Yep, 2009. A lifetime ago. That winter, Hal signed the three best free agents on the market: CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and AJ "Carol" Burnett. Yankee killers, all. He shot money at them from a firehose. Even then, to beat the Phillies, the Yankees needed a roided-up A-Rod and Johnny Damon. But back then, Hal wasn't afraid to spend the dough, the clams, the skamootz, the sligber, the giddrag... the money.
Ever since, year after year, Food Stamps Hal has systematically spent just enough for the Yankees to contend for the expanded wild card. That means winning about 85 games and calling it a success. Every year, he marches to the precipice, gazes out at the fiscal landscape, and then retreats.
And from that moment on, through his supreme lackey, Brian Cashman, Hal does what he does best in life: He poormouths:
It's too bad, so sad, but as much as we'd love to do it, the Yankees just can't afford to spend any more money.
That's a lie, of course. The Steinbrenners have more money than they'll ever count.
And tending to the lie is why Cashman has run the Yankees for 28 years.
Last winter, after the Mets outbid him for Juan Soto - Steve Cohen spending crazy stupid money - Hal signed Max Fried, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt to partially fill the void. Then, as usual, he stopped.
Left open were gaping holes in the bullpen and at 3B, problems that would haunt the Yankees all season.
Hal's refusal to budge became glaring in the final days before spring training, when free agent 3B Alex Bregman was seeking a one-year deal from someone, anyone. The Yankees had a history with Bregman, and some of you still gag at the notion of him in pinstripes. (In the cheating scandal, Bregman was not one of the principals.)
What if Hal had simply gone KPop Demon Hunter for one day and outbid Boston? Bregman this year hit .273 with 18 homers and an .821 OPS - which would have been third on the Yankees, after Judge and Ben Rice. Add Bregman, and Oswaldo Cabrera would have been a fulltime utility man. Add Bregman, and the Yankees would have settled the top of the batting order. Add Bregman, and the Yankees wouldn't have had to trade prospects at the Aug. 1 deadline for Ryan McMahon. Add Bregman, and they would have won the AL East, and home field advantage. Add Bregman and, who knows?
Okay, let's not fixate on Bregman: (I admit, it would be weird to see him as a Yankee.) But last winter, there were plenty of pitchers and hitters on the open market, begging for a big market bidder, when Hal summarily announced that the Yankees were done spending their precious coins. (Of course, he ended up absorbing several salary dumps at the trade deadline, and I wonder if he saved money at all.)
What the Yankees need is for Hal to do what he father did: Spend crazy stupid money. He has the wherewithal. He has more money than he'll ever know. He can build a roster, and then he needs to add ONE MORE PLAYER - as the Dodgers do every year.
Or - better idea - sell the team to someone who will.
The Yankees this year - as usual - were one player short. You can blame Cashman and Boone, but really, it's on Hal.
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26 comments:
E.D. - terrific piece!
Also, I’m very impressed that you were able to work KPop Demon Hunter into it.
A Friday achievement deserving of great rewards.
Thank you, Sir !
(PS - May I add that Jazz deserves a splash of blame)
According to Peter Thiel, spending that kind of money could aid and abet the Antichrist. Thiel, by the way, is the actual Devil, but that's for another blog. For now, welcome to our own personal hot stove season! I have been keeping your seats warm!
Exactly why we need those demon hunters!
the city and state of New York spent more than $1 billion for Hal's personal and unlimited ATM ... Yankee Stadium. as you say, el duque, the Steinbrenners and their heirs will never want for anything until the apocalypse. and yet, the rat bastards won't shell out the dough to field a superior team because they are afraid of Jacoby Elsbury reflux or the luxury tax or they fund a building-sized endowment to get some nose-picking fratboy grandson into the near-Ivy school of choice. the Steinbrenners suck. (has anyone unearthed a photo of Hal smiling yet?)
I have three photos of Hal smiling that I mined from the darkest corners of the internet . . .
Duque, I'm glad you said we could blame Cashman and Boone, because I do blame them. Hal doesn't go all in, but he's in a lot farther than only a few other owners. Sure, if he just threw money at the team, it's be a lot more fun. But the money he does spend is rarely spent wisely, with no vision of assembling an actual team.
So while Hal is an asshole for not just opening the coffers like LA, Cashman is inept with the money he gets. And Cashman and Boone are inept with managing whatever Frankenstein monster he cobbles together.
Boone is actually the best of the bunch, given what he's givee and how limited his decision making is allowed to be. And once you say that, you can see just how horrible the Hal-Cashman combo really is.
Could the same be said of Stevie Cohen?
Great piece, Duque, and very good caveat, JM. And yes, Parson T., how the fuck can it be that this guy doesn't understand that he owes us, after all the taxpayers have shelled out to his family, the Snopes of Cleveland...
