Yankees: How to extend their championship window

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NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 3: Hal Steinbrenner, Managing General Partner of the New York Yankees (L) and Jim Delany, Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference addresses the media during a press conference to announce the New Era Pinstripe Bowl’s eight-year partnership with the Big Ten Conference at Yankees Stadium on June 3, 2013 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jason Szenes/Getty Images /

When looking at these salary figures, it’s obvious to see that the Yankees will have some tough financial decisions to make. With possible extensions looming for prospects like Torres and Andujar, they probably won’t be able to keep their entire core, despite the luxury tax set to rise to $210 million by 2021.

Yes, hopefully, Hal Steinbrenner will be willing to exceed the luxury tax, but he doesn’t seem to think spending big is necessary for the Yankees to win a World Series. While it seems likely the Yankees will exceed the tax, we should not expect them to shatter the threshold like they used to in the past. This is mainly due to the harsh penalties levied on teams who do surpass it.

As one team president told Jeff Passan of Yahoo:

"“The luxury tax might as well be a [salary] cap.”"

Because of this, the Yankees likely won’t want to extend all of their players to contracts that pay them big salaries into their mid-30s. This could risk them fielding a team much like the Yankees of recent past, who had little flexibility and popularity with fans as they were held down by big-money contracts to old players such as A-Rod, CC, Teixeira, Ellsbury, McCann, and Beltran.

Now the question is, how can the Yankees extend their championship window without saddling themselves with hefty salary obligations to players past their primes? The answer is giving out pre-arbitration extensions to core players beginning as soon as this season.

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