MLB’s Payroll Disparity Isn’t Only the Fault of the Richest Teams. Just Ask Hal Steinbrenner

New York’s owner said he doesn’t appreciate those that aren’t “putting money into the team when they could.”

NEW YORK — Wearing a Peter Millar half-zip and dress sneakers at the MLB offices on Tuesday, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner almost seemed like one of the fans in the jersey store downstairs, decrying noncompetitiveness across the sport.

The Yankees’ payroll of $278 million is the second highest in major league history—following only this year’s Mets, whose roster costs $331 million. Meanwhile, the A’s are set to spend $57 million, which would have been the lowest payroll as far back as 2015. After rattling off six straight victories, Oakland is on pace to win 43 games.

Steinbrenner declined to single out A’s owner John Fisher despite a few opportunities during a 22-minute media availability as the quarterly owners’ meetings opened, but Steinbrenner made it clear he does not appreciate it when his peers cry poor.

“I’m not going to deny there’s a payroll [disparity],” Steinbrenner said. “There is. There is. And I understand some markets struggle more than others. I live in Tampa. So I know what the Rays go through. I live there. What really gets me going in a negative way is owners that aren’t putting money into the team when they could, and that’s happened in the past, and that probably happens every year to a certain extent. That’s what a lot of the owners like me don’t like. Their fans deserve a product that they can put on the field and if they’re not doing it for whatever reason, that’s not good.”

Asked how that affects the Yankees, he paused.

“It’s more of a philosophical question, I think,” he said. “Does it affect what our fans do in coming to the game? No, unless you want to make the argument that when the team comes to visit and play us, people will be less interested than if we were playing a really good team. I mean, I guess you could argue that. But I’m just speaking more globally to the industry as a whole. I mean, all fans, you know, should be able to think their team has a chance to at least make the playoffs.”

Steinbrenner’s Yankees have had among the highest payrolls for decades :: Jessica Alcheh/USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees usually do, in part because they are the Yankees. As he has in the past, Steinbrenner scoffed at the idea that a salary cap alone would address questions of parity. He said he was not inherently opposed to such a provision, but it would have to contain a salary floor.

“You’ve got to kind of narrow the gap not just by going down, but also by going up on the other side,” he said.

And as a part owner of the YES Network, which airs his team’s games, he did not sound at all interested in commissioner Rob Manfred’s stated goal of consolidating MLB’s media rights in some sort of super streaming bundle.

“Any time rights are being taken away from you, for the sake of maybe getting them centrally to help out other teams, it’s always going to be a concern,” he said. “It’s my job for it to be a concern for me.” He added that he had expressed those concerns to Manfred.

Steinbrenner wants his fellow owners to spend more. He just wants to be able to spend more than that.

Which brings us back to Fisher, who is spending less than anyone else as he tries to move the team to Las Vegas, apparently by following the playbook in “Major League.” This does actually affect the Yankees: Steinbrenner’s squad shares a division with four other teams that are trying to win, while even with this year’s more balanced schedule, his opponents in the AL West get to beat up on Oakland 13 times per year.

Steinbrenner pointed out that the Yankees’ 38–29 record, which places them third in the AL East and only in the playoffs at all by half a game, would have them leading the AL Central and the NL Central.

Still, the Yankees are the Yankees, and New Yorkers are not interested in what life would be like if they were located in Cleveland. Steinbrenner insisted he still believed the Yankees were a championship-caliber team. He said he was willing to add payroll at the trade deadline. He said that veteran players needed to step up.

And as he walked to his car, asked why some owners did not want to spend, he sounded a bit like a fan again as he shook his head and said, “I don’t know.”