The Yankees were foiled?

From NYTimes.com (Murray Chass):

What the Red Sox have done is forfeit their right to complain ever again about economic moves the Yankees make. The Red Sox could argue that even if their bid were added to their payroll, it wouldn’t match the Yankees’ payroll. The Yankees’ payroll this year was $214 million, the Red Sox $130 million.

But the Boston bid is an expenditure the Yankees have never made. When the Yankees have signed Japanese players, they have been free agents.

The posting process, though, gave the Red Sox a chance to trump the Yankees. And they most likely had the specter of the Yankees clearly in mind when Henry; the co-owner, Tom Werner; Lucchino and General Manager Theo Epstein sat down to figure out what to bid for negotiating rights to Matsuzaka. They were determined not to let the Yankees beat them out again, damn the cost, full speed ahead.

With the bid, the Red Sox are officially on the same level as the Yankees in the terms of free-spending, especially when you compare the Red Sox's bid to the Yankees' last two trades, which cut out more than $20 million in payroll...

At this point, it seems that the Yankees and Red Sox are switching positions this off-season (so far)... the Yankees are the ones cutting payroll, hesitant to make the big excessive off-season pick-up, while the Red Sox are making a splash, throwing 42 million dollars with their bid and another 10-15 mil a year (rumors have it) at an unproven pitcher...

The off-season free spending of the past did help the Yankees, but not significantly enough to win the World Series... will the Red Sox learn the same lesson?

Oh, how history repeats itself...

Happy reading!

B(rent)