Hal Steinbrenner should take notice of Yankees failures after Red Sox bombshell news

While the New York Yankees tumble nearly out of the playoff picture, the Boston Red Sox continue to surge in spite of their front office seemingly holding them back. The Yankees' chief rivals are the top AL Wild Card team and are making a push for the division as their winning streak reaches seven games.

On Tuesday, they kept the fun going by signing Roman Anthony to an eight-year, $130 million extension. After just 46 games at the MLB level, Anthony is hitting .283 with an .828 OPS and 132 OPS+. And that's after he was terrible across his first week of action.

Why does this affect the Yankees? Truthfully, it's more of a message than anything — and it's one owner Hal Steinbrenner should take notice of. This deal does not change Anthony's timeline in Boston. The Red Sox get an extra year out of it, and that's it. They just bought out his arbitration years and saved themselves a headache with question marks and salary hearings.

As for the overall theme? The Red Sox, time and time again, have the upper hand over the Yankees in every way. With the exception of making franchise-altering decisions that make the fanbase want to go insane, the Red Sox have weathered through countless regime changes and have managed to slightly out-duel the Yankees since 2014, which is insane to think about. BEN CHERINGTON has the same amount of World Series titles as Brian Cashman since 2001.

Are we saying we'd rather the Red Sox's model? Not exactly. There's too much volatility there. But then how do these two teams have the same amount of division titles and World Series appearances over that span? It's because the Red Sox, whether irresponsibly or not, move on from front office personnel when they feel the time has passed.

The Yankees? They keep the same people in place for 25 years despite there being evidence to the contrary that they should. Think about it. Cashman has been the GM since 1998. Michael Fishman, the current VP and Assistant GM, has been with the organization in an integral role since 2004. Damon Oppenheimer, the Director of Player Personnel, has been in that role since 2001. Kevin Reese, the VP of Player Development, was hired by the organization in 2007 and rose to his current role in 2017.

Yankees' failure to think creatively underscored by Red Sox Roman Anthony bombshell

Despite the fact the Yankees have produced only Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner and Anthony Volpe as their top WAR leaders since 2000, all of these people have only gained power. Meanwhile, the Red Sox, after an ALCS berth in 2021 that hurt their draft position, just plucked Anthony in the second round back in 2022 and he's now set up to be one of the most successful young players in the game.

The Yankees? They've watched countless development failures unravel before their very eyes and destroy the morale of the fanbase. Gary Sanchez. Greg Bird. Tyler Wade. Tyler Austin. Estevan Florial. Luis Severino. Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier. Miguel Andújar. Oswald Peraza. Everson Pereira. Who are the best pitchers? Jordan Montgomery, Dellin Betances and Michael King? And we're watching Volpe and Austin Wells crumble day in and day out. Feel free to let us know which duds we forgot!

This organization has gotten by spending enough money on talent to be passable, but never enough to be a juggernaut. And that's because they never have young talent supplementing their highest-paid names. And don't forget, they tried to lowball Aaron Judge and nearly lost him!

Over this same span, the Red Sox have developed Mookie Betts, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rick Porcello, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Marcelo Mayer, and Anthony. Sure, they've had plenty of developmental failures — like every other team — but their wins have netted them a World Series title and multiple better cores than the Yankees. We shouldn't even be talking about Benintendi, Bradley Jr. and Porcello, but those were real major league players who contributed to a World Series run. They TRADED Betts and Devers and somehow didn't plunge into the depths of baseball. And right now, Duran, Rafaela, Mayer and Anthony are already nearly more successful than what the Yankees have been able to cultivate over the last 25 years. But the Yankees will hang their hat on Aaron Judge for as long as they can.

This is not an exaggeration. It's simply "what is". Hal Steinbrenner will never do anything to change the status quo, because he already should've done so by now two times over. All this is to say, if you hear modern day Yankees fans complaining, you can at least understand why. No need to feel bad for us — just comprehend the context, and the discourse will be better off.