Hal Steinbrenner insisted Thursday that his goal remains to get the payroll below the luxury-tax threshold of $189 million for 2014 and the surprising success of these depleted Yankees — he referred to them as “scrappy” — is fortifying that commitment.
“I always believed it could work if – if – the young players, which I’ve been saying along, pan out and do their job,” Steinbrenner said on his way out of the MLB owners meetings in Manhattan. “We still have [Michael] Pineda coming back, so we’ll see how he does. I think he’s going to do great.
“But the key is going to be the young players stepping up and really making contributions like they’re doing right now, several of them.”
Not to mention the relatively low-cost fill-ins such as Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay, two players scooped up during the final week of spring training. The Yankees (25-15) are in first place, two games up on the Orioles, while using a team with a current on-field payroll of roughly $140 million — and that includes the return of Curtis Granderson ($15 million) this week. That leaves more than $70 million still on the DL.
“I’m proud of them, my family’s proud of them,” Steinbrenner said. “They’ve been fighting hard all year long, and despite significant adversity, they’ve persevered. We need to get behind them as much as we can to support them. They’ve earned it.”
Steinbrenner added, “It’s fun to watch. They’re scrappy. Coming back from behind, it seems like certain times in the past, it’s just not something you had confidence in. But against Felix [Hernandez] two nights ago, and then against their bullpen. They’re scrappy.”
When asked if the roster maneuvering of Brian Cashman, and the lineup juggling of Joe Girardi, gives him further evidence the Yankees can win with a much lower payroll next season, Steinbrenner agreed.
“And some talent down in the minor leagues that quite frankly may have never gotten the chance to do something like this — certainly not this year,” he said. “There’s been a lot of moving parts, and both those guys, Cash and Girardi, and the coaching staff, have done a wonderful job moving this piece here and that piece there and figuring everything out. It’s worked out as good as anybody ever would have thought.”
I want to see Hal start giving state of the unions when things are not going so great…