...But I think it's even more sinister than that. If Hal had ever been truly interested in putting together a highly competent baseball organization that could win within a reasonable budget, he would long ago have canned Pal, and brought in some of the guys who helped build constant winners in Boston, St. Louis, etc....
...Never mind the bad, big-money acquisitions—or non-acquisitions—for a moment. How is it possible that, for instance, one incredibly promising Yankees catcher after another comes up, has a great first year or two...that completely self-destructs? Jesus Montero, Gary Sanchez, Austin Wells, and I'm sure I'm missing a couple in there. Or outfielders, as with The Red Menace and The Martian...
...The fact that this NEVER gets corrected makes me think that it's not just the immediate money. Hal doesn't even want a true dynasty built 5 or 10 or 20 years down the road. That would mean that he or some other Steinbrenner would have to shell out bucks eventually.
He wants exactly what he has to go on. Forever. I doubt if it can—sooner or later entropy gets to everything—but it could last a lot longer.
And sell the team? I dunno. Last time a Steinbrenner seriously considered THAT, the buyers in mind were the Dolans. Be careful what you wish for!
By the by, the key to that 2009 team? A.J. Burnett. He had Classic Cashman Flop written all over him. And for most of his Yankees career, he was just that.
But in the regular season, he managed to eat 207 innings, win 13 games, and hold his ERA to 4.04, just above his lifetime, 3.99. For all the walks and wild pitches, it was a decent, No. 3 starter performance.
Then he had the best postseason of his life, turning in good starts against the Twins and Angels, and outpitching Pedro Martinez (!) to beat the Phillies. Sure, second time around, both the Haloes and the Phils slugged him (Yanks brilliantly pitched him on short rest in the World Series), but it was a much better performance than we could have expected. A.J. never pitched that well for us again.
And, oh yeah, we still had The Core Four. Just saying.
This all started with the Stanton trade that gave them an excuse to hide from Machado. They signed Rodon instead of Seager or Turner, which would’ve allowed them to trade Volpe for a pitcher before he turned into a pumpkin. How many more games could they have won this year with Machado at third, castillo or Cease in the rotation, and Turner or Seager at short? No Stanton at dh means Judge wouldn’t have to play through injury in the outfield. So many moves that could’ve been done. Hell, Harper could’ve been out there for us instead of the hell that was Gallo
All fair points; the taxpayer money that is pumped into the Yankees (and all major sports team and especially their stadium deals) is never discussed enough in the media.
The irony here is the ridiculous salary cap that Steinington himself was a major supporter of.The Lords of Baseball were never able to grasp that a more equitable means of revenue sharing (a la the NFL) would be immensely fairer.
Always hush-hush is the newest source of revenue, sports betting. It’s difficult to parse how much money is coming in since it’s not a direct piece of each bet placed. While leagues have pursued an "integrity fee"—a small cut of every bet placed—most states and sportsbooks have pushed back against it. This is one reason why teams primarily earn money from the secondary effects of sports betting, such as advertising and licensing rather than directly from each bet placed.
Here is a good article regarding the latest stadium deals, this one a little closer to home:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/paying-buffalos-bills/
With all due respect to the intelligence and passion of this collective, it appears to me you are all dreaming of a time in Yankee lore that will never return. It is IMO nearly impossible today to construct a dynasty that can win multiple championships. It's probably impossible in all sports, not just baseball. There are far too many mitigating factors at play. I won't take up your time by listing them. But I do think a good dose of realism as to the nature of baseball and sports in general would be a good antidote to the general doom and gloom always readily apparent here. I feel it's safe to say that none of the commenters here are physically capable of performing the same tasks they could do when they were 25. Everything in baseball, from the advent of free agency to the physical conditioning of the athletes to the mindset of the corporate owners, has changed since 1968. We would do better to adapt to the realities of today's conditions rather than complain that it ain't what it used to be.
Sorry. It may be true that conditions in Sports are very different today and indeed more difficult for someone constructing/running a team to navigate. But that does not excuse doing or not doing something that's right in front of you that will obviously improve a situation, like an available 3rd baseman or shortstop.
That is so Contrarian of you….
This just in:
https://keefetothecity.com/
Multiple championships? I’d give my right nut for just one. (But not my left one)
🌟🌟🌟🌟Required reading,
Giants, though.
I thought I was dreaming
We may be miserable, gristled schmucks, but we are not nihilists, and that's the worldview your post would suggest. Also the argument is a false premise. Nobody necessarily wants to go back to "what it used to be." We just don't want asshole moves by ownership and management. We don't want to be gaslit. We don't want to be told that Brian's shit don't stink, as we said in Yonkers. The things we ask are eminently do-able. The roster makeup and the daily lineups this year were easily preventable.
Yep. Says it all.
Love to see someone do a deep dive analysis into the Yankees minor league system and how (badly) it's being run.
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