Hal Steinbrenner decided winning games trumped saving money, and authorized his baseball people to forget the Yankees’ $189 million goal for the 2014 season and spend almost that much to land Masahiro Tanaka.
“I have been saying for well over a year now that it makes sense to meet [the $189 million threshold], but not at the expense of a championship-caliber team,” Steinbrenner told The Post by phone. “I felt we needed another starter. We were not where we needed to be, in my opinion. So this should not be a surprise because [Tanaka] was the best free-agent pitcher available. He is one of the greatest players Japan has ever produced. He is tough. He has thrived under pressure. He will fit in well to New York.”
The Yankees found out shortly after midnight as Tuesday turned to Wednesday that they had won the Tanaka sweepstakes with a winning bid of seven years at $155 million plus the $20 million posting fee that will go to Tanaka’s previous team in Japan, the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
That all but assures the Yanks will blow by the $189 million threshold. Over the past three seasons, the Yanks had been making all decisions through the prism of trying to get under that mark. It is possible, therefore, the Yanks hurt their chances of winning in recent campaigns by not signing or acquiring players that could have helped as they avoided committing to 2014 dollars.
“Honestly, I have not thought about that,” Steinbrenner said. “And I am not going to go back and second-guess myself. I hate excuses, but injuries last year were devastating and that played a part in where we ended up. So if I start to ponder that [could the Yanks have been better even with the injuries if they had spent differently], I am not sure I would come up with a conclusion. There are a bunch of mitigating factors.”
Ultimately, the biggest mitigating factor for the Yanks was this: They did not make the playoffs last year, their TV ratings and attendance sagged, they did not have a farm system to solve their problems and, thus, Steinbrenner had to shun a policy he has admitted was very important to him – to sink below the $189 million – or potentially watch the troubling issues grow. So although the Yanks projected about $100 million in savings over a three-year period if they dropped below the threshold in 2014, Steinbrenner honored his father’s legacy by abandoning the plan in favor of going for it now.
“I do think we now have a championship-caliber team,” Steinbrenner said. “I think we have a good starting rotation that I am comfortable with, and we have done a lot to improve the offense and add leadership, too. I think we have added clutch players who can play on the big stage.”
The total outlay for Tanaka – seven years at $175 million – equals what Seattle gave Felix Hernandez last year and is just below the seven at $180 million Detroit handed Justin Verlander. They are acknowledged as two of the best starters in the majors. As well regarded as Tanaka is, he has yet to throw a major league inning.
“Market value is what one or more teams are willing to pay today,” Steinbrenner said. “He is one of the best players Japan has produced and he has played well on the big stage in big games. I think he will be great for our organization and will do very, very well.
“But, honestly, I don’t feel that [the Yankees would have spent an unlimited amount] for any player, as we showed earlier this offseason [with Robinson Cano]. That is not good for the family, our partners or the organization. There was a limit of what we were willing to do, but, yes, I felt it was important to get him.”