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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Fox Sports: Klapisch: Yanks end days of splurging on talent

There are two factors in play here. The first has to do with Hal Steinbrenner’s desire to save money, as opposed to his father, George, who funneled most of the Yankees’ profits back into the payroll. Peel away the layers of Yankees rhetoric, and what the younger Steinbrenner wants is to make money and win championships. In that order.

That plays into the second co-efficient: Just how much does a team have to spend to rule the world? The Yankees used to be obsessed with assembling a nuclear roster — a superstar at every position, if that’s what it took.

But what did that philosophy really yield? The Yankees have won only one World Series since 2000, nearly $2 billion in outlay for one ring in 2009. It’s a horrific return on investment, a revelation that finally hit home this past October.

The Yankees led the American League with 97 wins, spent more than anyone else with a $203 million payroll, yet were bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

“And it wasn’t just us,” said a team official. “Look at the Phillies.”

Indeed, the Yankees point to Philadelphia’s failure to win the pennant in the past two years — despite adding Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay — as proof that there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Not anymore.

If only they’d realized this before signing Rafael Soriano.  That $12M per year plus $4-5M luxury tax hit plus first round draft pick could surely have been put to better use, no? 

If you think about this logically, the Yankees have a lot of bad contracts that are tying their hands.  If any team could take any one of the following players for free providing they had to pay their entire salaries would they?

Derek Jeter
Alex Rodriguez
Mark Teixeira
A.J. Burnett
Soriano

I doubt it. That’s like what, $80M per year?