioned facts of the New York Yankees not one lie. I have nothing personally against them. Unlike you who seemed obsessed about being negative against the Yankees like I just mentioned in the list of facts above or other posts here was pure fact. This further demonstrates my fact was correct.Boston fans are obsessed about the Yankees.
Fact: While Yankees have a young core of young talented players on our Roster with quite a few more years of low salaries the Red Sox have maxed out on their spending just like your GM Dave Dembrowski did in Detroit left them desolate and I highly suspect patterns of behavior follow the same as in the Red Sox will go Detroit Tigers mode in not too distant future. I know it you know it and so does everyone else.
Fact: The Red Sox have done very little to improve this winter because they are financially maxed out, while leading all of MLB in salaries. Something is going to give.
Fact Red Sox farm system is horrible. Rated one of the lowest in MLB While The Yankees were rated one of the best farm systems. Despite all of Yankee trades and graduations to the MLB roster the Yankees still have a deep farm system all the way down to the lowest rookie leagues with talent despite never getting great draft advantages of most of the other MLB clubs.
Now tell me what is not fact around here. Kindly keep yourself occupied with your Red Sox and I will do the same about the Yankees since prior your rude interruption I not once mentioned or said anything derogatory about the Red Sox in all of these posts except for now. only with pure facts when you insisted on bringing it all to my attention.
I am a Yankees fan. I could hardly care about previous championships though. The past doesn’t matter much, or help predict the future. A lot of people like to pretend it does. Integration was 1947 though. Do the years between 1948 and 1970 not count?
Hello Oxford. That is of course your opinion and perfectly welcome to it. The past present and future matter to me.
Perhaps you would be happy as a lark being a Phillies fan 2 World Series championships in 133 years. Maybe you would love to be a White Sox fan 3 Championships in 118 years.
I am sure that is what attracts both Harper and Machado to the Phillies and White Sox franchises is their deep history of dedicated to professionalism and winning tradition. Without the dollars/contracts waiving in their faces I would had loved to hear their talk to each Machado or Harper on their past rich tradition of a history of a winning franchise. Well my question if I were them is why now what happened the last 133 years or 118 years. Why all the sudden things are going to change from here on out.
You see ones history of accomplishments and tradition tends to set the expected results of the future. Oh sure they may have a short run but what happens after the first win. Do they take it all apart.
Oh I bet you Ox if the Yankees were waving the same amount of money or close we all know where Manny or Harper would be going all right. It would not be at either of those 2 clubs.
Some food for thought.
Good God, get over yourself.
On which point, exactly? Do tell how I’m so misguided. “Get over yourself.” Makes no sense.
Selling Babe Ruth in order to finance a musical is savvy?
Was responding to rjsuitor
rjsuitor – Original comment quite accurate! Very well said.
“Some notable obstacles remain, however, such as the exact length of the deal, as well as bigger-picture issues as the sale of Fox Sports Sun and other regional Fox cable networks…”
Nobody knows who the new owner 22 Fox RSNs will be. Disney’s$71.3B Fox acquisition had one requirement by DOJ: Disney has to divest themselvss all 22 Fox RSN’s.
Yanks buying back YES Network — (crown jewel) RSN
Who will buy the Rays’ RSN “Fox Sports Sun”?
My guess is MLB.
They’re bidding in auction for some of those RSNs
Out of all the 22 Fox RSNs Disney will sell, I guess “Fox Sports Sun” worth least and so MLB buys it lol
awfulannouncing.com/mlb/rob-manfred-preferences-rs…
If, or when the Rays leave the bay area, the total blame will fall on the city of ST Petersburg for not allowing the Rays to break that lease without some large payoff and/or litigation mostly.
I do believe the stadium ideas floated in the past and now could more easily have been accomplished without threats of of being sued by various entities from St petersburg to build anything on the “wrong” side of the bay..
This is from someone who lives within 50m of Tampa.
