Spending A Lot, But Not Getting A Lot

While I've moved away from constantly talking about the Yankees' payroll, as that used to be the basis for the majority of what I wrote around here, I'm still fascinated by the Dollar value that Fangraphs gives players. 

Here's a little foreshadowing for you.

Now, we all know that the Yankees haven't lived up to their payroll, but I couldn't help myself from seeing just how much they've come under that number. And that's where the Dollar value from Fangraphs came into player. So here are the Opening Day lineup and starting rotation, along with the player's actual salary (not the Average Annual Value of their contracts), and how much they've earned so far this season...

C - Brian McCann $17 million/$7 million

1B - Mark Teixeira $22.5 million/$6.6 million

2B - Brian Roberts $2 million$/.3 million

3B - Kelly Johnson $3 million/$3.4 million

SS - Derek Jeter $8 million/$.5 million

LF - Brett Gardner $5.6 million/$18.8 million

CF - Jacoby Ellsbury ~$21.1 million/~$14.5 million

RF - Carlos Beltran $15 million/$-2.2  million

DH - Alfonso Soriano $18 million/$-6.3 million

CC Sabathia $23 million/$.9 million

Hiroki Kuroda $16 million/$12.3 million

Masahiro Tanaka $22 million/$16.9 million

Ivan Nova $3.3 million/$-2.1 million

Michael Pineda $.538475 million/$4.6 million

Here are the players that have cost the team money so far this year, and just how much...

Alfonso Soriano - $24.3 million
CC Sabathia - $22.1 million
Carlos Beltran - $17.2 million
Mark Teixeira - $15.9 million
Brian McCann - $10 million
Derek Jeter - $7.5 million
Jacoby Ellsbury - ~$6.6 million
Ivan Nova - $5.4 million
Masahiro Tanaka - $5.1 million
Hiroki Kuroda - $3.7 million
Brian Roberts - $1.7 million

And here we have the only three players that have actually earned more money on the field than is shown on their paychecks...

Kelly Johnson - $4 million
Michael Pineda - ~$4.6 million
Brett Gardner - $13.2 million

Now, to be fair, here are a couple of notes...

• The only players that I can see earning enough money on the field to make their contracts pay off for the Yankees are Jacoby Ellsbury, Hiroki Kuroda, and Masahiro Tanaka. However, I wouldn't bet on Tanaka as I don't see the team bringing him back early enough to get it done. If they were in the playoff hunt then I might say otherwise, but as things stand now (both in the standings and seeing what the team is doing on the field) I wouldn't count on it.
• Yes, the Yankees were only on the hook for $5 million of Soriano's $18 million salary for 2014. However, even if you look at it that way, Soriano still cost the team $11.3 million this season.
• Did anybody actually believe that Kelly Johnson earned his money? Wow.

Let's hope that the Yankees do a better job of constructing a lineup before the 2015 season than they did before. And at the same time, let's hope that Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, CC Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira play better. Oh, not to mention Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova, and CC Sabathia (again) staying healthy.

Boy... that's a lot of hope.