Yankees spending big again to win

Masahiro Tanaka, the star Japanese pitcher who reached a contract agreement Wednesday, got the most: $155 million for seven years, although he will surely opt out after four years, as long as he is pitching well.

While the Yankees missed the playoffs last fall, the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals reached the World Series with just two players, one per team, on nine-figure contracts.

The Cardinals win with a few stars and a self-sustaining farm system that pumps out impact players every season.

If their spending is really over, here is the itemized bill after Tanaka; Ellsbury, the center fielder, who the Yankees lured away from the Red Sox, at seven years and $153 million; catcher Brian McCann, five years and $85 million; outfielder Carlos Beltran, three years and $45 million; reliever Matt Thornton, two years and $7 million; infielder Kelly Johnson, one year and $3 million; second baseman Brian Roberts, one year and $2 million.

"There's a lot of areas that needed improvement, and I know that ownership has stepped up to allow us to secure a lot of players that should make our fans excited that 2014 is going to be rather different than 2013," general manager Brian Cashman said.

[...] there it is, the $470 million remedy for a team that had grown stale, suffering in the standings and, most alarmingly, in attendance and television ratings.

The Yankees genuinely wanted to bring their 2014 payroll to less than $189 million, mainly to reset their luxury tax rate and take advantage of a revenue-sharing rebate built into the last collective bargaining agreement.

Even if David Robertson slides easily into the closer role, the setup options look shaky.

[...] again, the reconstructed lineup should score a lot more runs than last year's injury-ravaged mess, which was so thin in June that Thomas Neal batted fifth in both games of a doubleheader, then never played for the Yankees again.