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From Joel Serman (h/t to Fack Youk), we get an interesting report on the Yankee ownership’s unwillingness to spend past their stated budget:
The Yankees are telling agents that they only have $2 million, at most, to spend on a left fielder. They figure Damon, even in a diminishing market, would never drop his demands that low. The Yanks being the Yanks, of course, could always just create extra money in the budget as they did last year when GM Brian Cashman successfully lobbied Hal Steinbrenner to add Andy Pettitte’s $5.5 million base plus makeable incentives to the payroll. [snip] After having won the World Series, ownership is not quite as compelled to blow up the budget again.
Hal Steinbrenner, after all, has shown a much greater willingness to hold to some financial guidelines than his father, George, did. For example, the Post has learned, the Yanks had a completed trade last July with Milwaukee for Mike Cameron, pending ownership’s blessing to take on the money. But Hal Steinbrenner refused to add the approximately $5.5 million in salary and luxury tax it would have cost for the rest of the season, so the deal was scrapped.
It seems that Johnny Damon is unlikely to return to New York unless his price drops to a point where he is certain to be snapped up by another club. In fact, 2 million may not be enough to obtain Xavier Nady, and might be barely enough to bring in a player like Xavier Nady. The Yankees are trying to be fiscally responsible for the first time since George Steinbrenner bought the team, and it seems like they are being run more like a business than ever before. While fans may not love that idea, I cannot fault the club for the manner in which they cap their spending. Ultimately, the goal of a business owner is to limit costs and maximize revenues. If the Steinbrenners truly believe that they can consistently win under the current budget (and there is no reason to believe otherwise), then it is within their rights to hold the line at an already exorbitant 200M in salaries.
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7 Responses to Yankees Sticking To Budget
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TIQ IQ
You said it best in your last line. The budget is around 200 million, which is MORE then enough to field not a good team, but a great team. The Yankees never have to worry about a player getting too good and testing free agency because they cannot afford him. It might be a problem for some Yankee fans, but those fans (I’m sorry to say) are ignorant. Every other fan of every other team deep down wishes that their owner would spend the kind of money that the Yankees do. People who complain about what the Yankees spend are jealous, and it makes Yankee fans sound like cry babies when they complain that the Yankees not stretching the budget to fit Damon in. A million dollars is a million dollars.
Man,Igawa stings.
Adding another platoon player just to polish off the remaining $2mm is alittle short-sighted and perhaps the best move is to keep still. Lets see what Hoffman’s got to offer.
The Yankees are trying to be fiscally responsible for the first time since George Steinbrenner bought the team, and it seems like they are being run more like a business than ever before.
Fucking morons. There’s a time and a place for fiscal responsibility. Opting to exercise it now to forgo Johnny Damon and go with a pair of crappy players in Gardner and Hoffmann is inexcusable.
Maybe the Yanks shouldn’t have wasted 11 million on Javy. Besides, Melky > Gardner.
Inexcusable? Really? If you can’t draw the line on adding Johnny Damon to the 2010 club, then you can’t draw the line anywhere. The team got younger and better, and they are spending a bit less. It makes sense to me.
They got younger.
I contest the sentiment that they improved. Let’s see how Granderson and Johnson do in big spots. Because Damon and Matsui excelled in big spots.
Baseball does go beyond the statsheet…
Yes, it does go beyond the statsheet. That said, Matsui never won a title before this year, and you certainly would not have called A-Rod or CC clutch, yet they carried the club to a championship.