What’s a Few More Millions to Yankees?

The acquisition of Denny Neagle sent the New York Yankees’ payroll to

$107 million and counting. George Steinbrenner, the principal owner, would call it another example of free enterprise and the free market at work.

Opposing general managers would describe it as another example of how, as one said, “all that revenue allows New York to take risks and absorb mistakes that the rest of us can’t.”

He wasn’t referring to Neagle, per se.

He was referring to the fact that the Yankees didn’t blink when including Drew Henson and Jackson Melian in the four-player package for the Cincinnati Reds’ left-hander, even though Henson and Melian were leaving with

$3.6 million of Steinbrenner’s money.

Melian, an undrafted outfielder from Venezuela, received a then-record $1.6-million bonus when signed as a 16-year-old in 1996, the Yankees outbidding several competitors.

Henson, a third baseman, received a $2-million signing bonus as the Yankees’ No. 1 draft choice in 1998, even though it wasn’t clear that the future Michigan quarterback would pick baseball over football on a long-term basis (as it still isn’t clear).

Yankee revenue--pegged in 1999 at an industry-high $177.94 million in the report by the commissioner’s economic panel--has allowed them to take similar risks in the signing of unproven prospects and absorb the loss if they later fail, fall or are used as trade fodder.

For instance: Wily Mo Pena, a 17-year-old outfielder from the Dominican Republic, was signed for $2.4 million in 1999 and recently suffered a knee injury feared to be career threatening.

Of course, if the recommendations by the economic panel ultimately overcome expected union objections in several areas and find their way into the collective bargaining agreement, the Yankees’ signing advantage would be eliminated by a worldwide draft and their revenue would take a major hit.

Based on a $107-million payroll that will expand significantly when Neagle and Derek Jeter are re-signed and the Yankees admit that they have made multiyear commitments to Roger Clemens and Chuck Knoblauch, the 50% tax on all payroll above $84 million would cost the Yankees $12.5 million. Also, the proposed increases in revenue sharing might double their current bill of about $20 million.

Steinbrenner had no comment when he left the Friday owners meeting at which the panel report was presented, but he can be expected to have plenty of comments for the commissioner who convened the panel.

*

The commissioner, Bud Selig, was delighted with the return to an unbalanced schedule in which teams play more games within their division. He called it 24 years overdue and added, “The media can be very critical of us, and oftentimes be right, but the media gave us more of a pass on this issue than they should have. There is no reason, no logic, why you should be playing more games outside your division. If you had asked me to defend it, I couldn’t have.”

*

The one certainty before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline is that the Seattle Mariners will use their starting pitching depth to acquire the left-handed hitter they have been seeking since trading Ken Griffey Jr.

The familiar possibilities include Johnny Damon, Matt Lawton, Bobby Higginson, Rondell White, Al Martin and Jeremy Burnitz. General Manager Pat Gillick might pay more for a player--such as Kansas City’s Damon--who would be willing to sign a multiyear contract as a condition of the trade, but one way or another, Gillick says bluntly, “we are going to get” an outfielder with run-producing capability.