NEW YORK — On Nov. 20, 2008, Hal Steinbrenner was officially named Yankees general partner and the following year the team went to the World Series for the first time in six years, winning it for the first time in nine years. They did so with a major league-leading payroll of $201,441,289 which was nearly $70 million more than the second-highest payroll of the Mets.
Since then, the Yankees have consistently had the highest or second-highest payrolls in baseball but have not been to the World Series. After finishing third in 2013 with 85 wins and the fourth straight highest payroll in baseball, Steinbrenner made the statement that the Yankees shouldn’t have to have a $220 million payroll to win. He’s reiterated that a few times since, at the same time the Yankees repeatedly exceeded the luxury tax threshold from 2010-2017 and again in 2019 with no World Series to show for it.
This year their projected payroll according to FanGraphs is $246 million which, under the new Collective Balance Tax thresholds, will be about $16 million above the first threshold for which they will be taxed 20%. It is also perilously close to the second threshold of $250 million for which the tax goes up to 32%. Despite this, Steinbrenner found himself coming under some media and fan criticism for choosing not to address the Yankees’ primary need at shortstop through the free-agent market where five of the best shortstops in the game — Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Javy Baez — were all available, albeit for substantial nine-figure asking prices.
