Steinbrenner: Yankees current payroll 'not sustainable'

With a 35-17 record that leads AL clubs and trails only the Phillies in the NL, the Yankees have been among the very best teams in baseball to start the 2024 campaign. That being said, all that winning has come at a price: RosterResource pegs the club’s payroll at a whopping $302M this season, trailing only the Mets and Dodgers for the third-highest in the league while surpassing the fourth-place Phillies by nearly $60M. 

It appears that club chairman Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t plan to keep payroll at those top-of-the-line levels, however, as he told reporters (including Dan Martin of the New York Post) yesterday that payroll will be coming down in the future.

“I’m gonna be honest, payrolls at the levels we’re at right now are simply not sustainable for us financially,” Steinbrenner said, as relayed by Martin.

He went on to point to the luxury tax as a limiting factor on the club’s spending. New York’s payroll is just over $312M for luxury tax purposes this season. As a club that has gone over the lowest threshold more than two seasons in a row, the Yankees are subject to a tax that escalates from 50 percent to 110 percent of the overage above the league’s base threshold of $237M. That figures to put them on the hook for more than $58M in luxury tax obligations this offseason, a figure that could increase further depending on midseason additions and contract incentives. 

That’s a hefty bill, particularly considering the fact that (as noted by Cot’s Baseball Contracts) the club’s 2024 payroll breaks the franchise record payroll of roughly $278M that was set just last season. Prior to the last two seasons, the club’s payroll generally set in the $200M and $250M range.

Scaling back payroll could be feasible for the for the Yankees somewhat naturally, as the club has just under $182M in guaranteed money on the books for next year per RosterResource. That figure does not factor in arbitration-level contracts for players such as Nestor Cortes, Jose Trevino, and Clarke Schmidt, nor does it include the possibility of the club picking up options on the services of veterans like Anthony Rizzo and Luke Weaver. Even considering that, however, it’s reasonable to expect the Yankees to have some room to cut down payroll and still add in free agency this winter.

Of course, the elephant in the room regarding the coming free-agent class is superstar youngster Juan Soto, who is slated to hit free agency this fall ahead of his age-26 season. Acquired from the Padres in a blockbuster swap back in December, Soto has been everything the Yankees could have hoped for in his first 51 games with the club, slashing an incredible .313/.409/.569 with a 15.1 percent strikeout rate, a 14.2 percent walk rate, and 13 homers in 232 trips to the plate. Given how vital a one-two punch of Soto and Aaron Judge has been to the club’s success this winter, it’s hard to imagine the Yankees not aggressively pursuing a long-term deal with their newly-acquired star.

Steinbrenner himself indicated recently that he hopes to see Soto remain with the club “for the rest of his career,” suggesting that the Yankees at least plan to make an effort to retain him beyond this season. With Soto widely expected to land a contract that rivals the $460M net present value of the Shohei Ohtani deal from this past offseason, it would seemingly be difficult to significantly lower the club’s payroll while retaining Soto via what could be a massive raise over his current $31M salary.

That’s not to say it can’t be done, of course. Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo are all pending free agents who have combined to make nearly $25M this season, and it’s feasible to imagine the Yankees allowing the pair to walk in free agency before offering their roles to younger players such as Oswald Peraza and Jasson Dominguez. Steinbrenner’s comments also made note of the club’s ability to retain Soto, as he noted that the club has a “considerable amount” of money coming off the books this winter in comparison to last year.