Wow, no kidding. It’s a lot further to Montreal or Vegas!
St. Petersburg would rather let the franchise die then let them leave the city
St Petersburg has tried (and still tries) everyway to appease the Rays and it’s fanbase for an new enclosed stadium or whats best for the team. They allowed the Rays (without penalty) to brainstorm and build a stadium in Tampa, It the Rays fault or the Tampa Politicians and commissioners who could not get the money promised!! St Pete and “any other city in the world” would not allow any organization or business to break a lease without compensation especially one with 8 more years left.. Stu has an option to get another stadium built in St. Pete with 2/3 paid by the ST Pete taxpayers. I surmise he never planned to deal with either city fairly and wants to move without paying down the lease. All about money!
There was a good Pinstripe Alley article linked from here a month or 2 back that made a good point that the average MLB teams spend on their roster payrolls is 50% of their revenue. They pointed out the Yankees now are making about $650 million a year and are only spending like 29% now on payroll. Hal needs to step up when it comes to spending.
That 50% rule is always thrown around but there’s no basis for it. The only team whose finances we know we only sort of know, and that’s the Braves because they’re a public corporation. Most observers who pay attention to team finances believe that they actually send far less than 50% of their revenues on payroll, with some teams like the Yankees FAR less.
but that’s just roster payroll spending….not to mention little things like:
-employees payrolls that work at the ballpark
-ballpark property taxes
-facilities/maintenance at the park
-electricity
-umiforms/attire
….the list can go on
so 8%-10% of their budget for players.. at most… Seems to me they just got a big gift from the People of new york around a 1/2 a billion dollars not including the ancillary costs to the city.. and are worth some where around 4 Billion.. there is a concerted push by owners to drive down payers salaries: that has a term: collusion..
salary relates more to a wage not total years. i think teams would line up to give elites $35-$40 mil per if the length was limited to 5 to 6 years. so no, player salaries are going up. length going down.
someoldguy It’s not collusion, owners and front offices are finally realizing these mega deals often don’t work out for the team. I think the length is more of an issue then money with the teams. If players want high salary per year they need to sacrifice contract security. It’s rare that deals like Stanton’s don’t end up haunting the team later on. Teams aren’t interested in getting locked into these long deals anymore, there done paying a premium for a players decline years and for past performance. Harper still on a 300M plus deal heading into his mid 30’s? No thanks.
the best players available not getting contracts was done in the 1980’s too, the judge said there was collusion because teams are supposed to spend to win. That is the basis of the whole CBA: it is called negotiating in good faith..
Player salaries went down last year.
Can anyone claim that the Yankees and Nationals don’t want to win? They’ve spent the most money of any team this year. The Phillies and White Sox are showing a willingness to spend too.
Can we please stop acting as if these guys DON’T have offers? Can you truly say that a team doesn’t want to win JUST because they aren’t willing to offer a record setting contract for Manny and Harper?
It is perfectly logical to say that Harper and Manny, if healthy, should produce at an elite level for ages 26-31 (6 years) and that for those years teams are willing to pay $35 mil per year but for a 10 year deal they reasonably expect a significant decline from ages 32-35 and therefore wish to offer less to coincide with the expected drop-off. Either they accept shorter term with more aav or a 10 year deal that factors in anticipated decline in those 32+ seasons as well as inevitable injuries.
We can see right now how the contracts for Braun and Longoria have gone as they entered the early 30s mark of their careers.
It’s not collusion, it’s analytics. Teams now have untold terrabytes of data to sort through and analyze, and not just teh stuff you see on Fangraphs. Teams have proprietary systems the aid them in their decision making. They can project cost-benefit analysis throughout the organization as well as any acquisitions they are considering.
They’d be getting signed if they took shorter deals. Handing out 300M+ deals for 10 years dosen’t help you win, it hamstrings the franchise later on and teams now realize that.
