Yankees' wasteful Trent Grisham addition was cost of doing business for Juan Soto

Sometimes, you have to give to get. And if you're the New York Yankees, you always do. There very much exists a "Yankees Tax" on trades, whether you believe it or not. Every insider has alluded to it. It's not just fans crying about not getting their way.

Though Brian Cashman and the Yankees very clearly came out on top of the Juan Soto trade with the San Diego Padres, they paid some sort of price. On top of depleting their pitching depth (which was always a necessary evil), the Yankees inherited exactly $37 million in salary when they acquired Soto's record-breaking arbitration year and Trent Grisham's $5.5 million arbitration settlement.

Soto's impact, obviously, has been worth every penny. You'd pay $50 million for him to do what he's doing right now. As for Grisham? Well ...

Though fans have directed their ire towards his incompetence at the plate ... it's all miscontrued. For one, Grisham was never brought in to provide a semblance of offense. His value lies on the defensive side of the ball, and every day Aaron Judge can DH, it's a huge help.

Secondly, Grisham doesn't play! Why is anybody getting mad at a guy who's never been known for his offense and has only logged 42 plate apperances this season!?

Yankees' wasteful Trent Grisham addition was cost of doing business for Juan Soto

Taking on Grisham's salary and essentially having an overpriced fourth outfielder mostly viewed as a defensive replacement is a luxury, and was the cost of doing business for the Yankees to acquire Soto.

The whole reason the Padres were looking to trade the star slugger was because they needed to reduce payroll. From a business standpoint, offloading this $30+ million wasn't the preferred way of going about it, but it was the easiest. Soto is among the best talents of the game and still had a big price tag attached to him with one year of control left.

The Padres also knew there'd be an opportunity to get rid of additional salary by attaching it to Soto. The contracts of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Yu Darvish are essentially unmovable. At the time, the same was true for Jake Cronenworth. There were limited options for the Padres to cut costs, but Grisham's 2024 figure was small enough to justify tacking him onto the Soto deal.

That's why Yankees fans complaining about Grisham's offense is a fruitless endeavor. If he wasn't in the deal, Soto isn't in the Bronx (or, at least, the Yankees are surrendering prospects of greater value). Not every player on this roster is going to be putting up .275 averages and .800 OPS marks.

All everybody wants is for the Yankees to burn through money to get back to the mountaintop. They literally did that in the Soto trade with the Padres. Pick what you're going to complain about, and get it right.