Yankees ownership has fielded plenty of questions about the luxury tax threshold in recent years, as their spending habits and roster moves have reflected a desire to stay under what players complained had become a self-inflicted salary cap by many teams.
But Hal Steinbrenner says that shouldn’t be a complaint when assessing the Yankees’ offseason.
“If it’s a question about threshold or no threshold, before we did anything, before the [Josh] Donaldson trade, we were already over the threshold,” Steinbrenner told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s really not a question this year. We’ve got a lot of arbitration guys making more than they did last year. As a result of that, we were already over. The threshold is not a consideration. It’s already gone.
“That’s my job every year to make sure we’re financially responsible. I’ve got a lot of partners and banks and bondholders and things like that that I answer to, but at the same time, it’s always a goal to win a championship. [Brian] Cashman, I think we’ve got a pretty good history of having high payrolls and putting a good amount of resources into the players that we have on the team.”
Steinbrenner and the Yankees had clear needs at shortstop and first base with free agent superstars available at each position. But after trading for Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, in addition to signing Anthony Rizzo, it became clear that the Yankees would not be aggressively pursuing the likes of Freddie Freeman and Carlos Correa, further angering the contingency of the fanbase that believes the team does not commit enough money to winning a title.
“I think you know me well enough to know, and Cash will tell you, that I am willing to discuss and consider anything that my baseball people bring to me, and that process was done this year, as it is every year,” Steinbrenner said. “We left no stone unturned. Once the lockout ended, there's considerably less time to get anything done. That doesn't mean we weren't preparing and discussing and looking at everything the last two months.”
When discussing finances, Steinbrenner also noted the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the franchise, despite steadily increasing revenues over the years and a payroll that seems to have plateaued.
“We didn’t have fans for one year, so look: I think a lot of the larger market clubs got hit the hardest,” Steinbrenner said. “Our expenses, whether they are players or not, are normally greater. Obviously in New York, everything costs more.
“I’m not saying anything that’s not public knowledge. We have a huge payment of $80-plus million to cover the bonds on the stadium. That payment is made if we have no revenue, and it was made in 2020 and we made it last year as well. We can talk about our revenues, but you’ve gotta pay attention to the expenses, too. We’ve got some significant ones. So it was a tough two years.”
As a result, there was no splurge for a Freeman or Correa. There were more marginal improvements like in other recent offseasons, and the same preseason refrain from ownership: that the team, as currently constructed, is capable of winning a title.
“This is a championship caliber team,” Steinbrenner said.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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