SAN DIEGO — Brian Cashman doesn’t buy into the buzz that the Yankees signing Gerrit Cole to a nine-year, $324 million contract is a sign the free-spending habits of yesterday have returned.
“I always thought that was a false narrative. We have been an aggressive franchise for what seems forever under the Steinbrenner family,’’ Cashman said Wednesday, a day after the record-setting deal was completed but not officially announced. “We have been among the highest payroll teams on a year-in-and-year-out basis and one of the best teams year-in and year-out competing for a championship. All those boxes get checked and I think they are false narratives and easy things that fall into that just aren’t true.