The Yankees missed the playoffs in 2008 and responded by spending $423.5 million on three huge free agents: A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira.
The hope for the Yanks then – besides putting a championship team on the field for the opening of the new Stadium in 2009 – was to spend the money to cover for the lack of production from the farm system and give new cover time for the development of prospects in the future.
But that positive future never came. Instead, as Burnett flamed out in New York and age and injury cut into the effectiveness of Sabathia, Teixeira and other key components of the roster, the Yanks still lacked a quality system to address shortcomings.
So they missed the playoffs in 2013 and have now responded by spending $458 million on four huge free agents: Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran.
It raises the question of whether the Yanks are in a vicious cycle in which they will keep having to spend, spend, spend because of such an ineffective feeder system. It is an area, for example, in which the defending champion Red Sox – the Yanks’ No. 1 rival – are far ahead: developing players and having a well-stocked system.
“Yes, we took a good hard look at player development and scouting, and we made changes and added key personnel,” Hal Steinbrenner said. “There will be more changes to come. We think the draft from a year and a half ago and six months ago were both good. But we have to continue to stay on it because we haven’t had players come through that we felt could contribute.”