{"id":50938,"date":"2025-11-24T22:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/50938\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:27:09","slug":"yankees-steinbrenner-says-lower-payroll-ideal-if-unlikely-questions-clubs-profitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/50938\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Steinbrenner says lower payroll ‘ideal’ if unlikely, questions club\u2019s profitability"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time Hal Steinbrenner held a press conference, he primarily focused on his decision to trim the Yankees\u2019 long-standing ban on facial hair<\/a>, which his father, George, implemented in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

On Monday, however, Steinbrenner was repeatedly asked about potentially shaving his team\u2019s payroll as he spoke to reporters in a group setting for the first time since February. The owner addressed several other topics, including his team\u2019s shortcomings in 2025, but finances dominated the conversation.<\/p>\n

Most notably, Steinbrenner said \u201cof course\u201d it would be \u201cideal\u201d to lower payroll after stating the Yankees ended up at $319 million for the 2025 season. That doesn\u2019t make such a goal likely, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that mean that\u2019s going to happen? Of course not,\u201d Steinbrenner continued after declining to announce a target budget. \u201cWe want to field a team we know could win a championship, or we believe could win a championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cPayroll has gone up probably every year. It doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t go slightly down one year and then up the year after that. It all depends on what\u2019s out there and what the possibilities are and how much I feel we\u2019re able \u2013 or we need \u2013 to pull the trigger on those possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner has previously called $300 million payrolls unsustainable, but he has cleared that number for competitive balance tax purposes the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

According to Cot\u2019s Contracts\u2019 projections, the Bombers\u2019 2024 payroll<\/a> was just over $316 million, and they paid over $66 million in penalty taxes per season in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The second-highest threshold for competitive balance tax penalties is $284 million next season, while the highest threshold is $304 million. As of Monday morning, the Yankees\u2019 projected competitive balance tax payroll for 2026 was $278.1 million, per Cot\u2019s<\/a>. That ranked second in baseball behind the back-to-back champion Dodgers ($314.8 million) and accounted for Trent Grisham\u2019s $22.025 qualifying offer<\/a>, Ryan Yarbrough\u2019s $2.5 million contract, Tim Hill\u2019s $3 million club option and the non-tendering of five relievers, including Mark Leiter Jr.<\/p>\n

The Yankees are still pursuing a reunion with Cody Bellinger, who is expected to sign a nine-figure deal. They also need bullpen and bench pieces, and they would benefit from adding a frontline starter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner said, \u201cI really love our starting rotation next year\u201d once Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rod\u00f3n return from injuries in the early part of the season, barring any setbacks. But he also repeated evergreen statements, saying the Yankees would keep all of their options open and that general manager Brian Cashman should present all possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can talk before [Cashman] goes into the Winter Meetings [in December] about a range,\u201d Steinbrenner said of the payroll, \u201cbut because it\u2019s a fluid situation, that range can go bye-bye in two seconds if there\u2019s a deal that arises that I feel would be very beneficial to some area of need that we have. It\u2019s hard to give you a number.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked last week if it\u2019s realistic for the Yankees to stay under $300 million and fill out their roster the way they need to, Cashman said, \u201cI think it could go both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor Concerns?<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner, echoing comments previously shared by Cashman<\/a>, also said that potential future changes to the sport\u2019s economic model and concerns over a potential work stoppage \u2013 the collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2026 season \u2013 will not impact how the Yankees approach this offseason.<\/p>\n

He did, however, reiterate he would consider supporting a salary cap \u2013 something owners generally want and players have long stood against \u2013 so long as it comes with a salary floor \u201cthat would be reasonable enough that it would improve competitive balance significantly in the sport, which many fans would argue is not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll always be among the highest payroll-wise,\u201d Steinbrenner added. \u201cWe always have been, always will be. Look, there\u2019s groups of fans out there in different areas, including my hometown here in Tampa \u2013 I\u2019ve addressed this before \u2013 that come to spring training thinking their team has little chance of making the playoffs. Those fans would argue that\u2019s not good for baseball as a whole. It\u2019s a valid argument, whether it\u2019s true or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do the Yankees Make Money?<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner did argue against perceptions of his profits as he was quizzed about his payroll plans.<\/p>\n

At one point, Steinbrenner was asked, \u201cI\u2019ve seen it suggested that your revenues were over $700 [million], so I\u2019m assuming you make a profit. Is that fair as well?\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner replied, \u201cNo, it\u2019s not fair, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you take a loss,\u201d the reporter asked in a follow-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to get into it. But that\u2019s not a fair statement or an accurate statement. Everybody wants to talk about revenues. They need to talk about our expenses, including the $100 million expense to the city of New York that we have to pay every Feb. 1, including the COVID year,\u201d Steinbrenner said, referring to the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) bonds<\/a> used to pay for Yankee Stadium. \u201cIt all starts to add up in a hurry. Nobody spends more money, I don\u2019t believe, on player development, scouting, performance science. These all start to add up. If you want to go look at the revenues, you got to somehow try to figure out the expense side as well. You might be surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way to prove Steinbrenner\u2019s implication that the Yankees are not profitable, as the team is not going to open its books to the public. But his refusal to clarify whether or not the Yankees are profitable invites an interpretation that the team loses money\u2014an incredible notion\u2014ahead of what is certain to be a bloody labor battle next winter.<\/p>\n

When asked later on if he said the Yankees didn\u2019t make money in 2025, Steinbrenner responded, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna get into our finances. I simply said what he implied was not correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans, of course, are not concerned with Steinbrenner\u2019s profits with their team in the midst of a 16-year championship drought, the second-longest in Yankees history. After seeing their team get bounced by the Blue Jays in the ALDS last month, they expect the owner to address the club\u2019s needs, costs be damned.<\/p>\n

Keeping Up With The Dodgers<\/p>\n

While the Yanks have been among the league\u2019s highest spenders for decades, they have trailed the Dodgers and\/or Mets in recent seasons, including this past one<\/a>. Steinbrenner was quick to point out that the Queens club ($338.2 million payroll in 2025) didn\u2019t even make the playoffs, but the Yankees watched the Dodgers ($415.2 million) beat Toronto for their second championship in a row after defeating the pinstripers in the 2024 Fall Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a correlation between spending the most money and winning a championship, I still think it\u2019s a weak correlation and sample size of data. But they earned every bit of it,\u201d Steinbrenner said of the Dodgers after previously questioning whether their payroll would pay off.<\/p>\n

Yet he added, \u201cBut again, we\u2019ll see what they do next year and we\u2019ll see how it pans out. There was nothing low about my payroll and the Mets\u2019 payroll. Look where we ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point, there is a segment of the Bronx faithful \u2013 as well as other fanbases \u2013 that is worried the ultra-affluent Dodgers are pulling away from the Yankees and the rest of the league.<\/p>\n

Steinbrenner said \u201cof course it\u2019s a concern,\u201d but he\u2019s also not certain that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a concern anytime I feel that one team is pulling away from the other 29, [or] selfishly pulling away from me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not quite sure I\u2019m convinced of that yet because so much happens during the course of the baseball season. But all we can do is do the best we can, put the best team and the best roster together that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Hal Steinbrenner held a press conference, he primarily focused on his decision to trim the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,28436,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-50938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-hal-steinbrenner-yankees-payroll-owners-meetings","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}