There seriously needs to be a max limit on number of years for a contract. Who can it unfairly hurt? If a player continues to perform well, that player will earn another contract without question.
Yes the teams want a sure thing: to pay for a guarantee or near as a guarantee as anything, here I thought they were in business, you know RISK /reward.. you pays your money youse takes your chances.. these short term contracts put all the risk on the players: and that has not been a part of baseball since the Courts declared that the teams were colluding against the players that to minimize risks ( Uberoff; long term contracts are a risk we should avoid them ) . It is bargaining in bad faith: if they are not willing to risk as in the past then they have violated the “GOOD FAITH” under which the CBA was signed…
yes it is collusion: baseball is a business and taking risk is a normal part of business when these members of a monopoly granted by government refuse to take risks they are in violation of the concepts under which the CBA was signed. Its called Bargaining in GOOD FAITH.. a legal principle implied in every contract..
Refusing to take risks = collusion? You can’t be serious. Spending $175M, $200M, even $220M isn’t enough? It’s bad faith not to want to earmark 15% of player payroll to one guy. Tell Boras to stop asking for ludicrous undeserved years and maybe there will be more deals… I mean negotiations in “good faith.”
so me simply refusing to give you the largest contract ever is not bargaining in “good faith”? you’re being ridiculous. that assumes that teams MOST continue to pay more and more as if all players are created equal.
again teams have shown little resistance to offering high aav. i’ts a contract with more than 6 or 7 guaranteed years theu.s the issue and no one can argue that contracts in the 8+ greatys range benze been historically bad for the team.
tht.fangraphs.com/collusion-and-the-no-risk-free-a…
The best players not getting contracts that the baseball statistical community seems to think they are worth.. RISK is an essential part of the process.. as the collusion cases of the 1980s showed
I like to be objective on the whole issue.
It is understandable that fans would like to have a Harper or Machado on the Yankees roster. Who wouldn’t? Would love to have Harper more then Machado because Andujar is still a growing strength. Laying a right bower on a left bower isn’t the best idea. Andujar will improve in both defense and offense.
Now looking at it from the Yankees point of view they are already above the luxury tax threshold after finally getting under the threshold.. Adding Harper or Machado is going to lead to payroll consequences much more then the Phillies, White Sox, or Padres for example. They each have very low payroll going out. This alone is going to add luxury percentage increase to what dollars would be needed to sign Harper or Machado their competitors do not have to pay.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but for some fans who call Hal cheapskate are not being at all objective they are acting on pure emotions. I would love these F/A stars as bad as they do but I am trying to be a realist as well. You can tell that most of the Hal is a cheapskate Yankee fans who make these claims have never ran managed or operated any kind of sizable corporation as well to understand profit & loss statements.
well in my opinion he is lying about his finances being poor , just like the rest of the owners, They all have never been richer
I don’t want to be stuck with 2 more 10 years contracts. It restricts the team where they cant do anything. We already have Stanton for close to 10 years.
What I don’t understand is why, given the circumstances, teams like the Yankees aren’t offering the money they want for 4-5 and just seeing if they’d bite.
I can understand not wanting to commit to the years, but I find it incredibly odd almost nobody seems interested at all.
Who says they haven’t?
nobody seems to be saying that they have… and every scrap of info anybody can scrape up seems to make it into print somehow.
+1,500 strikeouts by yankee hitters next year helps to balance their bullpen
Oh Stuie, Stuie, Stuie….you lie and Topkin swears to it….
1. Fact: The new TV deal can’t possibly influence payroll. The Rays operate “under water”; any additional revenue they generate locally is offset by losses to Revenue Sharing. They generated about 225M in revenue last year, per Forbes, and though we all know every MLB team lies, it’s not a bad benchmark. The MAJORITY of that revenue comes from RS and the Central Fund.
2. Fact: They can build a new stadium, and unless they build it themselves (or, in terms of TV, set up their own Regional Sports Network), their revenue won’t substantially increase. It MAY even decrease.
