New York Yankees: Could the $189M Plan Get Aborted If Team Misses Playoffs?
September 6, 2012 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
We all know about the plan.
I call it the “$189 million plan” that the Yankees are attempting to get their payroll down to by 2014.
And for the last couple of seasons, the Yankees have gotten away from throwing big money at free-agent players and have worked with a budget going after veteran players.
For the most part, it has worked because the Yankees were winning and getting to the playoffs.
However in 2012, getting to the postseason isn’t a guarantee as it once used to be. Not when the Yankees have been playing sub-.500 baseball since the middle of July, a point in time where the Bombers had a 10-game lead in the A.L. East.
Plus, throw in the fact that the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays are knocking on the door of the division and could in fact knock the Yankees out of their top spot by the end of the month.
The last time the Yankees failed to make the postseason was back in the 2008 season; a year where the Rays and Boston Red Sox played in the ALCS and the Yankees watched the postseason from the comfort of their couches.
What happened that winter after they saw the Rays play in the World Series?
CC Sabathia got seven years and $162 million.
A.J. Burnett got five years and $82.5 million.
Mark Teixeira got eight years and $180 million.
And you can throw in the Yankees trading for Nick Swisher and re-signing Andy Pettitte for $5.5 million. Needless to say, the Yankees went on one of the most insane spending sprees as a result of not making the playoffs.
Four years later, the Yankees are potentially facing this situation again, and yet Hal Steinbrenner wants to get the payroll under $189 million.
Brian Cashman has tried to go with younger talent in the rotation with Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova and grooming Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances in the minor leagues.
Nova took a step back with his performance and also landed on the DL with a shoulder injury, Pineda tore a labrum in his shoulder and missed the entire 2012 season, Banuelos got shut down in the minors and Betances got demoted from Triple-A to Double-A.
Throw in the fact that Phil Hughes has been inconsistent the entire season as well, and you have a pitching staff present and future with tremendous question marks.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wrote about the Yankees potential 2014 payroll plan and wants to see Steinbrenner attempt to stick by it if the Yankees fail to make October in 2012.
Personally, I don’t think they will. As much as Hal keeps on sticking to that “goal,” winning in New York is always the ultimate goal when your last name is Steinbrenner.
Would they go the route of the Los Angeles Dodgers and trade for bad contracts of superstar players of other teams? Not likely.
But the fans who pay their hard-earned money to come to Yankee Stadium and hope for winning baseball are going to express their strong disapproval if the Yankees fail to make changes and improvement if the team doesn’t get back to October.
Am I hoping for 10-year deals for players on the wrong side of 30? Of course not.
But would I like to see the Yankees wisely use their resources to get better and get back to where they once were; you bet.
There’s still quite a bit of baseball left to play, and a lot can happen between now and the end of the season.
But I have a feeling that if the Yankees fail to make the postseason again this October, there might be some major changes made in the Bronx.
And one of those changes could be the plan to reduce the payroll to $189 million by 2014.
Stay tuned, Yankees Universe.
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