For a long time the New York Yankees had a team policy of not negotiating a new contract with players until their old deal had expired. When their tremendous financial advantage was at its peak and they could outbid every other MLB club for whatever player they wanted, this policy made a lot of sense.
The Yankees no longer play by their own set of rules for a variety of reasons. The luxury tax and other revenue sharing measures have been pretty effective in leveling the playing field. In addition, current principal owner Hal Steinbrenner is more, *cough*, financially minded than his father was, meaning the product on the field is often secondary to making sound business decisions.