3. Fact: No, they haven’t INCREASED payroll, they’ve DECREASED it. Last year, per Cot’s, was 76M; this year, so far, 62M. Or did you forget it cost 5M to dump Dickerson, and another 12M to dump Span and Colome.
There ain’t nothin’ like Broadway……Get used to it, Rays fans; July 31 is the next big sell off.
This is really dense, but it’s a lot more to the point than many other MLBTR writers. I appreciate it.
I wanted the Yankees to sign Harper but the last thing i will do is call them cheep. they still have the highest contract in guaranteed money with the Stanton deal and they spent the 2nd highest total this winter. It’s more about risk aversion as opposed to being cheap. the entire Ellsbury contract will likely be a complete waste. would be nice to avoid large contracts like that which go into a players early 30s.
Hank has always been about the money. George spent but, from where he sat, he was spending to win because that’s what increases the value of the team
Had Bryce & Manny hit the market during George’s time, you could bet they’d be the two highest paid players in the game whether it was for the Yankees or another team because he would’ve been personally involved from start to finish.
Hank?
He playing the fiscally responsible card … poorly, because no one believes him
how is he playing it poorly when in the last 3 years his franchise turned their farm system around and made it a top 3 farm thru good drafting, wild international spending and great buy low trades, acquired the highest paid player ever, fielded a team that won almost 200 games in the last 2 years and now boasts one of the best analytical front office in baseball? aside from a WS he’s done a great job by trusting Cashman and his staff. my guess is that Cashman isn’t pressing him to offer the highest contract to either Manny nor Harper at this point.
So you’re buying his fiscal responsibility stance?
When you have the level of revenue that franchise makes the only thing that sticks in your craw is having to share it. That’s compounded when the intention of that sharing works: see Houston.
The Luxury Tax is negligible compared to the revenue generated by winning.
Yeah everyone loves saying how spoiled Yankee fans are because we want Championships but I don’t buy the moral victory of a 100 win season that ends in the Wild Card or Divisional Series … and I doubt the owners do either.
There’s revenue in playoffs tickets, merchandise, & televised games.
There’s increased interest the following season.
There’s FA interest in playing for a team that not only contends but wins it all.
Notice I didn’t mention Cashman once? He’s not infallible but he’s done a great job retooling the farm without hamstringing the major league squad
… and the franchise value & revenue has increased even with the Stanton contract.
I mean, how many teams could’ve absorbed the Ellsbury brain fart and still field an AL East contender? … the money is there
Look, I’m not disagreeing with you but imagine Bryce in the lineup between Judge & Stanton or, if we wanna y’all about fielding a Fantasy Team:
DJ, Judge, Harper, Torres, Stanton, Sanchez, Andujar, Voit, Hicks, Gardner
meh
See what ya done did?
Got me posting like another shall-remain-nameless Yankee fan
lol
Well again I want the Yankees to have all of the best players in MLB. When I was younger I wanted the Yankees in on every deal or free agent.
I have become more practical then emotional. I am not defending Hal to the bitter end. I want the best product on the field. I believe if you are in a war you come in with overwhelming odds of soldiers and equipment or don’t bother going in at all and it better be for a good cause to do so in the first place or stay out of it.
In this case I am not swayed one way or the other I am in the middle. Huge contracts bring consequences later I want them but I would prefer to be on a short term 1 2 or 3 years. That’s it.
Hi. This is KnickCavs (I have a different log in on my laptop).
I want Harper as well but I think it makes sense that you make an offer that is appropriate. It doesn’t seem as if any other team has an offer of $300 mil out there. I’m sure they have an idea of the market and here he wants to play. I’m sure they’ve articulated what kind of number they are looking at and expect them to make a counter if he truly wants to play in NY. It may well end up being the highest offer he has and that number might still fall short of the assumed $300 mil that’s been speculated.
