|
New York Yankees
Scouting Report
By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
| |
Thanks to the Boss's open-wallet policy, nothing can stop
Bernie Williams and the Yanks from
contending.
(John Iacono)
|
Life
as the highest of high-revenue clubs is very good, except for
the rare mornings when the fresh bagels are a bit tardy.
"Where are those bagels today? I'm starved,"
Yankees rightfielder Paul O'Neill wondered out loud one day
at the team's spring training
headquarters in Tampa. As if on cue, a door near O'Neill
opened and a cart loaded with bagels and fresh fruit was
wheeled toward the gleaming clubhouse
commissary.
While much of the rest of baseball makes do with crusty
doughnuts and cold cereal, George Steinbrenner applies the
same philosophy to keeping his team sated as he does to his
payroll: No expense is spared. "The hot tub, the
masseuse
... it's unbelievable here," says third baseman Dale
Sveum, who enjoyed a productive but decidedly coach-class
season with the Pirates last year. "Everything here is
first-class, right down to the batting-practice pitchers.
I've never seen so many quality
arms throwing batting
practice."
Likewise, Scott Brosius, another third base addition,
marvels at the luxuries he never knew with the low-budget
Athletics. "Here they drag the infield while you're
taking ground balls so that the dirt is always
smooth,"
he says. "I was amazed. And no, we
didn't have a masseuse in
Oakland."
The Yankees are an embarrassment of riches. Before the
first baseball was unpacked or the first bagel sliced, New
York's 25-man roster was essentially set. The only
competition was conditional—jockeying for playing time in
the event of an injury. How
loaded are the Yankees? So loaded that the 10th pitcher on
their 11-man staff, Darren Holmes, has a three-year
contract. So loaded that they have a backup at every
position with at least one year of major league experience.
So loaded that the three players
competing for the leftfield job—Chad Curtis, Tim Raines
and Darryl Strawberry—have 40 combined years of major
league
service.
In the past 11 months Steinbrenner has shelled out $9.6
million just to complete four trades (jettisoning
lefthander Kenny Rogers and third baseman Charlie Hayes,
acquiring Chuck Knoblauch and
righthander Hideki Irabu). That's more than the Expos will
pay their entire roster to actually play for them this year.
The trade for Knoblauch, in which the Yankees sent four
prospects and $3 million to acquire a $6-million-per-year
player, shows that Steinbrenner pays as much attention to
the luxury tax as a
New Yorker does to crosswalks. Even after that deal,
Steinbrenner courted and signed free-agent pitchers Orlando
Hernandez of Cuba and Ricardo Aramboles of the Dominican
Republic, swelling the Yankees' payroll to more than $70
million. "At some point, the
Boss has got to shut it down," says Mark Newman,
Steinbrenner's top
adviser.
Steinbrenner's largesse is largely bankrolled by his
broadcasting contracts—most notably a $486 million,
12-year local TV deal signed in 1989 with MSG. The team
ranked only 10th in home attendance last season, seemingly
appreciated more on the road,
where it was the biggest draw in baseball. With a new or
refurbished stadium probable after his Yankee Stadium lease
expires in 2002, Steinbrenner and his checkbook will be
more dangerous than
ever.
The reason other clubs lament Steinbrenner's lavish
spending habits is not that he can sign free agents, but
that he can't be hurt by free agents who go bust. For
instance, Steinbrenner is paying the Athletics half of the
$10 million remaining on
Rogers's contract just to take the pitcher off Steinbrenner's
hands. "The rest of us," says one American
League general manager, "have to live with our
mistakes."
Says New York righthander David Cone, whose surgically
repaired throwing shoulder will be closely monitored,
"The biggest difference between high-revenue clubs
like us and others is depth. This is the deepest team I've
been around
here."
Spring training for the Yankees is nothing but a six-week
sound check. "The only thing I'd like," manager
Joe Torre said early in camp, "is for my starting
pitchers to be healthy. That's about it." Absent were
the typical spring urgencies such as
breaking in a young starter or trying to fill a need with a trade.
Need? The toughest decisions in Tampa involve sesame or
poppy.
—by Tom Verducci
Scouting Report | By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
|
