First sign of winter: The Yankees are poor-mouthing

Grease up the snow-blower and find the windshield-scraper. It might look October-ish, but the radar shows an advancing Siberian system of  Steinbrennerian nickel-clutching.  The message to Yank fans - based on Food Stamps Hal's phoners to assorted Gammonites -expose one key plank of the 2021 hot stove.

It's not whether we should re-sign DJ, or seek generational reparations from Gary. Nope, the message is much simpler. It goes... 

Listen, you ungrateful whiners, the 2020 Yankees lost me a shit-ton of scratch, moohlah, mudinga, globba-gucha... and before you go demanding that I finance another Brad and Leonardo blockbuster, you oughta remove your caps and thank Brian and me for this powerhouse legacy of Wild Cards. 

Says today's Gray Lady:

While teams have not opened their books, M.L.B. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said about 40 percent of revenue comes from tickets, concessions and other gate-related income. The Yankees, who generally rank near the top of the league in attendance, have said that share might be higher for them. 

So it goes. The story's headline says it all: "Murky Financial Forecast Looms Over Yankees Off-Season Questions." And don't get me wrong: There is truth in those brown-nosing words. I'm not knocking James Wagner. But tell me one sports franchise in America - or, for that matter, one business in America that doesn't fit into those words like a leather body glove. 

Yeah, the Death Star must weigh its budget carefully - no question - but here's a silly thought: Hal Steinbrenner is a billionaire several times over, who sits atop one of the biggest self-sustaining mountains of gold on this planet, and Covid is basically another crossroads of financial opportunity. He can either use his might to win a championship or to make more money. And the early returns suggest the clink of coins is hard to ignore.

“We’ll see,” Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ managing general partner, said on Tuesday on the radio show hosted by Yankees television broadcaster Michael Kay. “It depends what kind of money is going to be required to be spent, based on what we look at and decide needs change. But look: There’s no doubt we sustained significant losses this year, more so than any other team in baseball. It’s just been a crazy year.”

So it goes. And don't get me wrong: Merely spending money won't guarantee anything. We can buy another Giancarlo or Aroldis, and watch their games deteriorate in slow-motion, as they become Exhibits A and B in Hal's reasons to cut costs. We can be smart, or we can be stupid. Money doesn't care.

About $65 million in 2020 salaries are set to come off the books as star infielder D.J. LeMahieu, and pitchers J.A. Happ, Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton are eligible for free agency. That doesn’t include Zack Britton, a key reliever, and outfielder Brett Gardner, the longest-tenured Yankee, who have team options or clauses in their contracts that will need to be sorted out soon.

So it goes. Winter is here. The Steinbrenners, who have more money than you could spend in ten lifetimes, are pulling out their pockets and shaking their heads. News flash: It was a tough year, 2020. Now... where's that scraper? It's 50 degrees, but the windshield is frosted over.