I don’t think people truly understand how a major franchize with shareholders work. It’s not like 100% of the money goes back to the Steinbrenner family. There are 18 partnership owners and the Steinbrenners own 55% of that. In addition they are far more expenses to consider other than payroll.
Like I said previously, I would love them to sign Harper just as I loved it when they signed Tex, Sabathia, Giambi, etc. However, I also remember that as great as those guys were the last few years of their deals were really tough ones. If Boras came back and was willing to take a shorter term deal then I could see them offering something like 6/$210 which would make him the highest paid position player by aav. I don’t think he’s worth it, but to appease Boras/Harper I could even imagine a 5/$180-$200 deal being considered.
And all those crying for the good ole days if George were alive and in control of the team in TODAY”S game he would be a failure if he conducted his baseball dealings the same way he did back in the 80s. We wouldn’t have held on to Sanchez, Judge, Severino, etc. We would be position locked with a $20 mil vet at every position.
Baseball management has changed. You can disagree with the way analytics are used but you would be a fool not to use them in some way. Comparing that to the 80s when we used crude stats and the eyeball test or the hype from their past lure was the wrong approach and we would be a disaster for years on end. We would be saddled with Pujols and Cabrera type contracts. Paying top dollar for what they did 3 years ago and not looking at reasonable expectations of a mid 3os player.
Harper and Manny are much younger than most but the length of a 10 year contract means more exposure to health risk and declining play. Unless you can count on historic MVP performance the first 6 years of a 10 year deal then it’s not worth it.
Yankees won’t get Harper. They might get Machado.
Hank isn’t playing anything because Hal runs the team
I had no idea.
Truth is he knows he had to say something because if the idea that he’s pulling a Pohlad (refusing to spend on the franchise in favor of pocketing money), the backlash would be stunning
And had Judge, Sanchez, Torres, etc came up during George’s time, they would’ve been traded for a Doyle Alexander, Kevin Brown, or some other 35+ nearly washed up vet.
I feel the Yankees spend enough. Do they really need to go out and get every free agent there is? They traded for Paxton and signed some good relief arms. It’s not like they haven’t done anything and even have a report out there they offered Manny Machado a contract. I don’t think Yankees fans will ever be at a shortage for star power on their team. The Ellsbury contract stinks but they can’t all be winners Especially long term ones.
The sad reality (and really, it IS sad) is that not only can the Yankees afford their current payroll, they can afford TWICE their current payroll, and still make money. So, in varying degrees, can the Cubs, Red Sox, Mets, etc. THAT’S what the union is getting their skirts all in a tether about.
True, it doesn’t apply to all teams, even big market ones; the Dodgers have debt service up the ephemeral whazoo. And the smaller market teams obviously are not in the same situation.
That’s the real income disparity in MLB right now. The Red Sox don’t make arithmetically more money than the Rays (e.g.), they make more geometrically. Per Andrew Zimmerman (must be bright; teaches at Amherst), every “fanny in the seat” in Tampa yields about $20 in profit. In Boston? $75. The Rays would have to draw more than 10 million fans a year to balance the situation.
The solution (in Tampa, e.g.)? Find an investor who’ll build his own park (where you can bury revenue, and not kill your RS income) and one that can set up his own Regional Sports Network (same burial system). All you need is about 2 billion.
Maybe get it from Mrs. Bezos? Does she like baseball?
It’s fun to pretend you know what you are talking about, isn’t it?
Paul Beeson of the jays many years ago said he could make a 3 million dollar profit look like a 2 million dollar loss. Dead Spin published internal documents showing how the MLB routinely uses depreciation of contracts to shrink their actual incomes to minuscule amounts
Despite taking in countless millions of dollars in private investment Amazon didn’t make a profit until they went to a public traded company nor was a penny ever paid to private investors until they went to a public traded. company…It’s why Bezos is so wealthy.
Same for Facebook and Apple. Despite the untold millions of dollars in private investment and gross/net profits not a penny was ever paid to any private shareholders only until they went public traded.
