Hal indicates willingness to take on salary at trade deadline

Via Ken Davidoff: Hal Steinbrenner indicated a willingness to take on salary and beef up payroll to add players during the season. “[We’re] always willing to look at options come July. Come the trade deadline,” he said. “And I think we’ve shown that. Some years we’ve done stuff, like last year with [Alfonso] Soriano. Some years we haven’t. But we’re not going to ever lay down and die. We’re going to do what we need to do to stay in.”

According to Cot’s, the Yankees opened the season with a $197M payroll this year after spending between $207M and $213M from 2010-12. (The $228M payroll last year was a bit of an anomaly because of the injuries.) If ownership is willing to spend as much as they did from 2010-12, the Yankees can add roughly $10-16M in payroll during the season, which is a ton. The team clearly needs another starting pitcher, maybe even two, and another infielder wouldn’t hurt either. The money seems to be there, so the question now is whether they have the prospects to swing any deals.