BRADENTON – The Yankees used to be the financial heavyweights of the baseball world. That’s no longer the case.
While Hal Steinbrenner still funds one of the game’s highest payrolls on an annual basis, the Yankees have trailed teams like the World Series-winning Dodgers, owned by the Guggenheim Group, and Steve Cohen’s Mets in recent years. As of now, the Yankees have the fourth-highest projected payroll for 2025 in terms of the competitive balance tax at $304.7 million. That would exceed the highest CBT penalty threshold, set at $301 million this season, for the second year in a row.
But the figure also comes in fourth behind Los Angeles, ($402.3M), the Queens club ($326.9M) and Philadelphia ($307.8M), according to Cot’s Contracts.
With other orgs upping the ante, the Yankees’ money hasn’t been the difference-maker it used to be. Not that there aren’t other ways to build a championship roster.
When asked about no longer being the top dog in terms of spending, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he doesn’t think about things that way. He noted how teams like the Rays and Orioles, among others, have built contenders through different means.
“Ultimately, there’s a lot of different ways to climb the mountain, a lot of different ways to peel that onion,” Cashman said Friday. “And the only thing, in the end, that matters is winning in October.”
That’s what the Dodgers did last year, committing over a billion in free agency to players like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto before beating the Yankees in a five-game Fall Classic. Los Angeles then doubled down with another spending spree, adding, retaining or extending pricey players like Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández and Clayton Kershaw, among others.
L.A. also won Roki Sasaki’s sweepstakes, though the Japanese star was limited to international signing bonus pool money.
Steinbrenner recently said that it’s “difficult for most of us owners” to spend the way the Dodgers have.
Cashman, speaking at the Pirates’ complex for Grapefruit League Media Day, was asked about Steinbrenner’s comment and the Yankees’ ability to contend with the Dodgers’ bank account.
“Regardless of financial circumstances, the job is to find a way to compete,” Cashman said. “Putting together a team, there’s a lot of different avenues to do so, whether it’s financial might, whether it’s amateur draft, international and pro scouting, development, waiver claims, minor leagues, free agent signings. Ultimately, the Dodgers have raised the bar. They’re the defending world champions. They’re doing a lot of things really good. As a competitor, you’re always looking inward at what are we not doing well enough compared to our competitors.
“I think we do a lot of things extremely well, if not better than most of our competitors. It doesn’t mean we’re operating perfectly at all aspects. And so our job is to raise our game. If you can’t do it in every category, then you gotta raise your game in enough categories to get yourself in a position to be the best.”
The Mets, after outbidding the Yankees for Juan Soto’s services, could also be lumped in with L.A. in terms of exorbitant recent spending. However, Cashman called the Dodgers the “odds-on favorite” to be in the World Series, though that doesn’t mean they will be. Cashman also stressed there are plenty of other teams that Yankees will have to go through and get past.
That has been and will be the case not only on the field, but off of it, as the Yankees have not been the highest bidders for a few notable free agents in recent years. That includes Soto and Yamamoto.
Cashman noted that the Mets’ guarantee of 15 years, $765 million only topped their Soto offer by $5 million, but that doesn’t account for an opt-out clause that can push the contract to $805 million.
He also stressed that teams don’t always know what they’re bidding against.
“You don’t know where your opposition is,” Cashman said. “You take on the cues that the agents guide and direct you with. In some cases, they tell you they have this. In other cases, it’s blind bidding. In some cases, they say they’ve got something that they don’t and you don’t find out until later… You just have to choose to navigate what you’re comfortable with.
“Sometimes you don’t win the day.”
None of this is to say the Yankees are cheap. They certainly won the day with Max Fried, the biggest splash of their post-Soto pivot this past offseason. They signed the starter to an eight-year, $218 million contract — the largest guarantee ever for a lefty.
The Yankees also took on notable salaries when they acquired Devin Williams, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmit. Meanwhile, players like Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Rodón were already signed for mega-millions.
This isn’t Rays-level spending we’re talking about.
That said, the Yankees have indicated that they have limitations and that they’d prefer to be under the highest CBT threshold. One such example is their infield situation, which currently calls for significant playing time for some combination of DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza, most likely at third base.
Those are not ideal starting options for a club with championship aspirations. External options could be acquired down the road, but that’s what the Yankees are going with right now.
“We’ve got some people that are going to compete and show us what they got,” Cashman said, “and then we’ll make some decisions when we have to.”
Cashman declined to say whether the Yankees need to unload payroll — trading Marcus Stroman would help with that — before adding to the roster. He did, however, say that the Steinbrenner family is “fully committed” to “fielding a contender, and that’ll never change.”
Speaking of adding to the roster, the Yankees haven’t been able to do that by way of the Japanese market since winning Masahiro Tanaka’s services in 2014. That is another way in which the Dodgers have dominated — and found new revenue sources — thanks to Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki.
“It’s a viable market,” Cashman said. “We just haven’t been able to tap into it despite our efforts as of late. So we’ll continue to do that and reevaluate. It’s not about scouting it. We’re scouting it properly. It’s about trying to find a way to make us the best destination spot for them compared to others. The Dodgers have done a great job of somehow securing those players and making that a destination spot. They obviously had a great recruiter in Shohei Ohtani. That creates a homefield advantage probably because of his relationships over there. They’ve done a very great job cultivating the Japanese market.”
The Dodgers also have a geographical advantage with Japanese players, but Cashman highlighted how Tanaka, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and Hiroki Kuroda all enjoyed playing in New York City.
While Ohtani never expressed interest in the area, the Yankees were in the running for Yamamoto and Sasaki, to varying degrees. The Bombers were ultimately rejected, though, leaving Cashman to wonder what his club can do differently in their sales pitches.
“We’ve been in [on these players],” he said. “We’ve gotten our meetings. We’ve been invited to participate, which is an honor because not everybody’s even getting that.
“But we’re falling short at the same time, and we’ll continue to reevaluate why that’s the case.”