This winter, Food Stamps Hal Steinbrenner may be showing his smoking saw

For most baseball general managers, you never look bad finishing second in a free agent auction. The "winning" franchise always overpays, and your lunch-bucket fan base - if such a thing still exists - appreciates frugality. 

So, today, having been outbid by the DC Swamp-Gnats for Patrick "Yankee fan" Corbin, the Retrieval Empire can proclaim to the world that - by finishing second - it is looking out for the fan's bottom line, and any Gammonite who can utter the syllables "Jah-co-be-Ells-bar-ee" should understand.

But the question remains: Are the Yankees being smart... or cheap?

Yesterday, Corbin chose crisp U.S. dollars over soggy childhood loyalty. Frankly, nobody can criticize. The Yankees refused to give him six years, and he invoked the "I gotta feed my family" mantra to which almost all players succumb. But I wonder why they do this. They should be set for life, financially. By chasing contractual longevity, they are guaranteed to finish their careers as fiscal millstones - mocked by sportswriters, booed by fans, and blamed by the front office for the franchise's mediocrity. This isn't about feeding families. It's about adding zeroes. In the year 2025 - if man is still alive, if woman can survive - they will find that Corbin is pariah, a human salary dump. He might have become an icon of New York. But he blinked and took the zeroes.

With five years left on his deal, Robby Cano is being passed around like a plate of bad clams. In the final year, to avoid being booed, the Jogger should live in a submarine. And whenever Cano struggles with the Mets, Hand-Me-Down Hal will look smart for having said no. 

Listen: I'm not here to rail against the Yankees for failing to land Corbin. There are other pitchers available. Just as you cannot judge a trade until the prospects have matured - (these winter celebrations have yet to consider the future of Justus Sheffield) - you cannot measure a winter before the winter meetings have even begun. 

But today, one huge question still looms: Is Hal going to spend? Because if the answer is no - if he's going to be an "billionaires first" owner and toe the line on luxury taxes - it's fair for Yankee fans to ask what the fuck he intends to do with all that money he saves?

Will Hal buy another mansion? Will he re-elect Trump or burrow further into Chuck Schumer's aorta? Will he just eat coins until his bowels shit pure gold? How many times can he renovate Steinbrenner Field? How many statues of Old George can he commission? Hal has inherited one of the prolific ATMs on the planet, the biggest market team in all of U.S. pro sports. If he's not spending on free agents, if he's going to use the luxury tax as an excuse for his alligator arms, then what is he going to do with all that extra money? Fuck Trump's tax returns; we'll never see them. But I'd sure like to see Hal's. 

Yesterday, Randy Levine idiotically claimed the Yankees are as good as the Redsocks. What planet is he living on? We haven't reached the world series in 10 years. We are approaching the most fruitless decade in Yankee history. The Redsocks have won four in this millennium - going through three GMs - while the Yankees seemingly have given Brian Cashman a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. 

If the Yankees aren't going to spend their money on free agents, then where is it going?