The New York Yankees are done signing high-priced free agents, a source with knowledge of their situation said.
That leaves coveted players such as Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman among the 164 free agents still on the market with only 37 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona on Feb. 14.
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The New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox are among teams still shopping.
But not the Yanks. They made all their signings and trades in the wake of losing Juan Soto, who signed with the Mets for 15 years, $765 million just before the Winter Meetings opened in Dallas in early December.
Since then, they added pitcher Max Fried for eight years, $218 million, and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt for one year, $12.5 million. They also re-signed reliever Jonathan Loáisiga for one year, $5 million.
New York also traded the Chicago Cubs for outfielder Cody Bellinger—$25 million for this year with a player option at $22.5 million for next year—and obtained from the Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams, who signed an $8.4 million deal for this year and is a free agent next year. Additionally, the Yanks traded backup catcher Jose Trevino to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for reliever Fernando Cruz and Alex Jackson, another backup catcher.
“We’ve done some heavy lifting with [Fried], with Devin Williams, with Bellinger,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman recently said. “But there’s more [light] lifting to do.”
The Yanks are still looking to bring in a mid-level left-handed reliever and send out starter Marcus Stroman and his $18.3 million contract, but that’s it. If Stroman pitches 140 innings this season, another $18.3 million vests for next year.
This would seem to preclude the signing of posted Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki, who may be ticketed for a West Coast club; the Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are reportedly among his targets. Sasaki can sign with a Major League Baseball team any time between Jan. 15 to Jan. 24 or he must return to the Chiba Lotte Marines, his originating Nippon Professional Baseball team.
New York, with $270.6 million committed to 13 players for luxury tax purposes, are second in spending thus far behind Los Angeles at $336 million, although the Dodgers have already committed money to 19 players. The Yanks were third behind the Dodgers in 2024 with the Mets sandwiched between the two of them when considering their entire 40-man rosters.
The Yankees lost the World Series to the Dodgers in five games in 2024, and in the cost-effective American League, they are odds-on favorites to return. But gone along with Soto from the AL championship team is Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo, Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle, Jon Berti, Nestor Cortes and Trevino.
Teams in the AL are not spending like the National League this offseason; in particular, NL West clubs—aside from the Colorado Rockies, who have only spent $119.4 million to date—are trying to keep up with the Dodgers’ spending to remain competitive. Likewise, in the NL East, the Mets ($252 million), the Philadelphia Phillies ($267 million) and the Atlanta Braves ($185.7 million) are all spending.
In the AL East, the Red Sox ($182.6 million) and Blue Jays ($163.1 million) have healthy payrolls, but haven’t made major splashes on the free agent market thus far this offseason. The Baltimore Orioles ($102.9 million) and Tampa Bay Rays ($62.9 million) have done neither. The Rays, because of storm damage to their home Tropicana Field, have to play in the Yankees 11,026-capacity spring training ballpark this season. The team is 28th in MLB in spending.
Even the Houston Astros, heretofore the Yanks’ greatest most recent nemesis, have cut back on their spending this season. They have a ninth-in-MLB $183.1 million payroll, way down from $264.8 million last season.
And the Texas Rangers, World Series champs in 2023, have shed payroll to $212.8 million, down $52 million.
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