No signing better illustrates the current contrast between the Red Sox and Yankees organizations than the Yankees’ decision to ink Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year, $153 million contract on Tuesday night.

Ellsbury is a very good player, and will make the Yankees better next season. He’s a dynamic force at the top of the lineup, as he’s averaged a 78 percent stolen base success rate throughout his career and has scored 90 or more runs all four times he’s played a full season. In his time with the Red Sox, Ellsbury won three stolen bases titles, finished second in MVP voting in 2011, won a gold glove, and batted .301 in the postseason on his way to winning two championships.

Though some call Ellsbury “soft,” all of his significant injuries have been of the impact variety. Ellsbury bruised his ribs after he collided with the 220-pound Adrian Beltre in April 2010, and missed two months with a shoulder injury after he smashed into the Rays’ Reid Brignac while trying to slide into second base in April 2012. Whenever Ellsbury’s avoided crashing into other players, he’s been able to stay on the field.

It’s important to remember the positives associated with Ellsbury, because piling on a player when he leaves town is for sports talk radio callers (that’s the worst thing you can ever be called, by the way). It is more than okay, however, to pile on the Yankees.

The Yankees’ payroll, if one wipes Alex Rodriguez’s $25 million off the books, is already at $144 million for 2014 according to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan. Their early winter spending spree is already mirroring the one they went on prior to the 2009 season, in which they signed Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett for a combined $423.5 million.

The Yankees won the World Series that season, but have paid a hefty price for it. Teixeira’s OPS has declined every year since 2009, and he missed 147 games with a wrist injury last season. Sabathia garnered an additional $25 million on top of his $161 million when he opted out of his contract in 2011, and has posted a 4.09 ERA over the past two seasons. Burnett was traded to the Pirates in 2012, and the Yankees ate roughly $18 million of the remaining $31 million on his contract for him to pitch elsewhere.

There’s little doubt that Ellsbury will be a well above average player for the Yankees in the foreseeable future. There are even some, such as Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron, who say he could be worth the money:

The Yankees paid a lot of money for a very good player. That very good player is probably going to remain a very good player for the next few years, and then, like nearly every free agent, he’ll be an overpaid albatross in the last few years of the deal. For the price, the Yankees probably overpaid relative to the going market rate of wins. But because they’re the Yankees, the fact that they overpaid by $20 or $30 million doesn’t matter all that much.

 

Jacoby Ellsbury will help the Yankees put a good team on the field again in 2014, because Jacoby Ellsbury is a good player, even if he’s a good player because he’s fast. Runs created with speed and defense count too.

The odds aren’t in Ellsbury’s favor, however. Out of the seven outfielders–Vernon Wells, Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, Alfonso Soriano, Josh Hamilton, Jayson Werth and Matt Holliday–who are currently signed to deals worth more than $100 million, only Holliday has been a good investment (the jury is still out on Kemp, but he hasn’t been healthy for two years).

Signing players who are entering their 30s, regardless of their skill sets, is a risky proposition. Albert Pujols was on track to become arguably the best hitter of all-time before the Angels signed him to a 10-year, $254 million contract in late 2011. Pujols posted a career lows in every offensive category, and missed 63 games with a left foot injury last season. Only eight more years to go!

The Red Sox didn’t overextend themselves for Ellsbury because they didn’t have to. Top prospect Jackie Bradley Jr. is waiting to take Ellsbury’s spot in center field for two percent of the cost.

The Yankees have no such luxury, because years of surrendering draft picks for free agents and prospects for veterans has left them with no organizational depth. The signings of Brian McCann, Ellsbury and inevitably Robinson Cano as well as a starting pitcher will make them better in the interim. It also ensures that they’ll be forced to throw hundreds of millions of dollars into free agency four years from now, when everybody on their team has bad knees and hips.

It’s okay to spend money. The Red Sox, after all, had a payroll of $150 million last season. But reckless spending is not the way to build a sustainable winner. Just ask the Yankees, as they finished fourth in the division with a cobbled together lineup of has-beens and nobodies last year.

Photos via Zimbio and Elsa/Getty Images

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