NEW YORK – New York Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner stopped short of explicitly calling out Oakland A’s owner John Fisher for dereliction of duty. But at the owners meetings Tuesday in New York, he levied a less specific critique about team owners who fail to invest to the extent of their ability, at the expense of the on-field product.
The A’s are running Major League Baseball’s lowest payroll this season, and it’s not especially close. Their sub-$60 million team is cheaper than the Yankees’ top two players: This year, Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole will out-earn the entire A’s roster.