How Much Have New York Yankees Spent in Free Agency?
The New York Yankees executed the biggest trade of the offseason so far, trading away five players to get slugger Juan Soto into their lineup for next season.
The Yankees also traded for Boston outfielder Alex Verdugo, and in doing so solidified their outfield for the 2024 season. Now, the Yankees just have to get Soto to agree to an extension past the 2024 season.
Meanwhile, the Yankees have, oddly, spent nothing in free agency as the new year begins.
MLB Trade Rumors is tracking the progress of each team in free agency and ranked each team’s spending as of the first of the year.
The Yankees are one of four teams that haven’t spent a single dollar in free agency, joining the Chicago Cubs, the Miami Marlins and the Colorado Rockies.
In this case, the definition of free agency spending is the signing of players that were free to negotiate with teams after the Nov. 6 deadline and have signed guaranteed MLB deals.
So the rankings don’t take into account the Yankees’ trades for Soto and Verdugo, nor any players that signed non-guaranteed deals or minor-league contracts.
As of the new year, the Yankees were in a tie for 27th in free agency spending. It’s not the level of spending Yankees fans are used to.
It’s not that the Yankees aren’t spending money. The Yankees had to pay into the Competitive Balance Tax for the second straight year.
Per Spotrac, the Yankees have a projected total payroll of $273 million, with those projections including arbitration figures and pre-arbitration figures for players that are not eligible yet.
The Yankees have taken swings at both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in free agency, but the pair ended up signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In fact, thanks to those signings the Dodgers are No. 1 in free-agent spending, having doled out more than $1 billion in money this offseason.
It’s an odd juxtaposition. While the Dodgers have spent 10 figures, the Yankees have spent none. But that could change. More than half of MLB Trade Rumors’ Top 50 free agents are still on the market.
But, for now, the Yankees have spent, well, nothing.
