C’mon, Cashman…

“The goal is always to win a championship and to do it in a cost-effective manner.”

– Brian Cashman

Yup.  I’m sure that John Henry is really busted up that he has yet another ring but his team was over the luxury tax threshold in 2018.  What a bummer that must be…

In most cases, when I see comments with this level of absurdity I need to ask if the statement was uttered with a straight face.  But we’re dealing with Brian Cashman…

So next time you drop $35 bucks to park ¾ of a mile away from Yankee Stadium and then pay $13 for a Modelo once you’re there, consider:

The Yankees were worth $3.7 billion in 2017.

Hal Steinbrenner’s net worth was $1.1 billion in 2017.

Since then, the Yankees have raised ticket prices, and in 2018 had the 2^nd highest total attendance in MLB and 2^nd highest per game attendance – both about 10% increases from ’17.

It’s worth noting that the Dodgers were first in both categories.  Why is that worth noting?

Because the Dodgers were in the top three least expensive places to see a game in 2018.  The Yankees were one of the top three most expensive places to see a game.  40,000 at Yankee stadium >>>> 40,000 at Chavez Ravine.

The Yankees have yet to repay most of their debt, financial and otherwise, to taxpayers around Yankee Stadium since most of the cost of the construction of Yankee Stadium III was funded by businesses (and governments) that weren’t the Yankees.

The Yankees finished 9^th in MLB in total payroll in 2018.  Miami (27th in MLB) is closer to the Yankees in payroll than the Yankees are to Boston.

Craig Edwards from Fangraphs had a great article recently about this, so refer to his work, but essentially the Yankees have enough room with their payroll that they can sign (name any two big name free agents you want) and still not pay penalties.  Then they can sign another top free agent, and still pay only minimal fines – somewhere between $2 and $6 million.

Hey Brian, hate to break it to you:  The Yankees are up to almost two decades with only one ring, and anyone with eyeballs can see your bosses are rolling in more money than they can count.

Does that, in and of itself, make them bad people?  Well, maybe the part about fleecing local taxpayers, yeah.

Does it make you a bad person for following your bosses’ edicts?  Nope.

But maybe stop treating us like morons who’ll believe things are tight at Chez’ Steinbrenner while simultaneously insisting that winning is only worth it if it’s done in a financially viable manner.

(I know you’re surprised I got through that without mentioning Ellsbury’s name.)

Thanks to Forbes, CBS Money Watch, the New York Times and Baseball Reference for all the information.