The 2013 “Hal Cap” Is To Blame For The 2014 Season Struggles

The New York Yankees were one of the most oft-injured teams during the 2014 season and that in itself was to blame for much of the Yankees struggles this season, among other things. Star players that come over to New York in free agency generally need a season to adjust to the market, the fans, the environment, etc. so while the down years from Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran specifically received some of the blame as well I think those worries should be behind the team as well. The injuries will heal or be repaired this winter and the middle of the order should be better but the “Hal Cap” and the 2013 offseason is going to come back to haunt this team for a long, long time.

If New York had opened up the purse strings things would have been a lot different in New York. The Yankees had Russell Martin as their everyday catcher in 2012 before letting him walk away to Pittsburgh on a very team friendly two year deal. If the Yankees had been willing to give Martin that second year and a reasonable salary we as fans would not have had to endure Chris Stewart as an everyday catcher in 2013 and the team may not have Brian McCann for the next four or five seasons in the Bronx.

Torii Hunter was the same sort of situation as he wanted a multiyear deal from New York and the Yankees held on to their “one year only” philosophy. Hunter ended up signing with the Detroit Tigers for two years and, again, a very team friendly salary. In turn the Yankees signed Ichiro Suzuki to a two year deal and ultimately signed Carlos Beltran to a three year deal this winter. If the team had Hunter manning right field not only would the offense and defense have been better but Ichiro wouldn’t have received a two year deal and Beltran may be in Kansas City right now and not the Bronx.

The pitching I won’t nitpick with because overall the pitching was solid the last two seasons but one huge nitpick I will mention is the loss of Robinson Cano. If the Yankees don’t give mega million contracts to McCann, Beltran, and others then I truly believe Cano would still be in the Bronx. That may be the biggest factor into why the Yankees were not great this season and are likely to not be great, although they could be good, for the considerable and foreseeable future.

All this because Hal Steinbrenner wanted to clip a few coupons one season….