Jeff Passan had time.
And when ESPN’s senior MLB insider has time — watch out.
Passan has never shied away from calling out baseball’s power players, and when the usual crowd started blaming the Los Angeles Dodgers for “ruining” the game, he pointed his sights elsewhere. The Dodgers aren’t the problem, he argued. The real issue? The 27 other teams (excluding the Mets and Yankees) who refuse to spend like serious contenders.
But his latest target wasn’t the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Cincinnati Reds. This time, it was the New York Yankees.
After watching his crosstown rivals land Juan Soto — thanks to Steve Cohen opening his checkbook and then some — Passan went on The Michael Kay Show and questioned whether Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner still understands what it means to run baseball’s most storied franchise.
“If the (luxury tax) penalties are so tough, then why are the Dodgers and Mets doing it? The Mets have been the past two years, and they’ve shown a willingness to go there,” Passan said. “And at the end of the day, these are the New York freaking Yankees. If a luxury tax threshold is impeding them, that says more about where they are than it does the luxury tax itself. When have the Yankees ever played third fiddle in baseball? That’s where they’re right now when it comes to spending.”
Passan wasn’t suggesting the Yankees should recklessly blow past the Steve Cohen tax. He acknowledged the penalties are steep. But if a team trusts its scouting and development staff — if it can reliably produce big league talent — then the tax should be a challenge, not a roadblock.
“It makes it a little bit more difficult, but I’m OK having more difficulty on the minor league level if my big league team is better,” said Passan. “Because, when the big league team is better, man, people want to join you. Look at what the Dodgers are doing right now. They’re not paying absurd amounts for any of the guys that they’re signing. They’re not going over market value on any of the guys they’re signing.”
That stood in stark contrast to Steinbrenner’s comments on YES Network Tuesday, where he echoed the kind of concerns you’d expect from a small-market owner — despite running a franchise worth over $7 billion.
“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ll see if it pays off.”
The Yankees don’t get to be “most owners.” Not if they still want to be the Yankees.
And the Yankees seem convinced their approach will pay off — they are, after all, the reigning American League champions. But Passan isn’t buying the idea that they’re clear frontrunners to repeat, saying they’re merely “in the mix.” Unlike Kay, he’s not ready to crown the Yankees just because they signed Paul Goldschmidt and traded for Cody Bellinger to replace Soto’s production.
“I think our starting rotation is better. I think our defense is better. And I think that [Cody] Bellinger and [Paul] Goldschmidt are gonna make up for a good deal of Juan’s offense, his bat,” Steinbrenner said in the same interview that aired on YES Network.
Imagine if Passan got wind of those comments before his TMKS appearance.
And while the Yankees might be banking on their blueprint, Passan sees a different reality — one where they’re spending more time justifying their approach than actually acting like the Yankees.
