The REAL. BIG. Blog

By Matthew Martz

Who said Christmas doesn’t come early? It does if you ask New York Yankees fans. It looks like the Yankees are doing a lot more to move out of the past and into future besides just moving into their pricey new ballpark in 2009. They will have the 4 highest paid players in baseball with A-Rod, Teixeira, CC Sabathia and Derek Jeter, as they try to win the World Series for the first time since 2000. Third baseman Alex Rodriguez has baseball’s highest deal at $275 million over 10 years, and shortstop Derek Jeter is second at $189 million over 10 years. They have also signed Mark Teixeira for $180 million over eight years, and are spending $161 million for CC Sabathia over a seven-year contract term. The Yankees’ off-season spending spree has now climbed to a staggering $423.5 million.

One can only guess that the Man-Ram might muscle his way into this billionaire boys club. There’s no reason to assume the Yankees won’t sign him too. Especially just to rub in the face of Red Sox ownership and fans.

Spending roughly $95 million per year, for these four players is far more than the median payroll in Major League Baseball. In comparison, it’s $31 million more than the Rays and the Marlins spent to win 181regular season games and a total of eight postseason games in 2008, combined. We’ll see if the Yankees can manage that.

Does anyone remember when A-Rod and Gary Sheffield signed in 2004? Or when they traded for Randy Johnson and signed Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright in 2005. Or better yet when they signed Abreu in 2006 and Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens in 2007. The Yanks have done this before and just when it appears that they make bring home another pennant, poof!

Some veteran Yankees are going to start or continue to decline this year. Amongst those may be Jeter or Damon, Mariano Rivera, heck maybe even A-Rod or C.C. So adding “kids” like Teixeira may be a good move, but I would imagine when the 2009 season ends, the Yankees will win somewhere around 95 games, and as in years past be in a brawl with the Red Sox and Rays for a playoff spot.

With the Yankees spending money like OPEC, NY general manager, may be named Brian “Cash”man for a reason. But will throwing big cash at great players instead of spending smaller amounts on making a great team of good players, allow the Yanks to get back to the Fall Classic next October? Or will the end result be the Yanks second non-playoff season since 1993?