One Billion Dollars In 13 Months

Here is a partial list of the money the Yankees, over the last 13 months, have agreed to spend:

Jorge Posada:     4/ 52.4   Nov 29, 2007
Alex Rodriguez:  10/275     Dec 13, 2007
Mariano Rivera:   3/ 45     Dec 17, 2007
Robinson Cano:    4/ 30     Feb     2008
Nick Swisher:     5/ 26.75  Nov 18, 2008
CC Sabathia:      7/161     Dec 11, 2008
A.J. Burnett:     5/ 82.5   Dec 12, 2008
Mark Teixeira:    8/180     Dec 23, 2008

That's roughly $850 million in free agent signings (actually, Swisher's contract was acquired in a trade). With various extras and options (e.g., two club options on Cano would add another 29), this list could top $900 million. And that doesn't include the bloated salaries they'll be paying to CI (20), Damon (13), and Shemp (13) in 2009. New York has agreed to nearly one billion dollars in new contracts in a little over one year.

So can all the idiots who've been referring to the Red Sox as "the new Yankees" stfu? The Yankees are "the new Yankees". Or the old Yankees. This is nothing more than a return to the Steinbrennerian tradition of throwing piles of money at the wall and hoping some of it sticks. The one difference is they are throwing money at players in their late 20s and not their mid-30s. Actually, that's not completely true. If he stays in New York, CC will pocket $23 million for each of his age 32-33-34 seasons. Ouch.

The Yankees lost two of their three biggest bats (Giambi, Abreu) and their best starter (Mussina). Teixeira fills some of that void, but if Cano, Posada, and Shemp can't rebound from 2008, their offense will not have improved that much. Wang will be back and CC may match what the Bigot did last year, but AJ's health remains a big question mark. The media may crow about the potential for these guys to win 120 games (the same people who promised Randy Johnson would notch 30 wins for the 2005 Chokers), but they have merely narrowed the distance between themselves and the Red Sox/Rays.

I'm looking forward to Mr. Hankee blowing his stack on a daily basis when this team, who despite the cash outlay noted above finished in third place last year and for whom anything less than a World Series championship in 2009 will be a colossal failure, is 6 GB in June.