Winning Now Costs you Later, and Yankees Fans are Learning that

Daily News – Joe Girardi led the Yankees to the World Series title in 2009, but that seems like a long time ago now for Yankees fans.

The pressure was mounting on the Yankees in the winter of 2008.

They watched the Red Sox win the World Series in 2007 followed by Tampa Bay winning the pennant in 2008.   The Yankees had not only not won a World Series since the Subway Series in 2000, but were stewing over a 2001 Series loss to the Diamondbacks, and a 2003 Series loss to the Marlins.

The Red Sox were becoming the class of baseball along with the Cardinals and something had to be done.

Enter the free agent class of 2008.

The Yankees re-signed Andy Pettitte for 5+ million dollars, added Damaso Marte for 12 million to shore up the mid-relief and spent 423 million dollars to add C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira.

Although Burnett’s contract has run out, Sabathia and Teixeira remain very much on the books.

Those contracts were added to contracts like Alex Rodriguez’s whom the Yankees signed just under a year earlier to a mega contract after his famous World Series opt out, and Mariano Rivera’s 45 million dollar deal.

The Yankees did the right thing.

Just 2 years after the A-Rod opt out, and one year after winning the 2008 offseason championship, the Yankees had an actual championship -they won the 2009 World Series.

This was no small accomplishment with the talent surrounding them even within their own AL East division.

But they are paying for it now and Yankees fans are frustrated.

They are frustrated that the Yankees were the only team to fail to acquire a free agent of any consequence in 2015.

The team sits at 12-18, entrenched in last place in the division and already 6 games off the pace set by the Orioles.

The sports talk radio shows are littered with frustrated NYYers who want Brian Cashman’s head, and blame him for the team’s demise.  And yes, some of the moves Cashman has made, such as bringing in Chase Headley, seem to be a mistake.

However, the same fans who are complaining now, were most likely the ones clamoring for Burnett, C.C. and A-Rod in 2008 and at the Canyon of Heroes in 2009.

The past few years were the years on the long term contracts that fans “didn’t care about” because they had to win now in 2009.

So if they didn’t care then, why do they care now?