He and the core that won 5 championships all came thru the farm system. Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Williams, Pettitte. Add O'Neill whom they traded Kelly for and there is a pretty damn good core for the money.
The whole the "Yankees buy great teams" BS is just that.
From 2003 to present the Yankees have paid $348 million in salary cap tax. In that time frame the entire rest of the league COMBINED paid $234 million. Guys might have come through the farm system but they Yankees still bought a great team by ratcheting up the salaries with no regard to the cap.
I know. That's why I never said that. I simply pointed out that the Yankees had the highest payroll in MLB throughout Jeter's career. I never said anything about whether the team was winning or losing during those years.
The Yankees' enormous payroll has done two things for them over the years:
1. It's bought them a large margin for error when building a roster (they can afford to pay huge salaries to depth players).
2. It's generated a lot of enthusiasm among fans when the team signs large free agent contracts.
Item #2 is important to note because it has nothing to do with winning and losing. The Yankees know better than anyone that the roster you build to attract 4 million fans in a season is rarely the same roster you build to win a championship. They learned that back in the 1980s and then they've gotten a refresher course since they began their current payroll binge with the signing of Jason Giambi in 2002 and have a single World Series title (2009) to show for it.
Pettitte is the only one of them who was a starting pitcher. Look who filled out the starting rotations in all those championship seasons:
David Cone
Dwight Gooden
Orlando Hernandez
Jimmy Key
Kenny Rogers
C.C. Sabathia
David Wells
THIS is one area where a team with a giant payroll can overspend on fading talent with some gas left in the tank.