What began as a flurry of pickups for the New York Yankees this past offseason after losing embarrassingly to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Bronx Bombers have stayed silent for a little over a month with no new signings. MLB’s most well-known insider, Jeff Passan, came onto the Michael Kay Show on Tuesday and criticized Yankees’ owner Hal Steinbrenner for refusing to spend. Many of the franchise’s fans agree with Passan’s statements and are left wondering why Steinbrenner had stopped spending despite some holes in the roster still needing to be met.
The Bronx Bombers have not made any moves in January. Since then, the Yankees have been on a holdout on grabbing anyone until they can offload starting pitcher Marcus Stroman. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, they are trying to trade Marcus Stroman in hopes of shedding his contract.
The main issue is that teams will not be interested in Stroman’s $18 million valuation and that other pitchers in the free agency market are believed to have better value. Pitchers like Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, and Jack Flaherty have much better value due to their overall skill set and short-term deals.
This hold-up by Bronx Bombers owner Hal Steinbrenner has resulted in his idea to not go over his budget and trigger the luxury tax threshold of $301 million, treating such a threshold as a salary cap. While this could be an issue that can be understood for mid-to-low market teams, the Evil Empire is far from that.
The Yankees are valued at a whopping $7.5 billion as of 2024 and were not afraid to spend, especially during the early 2000s when it seemed like the Bronx Bombers had bought themselves an All-Star team. They are no longer in that 2000s era, and for some reason, Hal Steinbrenner refuses to spend.
When Jeff Passan came onto the Michael Kay Show, he was highly critical of Hal Steinbrenner’s current status in the off-season. While Hal Steinbrenner was holding out, their competitors kept on spending. The Los Angeles Dodgers had signed the likes of Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott, Hyeseong Kim, and Roki Sasaki in January, creating an absurdly strong arsenal of players. The New York Mets broke the internet in signing Juan Soto for a whopping $765 million.
While the Yankees got a few names of their own, Hal Steinbrenner and company stayed completely silent in January while many other players were available for the Boys in Pinstripes to pick up.
Passan called out this silence by Hal Steinbrenner and was quoted saying:
“If the penalties are so tough, then why are the Dodgers and Mets doing it? At the end of the day, these are the New York freaking Yankees. If a luxury tax threshold is holding them back, it says more about where they are as a franchise than it does about the luxury tax itself. When have the Yankees ever played third fiddle in baseball? That’s exactly where they are right now when it comes to spending.”
This statement holds more value as it’s not just Yankees fans yelling this out into the airwaves; now, they have the most trusted MLB insider saying the same thing about the Bronx Bombers and Hal Steinbrenner. According to FanGraphs, the Dodgers, Phillies, Mets, and Yankees are the top teams paying the luxury tax for the 2025 season. The Dodgers paid the most at $382 million, the Phillies at second, $308 million, the Yankees third at $303 million, and the Mets at fourth with $294 million.
Steinbrenner was interviewed on Tuesday on the YES Network to give answers on his recent silence over the past month.
“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” Steinbrenner told YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits on Tuesday. “We’ll see if it pays off. They still have to have a season relatively injury free for it to work out for them, and it’s a long season, as you know, and once you get to the postseason, anything can happen. We’ve seen that time and time again.”
Hal Steinbrenner should not play the waiting game right before spring training, as they may soon have to face off against the Los Angeles Dodgers once again in what is an even more stacked team than in 2024. With injury-prone players like DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton on the roster, Hal Steinbrenner may be willing to make a risky bet and have a close repeat to the 2024 regular season.
If deals don’t get done soon and the Bronx Bombers are closing the books on their roster by March, fans can only hope that the franchise doesn’t scramble during the trade deadline and make the right moves before it’s too late.
The New York Yankees are coming off their best season since 2009, and while things did look bright for them during the off-season, aside from losing Juan Soto, fans and even journalists are wondering where the Yankees went. Signing a few dominant pitchers and significant defensive bats created a more balanced team, but there’s still work to be done. Unfortunately, no work has been done for a month, and the silence is deafening.
They still need to address the third base position and find a way to offload Marcus Stroman that can accept his contract. Time is ticking for the Bronx Bombers, and fans can only hope that their franchise can pull a few clutch shots before spring training starts.
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