Hal Steinbrenner’s comments on Yankees’ profits point to a larger issue

Over Thanksgiving week, New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner provided fans with plenty of news to digest.

Among notable items that are circulating, four things stand out: his resolve to lower the payroll below $300 million, the insinuation that the Yankees are not a profitable ballclub, the assumption that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ astronomical payroll played no part in their dominance and his purported support for a salary cap. 

When seen together, these four items seem to suggest a severe reluctance to spend. Steinbrenner made it clear he wants to come in under the luxury tax threshold. Interestingly, he called the correlation between spending and championships weak, alluding to his Yankees as well as the New York Mets as examples of teams with high payrolls and limited success.

However, this opens up a discussion about how said money was spent. The Mets notably dumped a record sum on signing Juan Soto, but did little elsewhere. But what about the Yankees? When asked if it was fair to say the Yankees turned a profit after engrossing over $700 million in revenue, Steinbrenner had this to say, according to MLB.com's Bryan Hoch: 

“That’s 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 February 1, including the COVID year. So, it all starts to add up in a hurry.

“Nobody spends more money, I don’t believe, on player development, scouting, performance science. These all start to add up.”

Altogether, the Yankees spent slightly under $305 million on players’ salaries in 2025. For a breakeven season, the Yankees would have needed to spend over $395 million elsewhere. Where did it all go?

Steinbrenner mentioned the $100 million expense to New York City. As for the bulk of their expenses, the Yankees owner pointed towards player development, scouting and performance science. This raises a more serious question about mismanagement.

The Yankees are overspending on failing analytics 

If most of the money was spent on development, scouting and performance science, one could easily argue that the cost has outweighed the benefits. Despite having spent so much, these efforts have produced very little.

Over the years, the Yankees have seen more failures than success stories when developing major league talent. Promising players and top prospects like Gary Sanchez, Clint Frazier, Deivi Garcia, Miguel Andujar, Domingo German, Chance Adams, Justus Sheffield, Oswald Peraza and Estevan Florial, among many others, never panned out. The team also gave up on Carlos Narvaez and Agustin Ramirez in favor of Austin Wells, who underperformed the pair of rookie backstops this past season. Another catching prospect, Yankees 2018 first-round draft pick Anthony Seigler, who struggled during his time in the Yankees’ farm system as recently as last year, excelled with the Milwaukee Brewers in Triple-A this year.

Anthony Volpe, Will Warren, Luis Gil and Jasson Dominguez are four current works in progress. It might also be fair to say the torpedo bat craze the Yankees started has officially ended.

Of their recent triumphs, the Yankees boast Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler. Going further back, one might add Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge to the list; however, Judge’s swing was actually developed by famed hitting coach Richard Schenck, not the Yankees.

Spending on these efforts is by no means a waste; nonetheless, it’s clear the Yankees are grossly overspending for something that isn't even working. Whether it means an organizational shakeup or reallocation of funds to target proven major league talent, Steinbrenner’s approach needs to change.