Jeff Passan puts Yankees on blast, but it's more of the same things fans are sick of

Jeff Passan has spent much of the past few years with a clear agenda to hype up the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles (remember last offseason when he said on the Pat McAfee show that the Yankees wish they were the O's?). We're not sure why, but it's just the way it is. And he's found new and improved ways to call out or go after the Yankees.

Can we blame him? Not necessarily. Every year the Yankees find new ways to expose themselves to more and more criticism. And there's nobody quicker to put them on blast than their own fans, which is why sometimes the frustration builds further when others enter the conversation late.

That's what happened with Passan regarding his most recent take involving the Yankees — something that was just a repetition of what fans have been lamenting about since December. We guess it's good that national writers are getting louder about it all, but Yankees fans really don't need to give rival fans any other excuse to point and laugh. Hal Steinbrenner already did that for everybody.

Passan appeared on Talkin' Baseball like a true man of the people, but when it came to the Yankees, he brought up the obvious and provided next to no valuable insight.

The Yankees have a hole at third base. It's ridiculous that they are considering an Oswaldo Cabrera and DJ LeMahieu spring training battle to determine who wins the starting job. It's even more absurd they have curbed their spending with a self-imposed salary cap in fear of exceeding the Cohen Tax threshold. Yes, we know, Alex Bregman is a fit.

Yankees' put on blast by ESPN's Jeff Passan for self-restricting their spending

For crying out loud, they aren't even going after cheap options like Jorge Polanco because there's speculation they are waiting to move off of other salary before welcoming in new commitments. The crazy part is that they have a ~$15 million buffer before that $301 million mark, so we're not sure what the wait is. Not to mention, the tax is applied at the end of the season, when the payroll number is final following Game 162.

The sad reality is that the Yankees might be third fiddle. The Dodgers have a group of billionaires operating with reckless abandon and sport the best attendance in the league for the last decade. The Mets have the richest owner in the sport. The Yankees were never going to be "The Yankees" forever. This always ebbs and flows. Did everyone forget about the dark times the franchise experienced from 1982-1993? It's not all sunshine and rainbows for eternity, and when you've been atop the game for so long, you have a target on your back, with other franchises looking to conquer the mountaintop.

Yankees fans are by no means surrendering to the reality of the situation. They're the most angry of all. And they'll continue to get angrier as outside voices wonder aloud what could've possibly happened to a franchise that just made the World Series, as they apparently have lost grip at the top spot. They haven't been tops for a while. From 2010-2023, they were among the biggest disappointments in the league, and it coincided with Steinbrenner's excessive caution with the payroll.

The Dodgers overtook them as the league's premier destination. The Mets are forever a threat in their backyard because of Cohen's net worth of $16 billion. This really isn't a crazy concept to grasp. But everyone agrees the Yankees must figure out a way to shift the narrative back in their favor — something they've failed to do for the last 15 years.