Edition: U.S. / Global

Baseball Notebook; Yanks Champs! In 80's Payroll, That Is

Published: January 7, 1990

If there ever was any doubt that George Steinbrenner is the biggest spender in baseball, doubt it no longer. The Yankees' owner spent so much more money on players in the 1980's than anyone else that the Players Association should erect a monument to him at Yankee Stadium in the form of a giant, 24-carat gold dollar sign.

The Yankees' player payroll in the 1980's totaled $137,883,665, nearly $21.5 million more than the next highest payroll, belonging to the California Angels, and three times the lowest payroll, possession of the Seattle Mariners.

The difference between the payrolls of the Yankees and the Angels is the largest, by more than $5 million, of any difference among the 26 clubs from one level to the next. Furthermore, the average salaries of 13 teams - half of the teams in the major leagues - fall within the same dropoff from the Angels' average salary as exists between the average salaries of the Yankees and the Angels - $78,492.

For all of their heavy spending, the Yankees won only two division championships and one pennant in the 1980's, none since 1981, making them one of the least cost-efficient teams.

The most cost-efficient were the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cardinals, with a payroll of $92,550,286, won three division titles, three pennants (most in the decade) and one World Series. The Dodgers had a payroll of $108,032,998 and won the most division titles, four, and the most World Series, two, in the 1980's. Oakland and Kansas City were not far behind those two teams in making their player expenditures worthwhile.

The compilation of the 1980's payrolls, however, also shows that it does pay to pay. The Cleveland Indians, the Texas Rangers and the Mariners were the last three teams in the payroll standing and they were three of the five teams that did not win division titles in the 10-year period. The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds were the other two failures and they joined the others in being five of the seven lowest-paying teams.

The moral of the economic story, then, would seem to be you have to pay to win, though you don't necessarily have to overpay like the Yankees.

The Yankees, whose payroll was 18.5 percent higher than the Angels' total, were one of eight teams with payrolls that exceeded the $100 million plateau. The other six were the Mets, the Dodgers, Boston, Houston, Philadelphia and Atlanta. At $46,189,730, the Mariners were the only team under $50 million. The average payroll was $90 million.

The average player salary for the period from 1980-89 was $332,090. Average salaries were also compiled because the teams, during the 10 years, had different total numbers of players, depending on how many players were on the disabled list Aug. 31 each season. That is the date used by the Players Association and the Player Relations Committee in determing average salaries each year.

The Yankees' average salary was $485,506, the Angels' $407,014. No one else reached $400,000.

Except for the first two years of the 1980's, the Yankees had payrolls of more than $12 million, reaching a high of $19.4 million in 1988. The Mets and the Dodgers each exceeded that total last year.

The Indians and the Mariners were the only teams whose payroll never reached $10 million in any of the seasons. Those teams also had the smallest increases from the first year of the period to the last, Seattle's payroll rising $5.6 million, Cleveland's $6 million.

The Mets had the largest increase, $17.7 million, followed by Oakland $15.9 million and Los Angeles $15.6 million.

Mattingly, the Booster

Whatever the Yankees think of Don Mattingly, it's not enough. Given the team's inability to win a division title in his first seven seasons and the seemingly bleak outlook for the immediate future, Mattingly could conceivably go through his career without playing on a division champion. Yet he maintains, at least publicly, a positive view of the team and speaks of the future optimistically.

Asked if he has been discouraged by developments, Mattingly said: ''No, not really. Basically our organization is trying to win. It gets out of whack a little or something happens, but in my heart I know we're trying. We'll do some things. I know they went after Langston heavy. You can't get everybody. At least I know George is making the effort to get somebody like that. To me, that's encouraging.''

Looking ahead to next season, he added: ''I think we can contend. There's no doubt about that. We have good defense up the middle with Espinoza, Sax and Kelly, and Geren came on and is a solid catcher defensively. I'm encouraged in a way. I like our young pitchers. Cadaret, Plunk, Cary and Parker show promise. I don't think we're a club that has to make wholesale changes. You talk about good teams with solid defense up the middle and we had that. I didn't see us as a horrible club. We never got together and we didn't have that much confidence in ourselves. We could do some things.''

Spoken like a veteran public relations man. The Yankees need all the good public relations they can get.

Trading Out of Necessity

Mark Langston, Bryn Smith and Pascual Perez for Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, Joaquin Andujar and Dave Schmidt: would any general manager make that trade?