Should Yankees follow Rays’ or Dodgers’ model for roster building?

As evident from the World Series, the Rays and Dodgers have built their rosters in different ways. Which should the Yankees follow?

How the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Dodgers have assembled their rosters primarily reflects how much revenue each team annually generates, how much each club can spend on player salaries, and the mindset of the front office.

The Dodgers have a team payroll of just over $190 million, the second-highest amount in MLB, just behind the New York Yankees. In sharp contrast, the Rays have a team payroll of just over $85 million, significantly less than the Dodgers, and the fourth-lowest among the 30 MLB teams.

Despite a huge gap in club revenue and total player salary between the Rays and the Dodgers, both teams were tops in their respective leagues and plowed through the competition en route to the World Series.

Surprisingly, while eight teams above the 2020 league average payroll ($128,440,116) made the playoffs, an equal number of clubs below the 2020 league average payroll also did. The Miami Marlins had the lowest roster payroll of any MLB organization and managed to advance to the NLDS.

The data suggest that how teams model and strategize the formation of their clubs is as equally important as how much revenue teams generate and spend on constructing their rosters. Baseball organizations that employ astute, insightful, shrewd, and experienced scouts and player evaluation personnel can perform very well regardless of their financial situation.

Nonetheless, having deep pockets is still an advantage because it increases flexibility in personnel choices and opens up a greater number of roster opportunities over time. And obviously, wealthy teams can pursue the best players while teams with little money cannot. But this by itself does not result in success on the field.

Baseball teams today also must have smart people on staff to accurately assess the potential of players at all positions on the roster. This principle is more important today than ever before due to the luxury tax threshold and the availability of a large battery of performance analytics.

Fortunately, the Yanks have substantial amounts of money. They also have general manager Brian Cashman to spot the true potential of young and mid-career players. The Dodgers, too, have a lot of money and savvy club executives.

The Rays, along with the Oakland Athletics (think Moneyball) are now becoming well-known for their exceptional ability to identify, select, and develop young ballplayers despite having limited payroll budgets. This is not a recent situation for the two teams. Both organizations have consistently produced teams with impressive won-loss records during the regular season over time despite generating modest revenue.

Should the Yanks consider adopting the Rays’ and Athletics’ approach to building their rosters? At the very least, the team could use a greater portion of its wealth to improve its pool of scouts and analytical personnel.

This would increase the Bombers’ success in finding and recruiting outstanding players which, in turn, would more than likely lead to world championships and greater revenue in the future. The potential ROI for doing this could be substantial for the club.

The Rays, in comparison, tend to have many above-average performers at various positions (as opposed to star power, which the Yankees and Dodgers have) who play well together but are unlikely to he high-priced free agents or legend of the game. Tampa Bay also has a very good manager in Kevin Cash (setting aside for the moment his ill-advised move to prematurely yank Blake Snell from Game 6 of the World Series) to guide them.

The Rays are built to be successful but only for brief periods. The team must undergo frequent roster changes due to a lack of funds. Then it’s re-tool/rebuild all over again.

The Yanks with their outstanding players, like the Dodgers, are built to be consistently victorious over longer periods during the regular season. And like the Dodgers, they are constructed to go deeper into the playoffs often over time. The Yanks’ roster is intended to be relatively stable and dominant, and become a dynasty.

This is where money does matter. Teams with less capital will have fleeting success if they are fortunate to identify and add affordable above-average players to their rosters, while teams with substantial revenue will have consistent superior rosters and triumphs over time. Clubs with deep pockets can hire extraordinary players to long-term contracts and meet the analytics requirements that fit their needs.

The Yanks are correct to follow the Dodgers’ model for building their roster. The Rays personnel model is fine for a small market team with limited resources, and what they are doing works well for them. However, the Yanks should not try to strictly emulate the Rays’ model because they’re not working with peanuts. They can use an analytics-heavy approach and still spend big on players who will move the needle for them.

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