Yankees Editorial: Yankees Have Relatively Quiet Offseason

By Brendan Fitzgerald | Feb 13, 2015

The Yankees had a relatively quiet off-season in terms of the magnitude of free agents they added. They didn’t target high end players like Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, or Hanley Ramirez. Instead, they added nice value players such as Chase Headley and Stephen Drew through the free agent market.

Miles Wray of Fangraphs.com looked at the amount of free agent activity for the Yankees this off-season and compared it to their recent past. The proxy used to gauge the magnitude of offseason spending are the amount of future guaranteed years and salary commitments that the team shelled out as well as a qualitative observation of which players were signed.

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Despite ranking fourth in MLB in future years committed to players (11) and fifth in total salary commitments ($101 M) Wray believes that the Yankees showed some restraint this off-season. This includes a look at the individual players signed (nobody over 4 years or $50 M) and a comparison to the past few years. Last year, for instance, the Yankees committed 30 years and $483 M to players. That is a gigantic increase over what they did this past off-season.

The four years prior were similar to what they did this off-season. Only eight total years and $65.5 M were used up in the 2012-13 offseason. The numbers were 7 at $26 M, 12 at $130 M, and 5 at $20.4 M in the three years before that. Some of those years include players like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera who were technically free agents but really weren’t going to leave New York. This might oversell the amount actually spent on free agents.

The 2008-09 offseason was similar to what happened in 2013-14. 26 total years were committed at $447.25 M. This was the CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett year where the Yankees augmented an already excellent team to put them over the top and win a World Series. Over the past seven seasons the Yankees have had 2 massive cash outlays and five comparatively minimal ones.

Wray’s big finish: “It looks like there will be a couple of odd truths about the Yankees in future offseasons. One, they actually won’t outspend each and every of their rivals. And two: the Yankees can get mighty efficient when they act that way.”

The Yankees, just like every other team, can’t monumentally increase their accounts payable every single offseason. These massive spending frenzies come in cycles. As Wray notes, the 2018-19 might be one to watch closely if the 5 year gap between huge monetary outlays is a relevant predictor.

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