The Yankees may not be the free-spending franchise they once were, but they can still be classified as a functional and cheap “death star”.
In 2010, Principal owner and managing partner of the New York Yankees Mr. George Steinbrenner passed away. The Yankees would win multiple championships under Steinbrenner’s aggressive style of leadership. In his time as owner, many would question if the New York Yankees had a spending ceiling as they seemingly would sign any high-end free agent in sight.
George Steinbrenner would spend what it took to make his team win and truly revolutionized the owner position. Steinbrenner deserves to be in the hall of fame for that alone. Yankees teams had spent $1.88 billion on free agents since he took over in the early 1970s. That’s nearly twice as much as was spent by any other team in baseball.
Cut to present day where it seems as if Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t share the same ideas as his father.
On November 20, 2008, Major League Baseball owners approved the shift of day-to-day control of the Yankees from father George Steinbrenner to Hal Steinbrenner. Hal Steinbrenner has done a fine job developing a young core to be happy about but the aggressive free agency moves seem to be lacking.
Obviously, the Yankees have evolved with the times and don’t conquer the market they once did but this offseason is puzzling, to say the least. Manny Machado and Bryce Harper both hit the free agency market this offseason and both seemed to be perfect additions to the roster. Hal Steinbrenner was quoted in saying
“Well, every year is the same, and what I mean by that is this: We’re going to field a championship-caliber team. And even though we started the season in ‘18 under, we definitely felt we had a championship-caliber team, and a lot of other people did too.”
With that being said, any team that adds these superstar players are in a far better position to win ball games. Most teams around the league can’t afford these mega contracts both men are asking for.
The New York Yankees can afford not only one mega contract but could afford both men with relative ease. This brings us to the fan outcry and why they’re so upset.
Not signing both these men is completely fine and understandable. Both players are insanely talented and deserve every penny sent to them. Dirty plays or flowing beautiful hair aside, these men will change an organization for the better and yet all signs show that the Yankees will let both men slip through their fingers.
Bryce Harper has not been vocal about the Yankees as much as his counterpart, Manny Machado has been. Machado is a man that should in all aspects be in pinstripes but maybe in Chicago black pinstripes or Bright red Philly stripes.
With the signings of former all-stars Troy Tulowitzki and DJ LeMahieu, The New York Yankees infield is becoming more and more crowded as the days go by. This does not exactly mean that Manny Machado can’t be a Yankee but my magic eight ball keeps reading “All signs point to no”.
The fully functional Death Star seems destined to crash in the Wild Card yet again until Steinbrenner and Cashman decide they’ve had enough of coming second to the Boston Red Sox. I for one welcome the day the death star pays some high-level Stormtroopers and win the war again.
Idk. This strategy reminds me of signing Brosius, Tino, and Paulie back in the day. Not superstar free agents but solid team players that rounded out the core Four. I think it can pay dividends over going all in on the A-Rod strategy.