BRADENTON, Fla. — When the New York Yankees truly flexed their financial might, it was a near guarantee that if and when they strongly pursued a high-priced star in free agency, they’d land that player. That has not been the case recently. The Yankees have fallen short on a few key players they’ve coveted in free agency in the past few years, including Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto.
The landscape is different, and there’s a New World Order for Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner to navigate. A few weeks ago, Steinbrenner suggested owners, including himself, can’t spend at the level of the Dodgers. According to Cot’s Contracts, Los Angeles’ current payroll is an estimated $402 million; the Yankees sit at $304 million and, ideally, would like to be under $301 million, which is the fourth threshold where every dollar spent over that mark is taxed at a 110 percent rate.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was asked if he believes his club can financially contend with the Dodgers.
“Regardless of financial circumstance, the job is to find a way to compete,” Cashman said at Friday’s Grapefruit League Media Day. “Putting together a team, there’s a lot of different avenues to do so, whether it’s financial might, whether it’s amateur draft, international and pro scouting, development, waiver claims, minor leagues, free-agent signings.
“Ultimately, the Dodgers have raised the bar. They’re the defending world champions. They’re doing a lot of things good, which, again, as a competitor, you’re always looking inward at what are we not doing well enough compared to our competitors. I think we do a lot of things extremely well, if not better than most of our competitors. It doesn’t mean we’re operating perfectly at all aspects. So our job is to raise our game. If you can’t do it in every category, then you got to raise your game in enough categories to get yourself in a position to be the best.”
The Athletic’s prospects reporter, Keith Law, ranked the Dodgers’ farm system as the third-best in baseball despite not drafting near the top. The Yankees’ system landed at No. 21. Part of why the Yankees have fallen in recent years is due to trades they’ve executed, along with underperformance from their top prospects, like Spencer Jones and Roderick Arias, and injuries.
The Dodgers have also reeled in elite talent out of Japan since Shohei Ohtani signed with Los Angeles in free agency. Despite investing significant resources in the Japanese market, the Yankees have not rostered a Japanese player since Masahiro Tanaka. So, it’s not just the financial might where the Yankees are falling short.
Brian Cashman talked about the Yankees inability to sign Japanese players lately
“[Hideki] Matsui still makes his home in the New York City area. Ichiro Suzuki, [Hiroki] Kuroda, [Masahiro] Tanaka – they all loved playing here. We have work to do clearly” pic.twitter.com/beKPES4rxC
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 14, 2025
“We’re trying to find a way to do that continually and reassess everything we’re doing to find a way to navigate all opponents,” Cashman said. “Hopefully, we can find a way, in 2025 for instance, to navigate the American League East, first and foremost, and the entire American League second, and push ourselves into the World Series. I know (the Dodgers) are the odds-on favorite. It doesn’t mean they will (win the World Series). We’d like to be in a position to take another shot at a title. I got too much respect for all the teams that we got to go through first before we get there and we’ll see. Everybody’s got to raise their game always on a year-in and year-out basis. I don’t care who it is.”
Even with a payroll over $300 million, the Yankees have a significant hole at third base. Cashman said DJ LeMahieu will get an opportunity to win the job out of spring training, but there are concerns with his recent injury history, his age and declining contact-quality metrics. Cashman would not comment if he needed to shed salary before adding an infielder. It has been previously reported that the Yankees would need to trade Marcus Stroman’s $18.3 million salary (the Yankees would have to eat a portion of his contract) if they were to add another third baseman.
“We’re fully committed on a year-in and year-out basis through the Steinbrenner family of fielding a contender, and that’ll never change,” Cashman said. “I think this winter’s efforts, whether it was Juan Soto or the players we ultimately pursued and secured via trade or free agency showed that it cost money to get some of those guys imported in here. On a year-in and year-out basis we reaffirm our commitment to the strong payroll and trying to have a real quality team that our fans can be proud of and believe in.”
The past two offseasons have brought about concerns from the Yankees’ fan base that not only are the Dodgers able to spend at astronomical levels on top available free agents, but the Mets, too. Chicago Cubs star outfielder Kyle Tucker is set to hit free agency after this season. Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Japanese first baseman Munetaka Murakami should also be available. The Yankees, Mets and Dodgers could be involved in free-agency negotiations with all three players.
It’s now a question of whether the Yankees can directly compete with both teams for the best free agents when they’ve lost out in back-to-back offseasons purely because they didn’t have the highest bids. The Yankees offered Soto $760 million, but he signed for $765 million. Technically, the contract could reach $805 million if the Mets void Soto’s opt-out when he can become a free agent, which means the Yankees were $45 million short. The Yankees were $25 million short for Yamamoto. In both cases, the Yankees tapped out of the bidding when it reached levels Steinbrenner was uncomfortable exceeding.
“First, you don’t know what the offers are, right? You’re flying blind,” Cashman said. “In Juan Soto’s case, in the end, when the dust settles it was what a $5 million difference? Technically, if you don’t include the bonuses and everything else like that with whatever the extras are and however you calculate that. You don’t know where your opposition is. You take on the cues that the agents guide and direct you with. In some cases, they tell you they have this. In other cases, it’s blind bidding. In some cases, they say they’ve got something that they don’t and you don’t find out until later. Sometimes they tell you they got it and you just have to choose to navigate what you’re comfortable with. Sometimes you don’t win the day.
“We’ll continue to put our best foot forward with offers that we can live with and in an environment that we’re proud of.”
(Photo: Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)