. Of course all of the CEO’s of each of these companies all refused to take a salary when they went public. Instead they each took a portion of their holdings obtained non-recourse collateral stock loans likely 8o% of the stock value or .80 cents or more on the dollar, then surrendered their shares to the collateral lender. They can’t sell large segments of their shares as company officers but they can use the shares as loan collateral
What all this means is they each made a few billion dollars their first year they went public traded without a salary each paying 0% in taxes, nor did they have to pay their collateral loans back, meaning they were non-recourse by simply surrendering their shares. That is how each made billions of dollars without zero income tax you see proceeds from loans are not taxable income… Pretty smart …only the 5% percent wealthy know how to do this who control 95% of the wealth Meanwhile while all of you and I along with the rest of the population share the 5% of the wealth
Keep what I just posted in mind. If you pay attention enough you learn something new everyday even it is on a baseball blog.
The yankees are milking the public thru a stadium built with tax free bonds and PILOT payment on those bonds in lieu of property taxes. Not only that those large contracts the hole on players are a double dipp off their reported income: they claim the expense and the depreciation on the asset ( the contract itself).. as far as I know:
the stadium financing is huge savings over time.. They know the easiest way to make money is thru the tax code, Trillions to be made there.. taxfoundation.org/house-ruth-built-house-irs-built…
You need to get some sleep. You’re a pretty good writer but you’re tiresome.
It must be horrible to vote for a team that stinks. I bet you are just miserable kick your cat cry to other other or just sit and have a good cry all the time.
Now shut the lights off turn off the Play Station Game so mother doesn’t get upset
I just wrote a post involving Bezos. Read it and learn how money is made. It 100% factual
You are the epitome of New York. The rest of the country hates your guts for good reason. You’re a privileged horde. Now be quiet for a while.
— Orioles‘ front office has taken a big step towards modern statistical analysis —
Orioles’ front office also considering installing modern telephones in the bullpen.
You are a riot…yet again.
If Hal doesn’t want to run the Yankees like the huge market they are he should sell the team to somebody that will!! Let’s just sit back and watch the Red Sox win it all again!!
I love how the Yankees get bashed for spending a lot of money (they buy championships) and then the same people complain when they decide to not buy up every free agent (and are called cheap). Teams like the cubs and astros have shown that you don’t need to spend a boatload of money to win. The way the rules are setup (losing draft picks when you sign top tier free agents) it’s in their best interest to stay at or below the luxury tax, stay away from the top tier guys wanting long term deals, draft and trade well and sign you homegrown stars. They make money and the team does well. I’d prefer they stay away from 10 year deals cause they rarely work in the teams favor.
I suppose people just need to complain because they are tired of wives screaming at them so get online take it out on Hal or anyone else who tries to reason with them or politely question their logic on the web.
And you expect Stewie to tell the truth about tv revenue?
Kremer is the most underrated arm in our system I believe. Found it hard to believe Prospect evaluators were still higher on some of the guys they are in our system over him. He doesn’t have the dominating stuff to ever be a frontline guy but i’d Bet heavily on him being a bettter starter than guys like Ortiz, Akin, and others they have ahead of him.
No to Romo. Blue Jays have enough bad arms to roll out. Even some decent ones.
Tv deals are keeping teams a float there is absolutely no reason for Rays to stay in Florida the fans have shown complex lack of interest it shameful to the rest of the league and baseball fans everywhere to watch games in an empty stadium
i would rather see 2 teams move than i would expansion (Which i hear talked about every now and again)
there’s already like 20 bad teams every season…why make it 22
X..why are you replying to your own comment? are you mental or lonely?
Really liking what the yankees have done this offseason without signing the big names… Going to be an interesting season
Hal’s Bargain Bombers! His Dad is rolling over in his grave. He might rise from it if the Sox win the Series again after the Yanks sign neither Harper nor Machado.