Yankees Defend Free Agent Shopping Spree, Introduce Teixeira
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Despite Big Off Season Signings Like
Teixeira, Yankees Payroll Is Less Than '08 |
The Yankees yesterday introduced free agent acquisition 1B Mark Teixeira and again defended their historic offseason player spending that has surpassed $423M in future salary commitments. The recent moves, which also include signings of Ps CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, have generated strident criticism from several club execs, such as Brewers Owner Mark Attanasio and Marlins President David Samson, and some calls for MLB to pursue a salary cap in its next labor deal. "We've always played by the rules and we're still playing by the rules," said Yankees COO Lonn Trost. "Even after this (deal with Teixeira), our payroll right now is $20(M) less than what it was last year. Which part of this do these other clubs not like? Is it the revenue-sharing funds we've paid year after year? Is it all the luxury tax? These other clubs have taken that money. We're doing everything we can to invest in our team, our community and MLB. It's what the Steinbrenners have always done and will continue to do. No one has told us that anything we're doing is at all improper or incorrect." Trost said the Yankees have not held any recent, direct conversations with their critics among the other clubs regarding the outlays, and have no plans to do so when teams convene next week for quarterly owners meetings in Phoenix (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
DEFENDING THEIR TURF: Yankees President Randy Levine yesterday, responding to criticism surrounding the team's signings, said, "The New York Yankees purchase and operate the New York Yankees. It's a lot more expensive than to purchase and operate the Milwaukee Brewers. We provide an awful lot -- hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue-sharing to these teams. ... When the rules change, everybody can adjust. Otherwise, it's sour grapes" (NEWSDAY, 1/7). Yankees co-Chair Hal Steinbrenner: "This organization does a lot for this industry as a whole, between the merchandise we sell and the tickets we sell and the millions of dollars in revenue sharing we contribute. If some of the owners are upset that we’re trying to invest in the team -- which we do for the fans, and only for the fans -- I’m not going to lose any sleep over it" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/7). In DC, Dave Sheinin notes the Yankees point out that the team had about $80M in payroll "come off the books in expired contracts this winter and that their 2009 payroll, though still the biggest in the game by far, will be lower than it was" last season (WASHINGTON POST, 1/7).
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Older Free Agents, Like Derek Lowe,
Seeing Slow Market For Their Services |
YOUNG MAN'S GAME: SI.com's Tom Verducci wrote what has been a "slow market for almost every player not negotiating with the New York Yankees has become downright cruel for the aging position player," and some of them may be "forced into retirement rather than taking a cut-rate deal." MLB teams are "convinced they are better off giving young players a shot than taking the risk that a once-great player still has something left in the tank." MLB insiders have "speculated that the trend away from older players also may involve bans on performance-enhancing drugs and amphetamines, which some believe impact the older player more than the younger player" (SI.com, 1/6). MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds said, “If you look at the guys that are getting the big money, it’s not the late-age superstar.” MLB Network’s Joe Magrane: “I think a lot of it has to do with the post-steroid era and (post) amphetamine era when we’re starting to see this is not an old, veteran-type guy who’s playing into his 40s. This is a young man’s game. Younger players are much more economical.” Reynolds: “This is the first winter after the Mitchell Report where they can really say, ‘We’re getting rid of guys’” (“Hot Stove,” MLB Network, 1/6). Meanwhile, SI.com's Cliff Corcoran wrote there are "signs that the already slow market is slowing down even further," and that "could be bad news for remaining free agents." With the Yankees having "presumably finished their shopping spree, and the Red Sox having restocked on the cheap," two of MLB's "biggest spenders have left the table and cashed in their chips" (SI.com, 1/6). ESPN’s Peter Gammons said, “As we saw this weekend when it was announced that ten major Broadway shows were closing in the month of January because of the economy, entertainment dollars are not out there the way some agents thought they would be” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 1/6).
TRYING TIMES: In N.Y., Ken Belson writes many are asking whether MLB, and "professional sports more broadly, will prove impervious to the grim realities of the economic cycle, or will suffer as teams did" during the collapsing economy of the 1930s. Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist said that the "last few recessions were mild enough that even the weakest teams got by." However, Zimbalist indicated that this economic period is "more analogous to the economic chaos of the 1930s, and historians should look to that era for hints on how teams will hold up in the coming years" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/7). However, agent Scott Boras said, “ While we have a lull in our national economy, the baseball economy is one that has a safety net around it because they’ve got vendor contracts that keep revenues forthcoming for five or six years at a time. Fortunately for baseball, they’re in the middle of those contracts.” Boras added, “When you go to look at baseball revenues, and the success of this industry in particular, apart from the economy, we can say that even if baseball took a 5% or 10% decline in its revenues, which were record revenues in 2008, you are going to have still what would be record revenues near $6 [B] in 2009, which would be more than they made in 2007. The state of the game is very healthy” (“Mike Francesa,” YES Network, 1/6).
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