Two hundred ninety million dollars does not go as far as it once did.
For the Yankees, it is not even the No. 1 payroll in New York — it will be roughly $100 million less than the Mets’ if the Mets finalize a deal with Carlos Correa.
At a nearly $290 million projection for luxury-tax purposes, the Yankees have the second-largest payroll in the majors, a franchise record and yet still not a substantial enough outlay to extinguish concerns about the offense. The Yankees, as constituted today, appear a run-prevention dynamo and a run-scoring question mark.
The run prevention can be undone by an injury or two or underperformance. But an already greatly improved defense from 2021 to 2022 should only be more so with a full season of Harrison Bader in center and an upgrade at shortstop with Oswald Peraza or Anthony Volpe. Carlos Rodon could provide a co-ace to Gerrit Cole with Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino and Frankie Montas rounding out a quintet that combined to strike out 29.1 percent of hitters faced in 2022.
