It’s completely truthful to marvel typically how a lot Hal Steinbrenner actually loves baseball, or loves being Boss (2.0) Steinbrenner of the Yankees. He usually appears uncomfortable — and infrequently downright reluctant — being successor to his late father because the principal proprietor of the Yankees. However the concept that Steinbrenner the Son one way or the other doesn’t spend sufficient on his workforce occurs to be nuts. It’s as drained a story because the one about Yankee followers being spoiled.
No, the issue isn’t that he doesn’t spend sufficient, or that he’s now been handed by Uncle Steve Cohen, someone else who have to be questioning how a lot is sufficient. Possibly the actual drawback is the best way Yankee cash — with Hal within the massive chair — has been spent on one Yankee workforce after one other not adequate to win all of it.
Here’s a reality of Main League Baseball, one which clearly would possibly change if the Dodgers proceed to win the World Sequence yearly:
Most cash doesn’t at all times win.
Oh, typically it does, the Dodgers simply proved that. However listed here are the final 10 groups to win the Sequence, and the place they ranked in payroll once they did:
2016 Cubs, third in payroll.2017 Astros, eighth.2018 Pink Sox, 1st.2019 Nationals, fifth.2020 Dodgers, 1st (in a shortened COVID season.)2021 Braves, eleventh.2022 Astros, seventh.2023 Rangers, seventh.2024 Dodgers, third.2025 Dodgers, 1st.
One thing else to learn about Hal Steinbrenner? Within the time he has been the boss, successfully since 2008, the Yankees have had the best payroll in baseball seven instances, the second-highest six instances, the third-highest twice. And have performed in two World Sequence and received one.
So, for followers considering that Hal isn’t engaged totally sufficient in an arms race with the Dodgers — and we’re not speaking about pitching arms — a good query is likely to be this:
How rather more does he have to spend after what he’s spent already on all these groups good however not adequate?
Steinbrenner continues to hammer house the purpose {that a} $300 million payroll must be sufficient. And guess what? He occurs to be proper about that. Proper now, this minute, he employs three gamers who as soon as signed $300 million contracts: Aaron Decide, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole. He has one other pitcher, Max Fried, engaged on a long-term, $218 million contract.
Cole clearly wasn’t on the sphere this season, having undergone Tommy John surgical procedure within the spring. However with that almost all latest $300 million Yankee payroll — round $50 million lower than what Cohen spent on baseball gamers in 2025 — Steinbrenner watched his workforce wrestle to make it previous the Pink Sox (who spent $100 million much less on gamers than the Yankees) within the wild card spherical. Then he watched his guys get rolled by the Blue Jays in a division sequence that was on its approach to being a sweep earlier than the Yankees got here again from 1-6 down in Sport 3.
Steinbrenner was requested the opposite day if it’s nonetheless reasonable for him to mainly suppose that yearly is Canyon of Heroes or bust for the Yankees.
“I certainly thought it was last year,” he stated. “And now we begin the work of next year. But I absolutely went into the playoffs believing we could win a championship.”
He had a proper. The Yankees had simply performed of their first Sequence in 15 years the earlier October. They’d come out of the common season — and regardless of a depressing stretch in the course of the season — tied with the Blue Jays for probably the most wins within the American League.
Then we noticed what we noticed in opposition to the Blue Jays when, based on the proprietor, his workforce didn’t “play up to its potential.” As soon as once more, the Yankees had been good however not adequate. It’s not a lot of a advertising slogan. However it’s who they’re, once they spend probably the most or once they don’t. The one comfort for Steinbrenner is that he obtained much more of a bang for his buck than Cohen did with a Mets workforce that didn’t even make the postseason and can go down as one of the embarrassing monetary failures we’ve ever seen in all skilled sports activities, not simply baseball.
By the best way? Go ask Pink Sox followers in the event that they suppose their proprietor is spending sufficient. Go ask Cubs followers. And in a 12 months when the Yankees had the third-highest payroll, the Blue Jays had been a few slots behind them in fifth. The Jays finally spent round $50 million lower than Steinbrenner’s workforce did on baseball gamers, and all of us noticed how shut they got here to beating the Dodgers within the Sequence, going house to Toronto forward three video games to 2, and having all these late-game possibilities in Sport 7 of the very best Sequence we would ever see.
None of that mattered on Tuesday, as a result of Steinbrenner obtained jumped virtually as quickly because the phrases about making an attempt to drop payroll even a little bit bit had been out of his mouth; and despite the fact that he virtually instantly added that it wasn’t more likely to occur.
Yet another factor about Hal Steinbrenner: Do the individuals who suppose he isn’t keen to go far sufficient to money-whip the competitors suppose he provided Juan Soto greater than $700 million final winter simply to indicate what an excellent sport he’s?
Yankee followers don’t have to like him. They’ll maintain falling again on the drained chorus about his father: What Would George Do? There’s an previous line we’ve all heard about how cash doesn’t purchase happiness, however will definitely finance an exhaustive search. Hal remains to be looking, in any case this time within the massive chair and all of the sources he has given his basic supervisor. However for those who suppose he’s the most important purpose the Yankees have received one World Sequence within the final 25 years, suppose once more.
