With history telling us the New York Yankees have been one of the more high-spending teams in Major League Baseball, we expected a bit more of the same in 2019. General manager Brian Cashman took a more savvy approach to the offseason this year, passing on players like Manny Machado and Bryce Harper to sign cheaper veteran options.
Cashman brought on Troy Tulowtizki on a veteran minimum deal and DJ LeMahieu on a two-year, $24 million deal. While the latter appropriated some cash to the free agent pool, the investment wasn’t mind-blowing. Machado was in the market for a 10-year, $300 million contract, a deal the Yankees clearly weren’t interested in.
Have the New York Yankees been cheap this offseason?
Besides making Machado a legitimate offer, they elected to hang back and snag some veterans to improve the defense in the infield. Additionally, they took starting pitcher Luis Severino to arbitration over 850k. Severino was asking for $5.5 million while his expected rate was $5.1 million. The Yanks offered just $4.4 million which sent both parties to arbitration.
The 24-year-old earned a 3.39 ERA with a 2.95 FIP over 191.1 innings in 2018. The first half of the campaign was CY Young award-worthy, while the second saw him tumbling towards the bottom half of the league in overall pitching-quality.
Personally, I think the Yankees should have met in the middle of his asking price to instill confidence in the young pitcher, but they decided to make a problem out of less than $1 million.
What have the Yankees done so far?
By signing Tulo and LeMahieu, the Bombers have added five Gold-Glove awards to the infield without breaking the bank. My biggest argument is that the organization isn’t giving the players their piece of the pie, electing to take a more cost-efficient route, making the Steinbrenner family more rich and putting the Yanks in a more difficult position heading into what most thought to be a World Series contending year.