So far today the Yankees have decided that they are going to sign every player in Latin America. Between Ben Balder of Baseball America, Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com and Kiley McDaniel of Scout they have the Int market covered. I believe Kiley McDaniel sums up what the Yankees did best today with a few tweets.
NYY’s ~$12M outlay today comes w/a penalty of ~$10M, almost 2x the previous most expensive July 2 shopping spree. Better get some players.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) July 3, 2014
To put a button on the Yankees stuff: signed 21 players today for about $12M, will likely sign a few more in coming weeks incl. one for $3M.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) July 3, 2014
Haven’t confirmed Garcia deal but has been rumored for 6 months & mom didn’t get dressed up for nothing. Would push NYY J2 outlay to $25-30M
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) July 3, 2014
If NYY signs Colombian OF Bryan Emery as some have speculated, it looks like it would push their July 2nd bonus+penalty outlay over $30M.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) July 3, 2014
So by the end of today or tomorrow the Yankees might have just spent 30 million on players with bonuses and penalties. Now while the Yankees will be able to do this for a year they wont’ be able to do this every year as the CBA has a provision that stats that they wont’ be able to sign a player for more than $300,000 for the next two years. While this limits them somewhat the Yankees have found very good prospects for less than that and I believe what they did this year was the right play. Last year they signed some of the best players and got one other back end top 30 prospect. This year it looks like they are going to get 10-12 of the top 30 players between BA’s list and MLB’s list. Give me the players all in one year instead of spreading them out especially when you have the Yankees being able to get good guys on the cheap. A great example of this is Severino who signed for $225,000 bonus which means that the Yankees would still be able to sign him if he was available in the next two July periods.
What I believe the Yankees are going to do also is going after one of the Cuban players that defected since they are already over the amount they can spend. I do wonder if the Yankees are going to be closer to $40 million when it’s all said and done. I believe signing as many players now is the best especially since they went very conservative with their draft signings. The system needs upside and risk, today helps with that but it isn’t done yet.
