The $8.2 Billion Yankees
- Paul Semendinger
- Apr 2
- 1 min read
by Paul Semendinger
April 2, 2025
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On April 24, 2024, about a year ago, we reported that the Yankees (according to Forbes) were worth 7.5 billion dollars.
The Yankees' value went up almost one billion dollars in one year!
Here are the most valuable franchises in 2025, according to Forbes:
New York Yankees - $8.2 billion
Los Angeles Dodgers - $6.8 billion
Boston Red Sox - $4.8 billion
Chicago Cubs - $4.6 billion
San Francisco Giants - $4.0 billion
New York Mets - $3.2 billion
Philadelphia Phillies - $3.1 billion
Atlanta Braves - $3.0 billion
Houston Astros - $2.8 billion
Los Angeles Angels - $2.75 billion
And yet, most often, when we hear the owner speak, he talks about the high player salaries and how they inhibit his ability to build a champion.
Look how much more valuable the Yankees are than the other franchises.... billions and billions of dollars more.
Yankees seem to be making more and more and more money. And yet, we hear cries of salaries and almost poverty. "The game is just too expensive!"
Interestingly, the team that's closing the gap on the Yankees is the Dodgers who continue to spend and spend and spend.
I'm glad the Yankees are making tons of money. Good for them. That being said, I don't want to hear the owner complaining about whatever costs there are. The system is working very well for the Yankees.
Also, if the Yankees need a player, or a bunch of players, they can certainly afford them. Of that there is no question whatsoever. At all.
Is that is accurate or even close to accurate, they should sell. With the lock out pending, it would be smart to divest.
Paul, while I hear you and in lots agree with you, do we really want to get into a business discussion again? Personally, all I want to see how many real scouts they now have on the payroll. Remember, lots of teams went more to a video scouting model because of COVID, so I want to see if they are doing real scouting.
I don't pretend to know the details of the Yankee L.P. balance sheet. However, as a general matter, one should not conflate the value of fixed assets with the value of liquid assets. In a more common example, imagine you bought a house in a sketchy neighborhood in 1985 (let's call it "Park Slope" for kicks -- sadly, I didn't until two decades later). As the neighborhood gentrified, now 40 years later, it's likely worth four or five times as much. But that doesn't affect your cash flow or your ability to pay bills.
If you want cash out of that house, either you have to sell it, or you can borrow against the equity, but both are one-time infusions…
the Yankees can afford to pay their employees
but that does not mean that the Yankees should disregard whether it's always a wise use of resources to pay top dollar for a decade-long contract for a two-dimensional player because that player meets an immediate need.
some other team might team it good business to pay a hitter $800M ....and it may be a worthwhile use of the other team's resources
while the Yankees might better use their payroll budget to hire five different players for five different number of years.
when one is making decisions that are business decisions as well as baseball decisions, one might do well to note that different baseball organizations have different business needs