CLEARWATER, Fla. — It is still a little weird to think we now live in a world where the New York Yankees are no longer the Evil Empire.
This news was announced weeks ago, when the Yankees’ principal owner, Hal Steinbrenner, said Major League Baseball now basically consisted of two groups of franchises: the Los Angeles Dodgers and everybody else.
“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” Steinbrenner said recently on the YES Network, referring to the Dodgers.
There you have it. It does not get more official than that. The Yankees are now just one of the guys, their owner says.
So when I arrived in spring training, I had to ask: How were the Yankees adjusting to life as Just Another Team? How was the rest of baseball coping now that the Yankees were Just Like Them?
These felt like simple questions — until I started asking them.
“They’re still the Yankees, man,” Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, laughing heartily. “I’m not buying that. They have to be the Evil Empire. They’re the Yankees.”
“I don’t look at them any differently than I did last year,” Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I’m not going to challenge anything Mr. Steinbrenner says because he’s been incredibly gracious to us. But I think they’re really good.” (The Yankees are allowing the Rays to play at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, in 2025 after Tropicana Field was damaged by Hurricane Milton.)
“I’m not going to be playing the world’s smallest violin for the Yankees,” a rival American League executive said. “And I don’t think they’re asking anybody to.”
That did not go well at all. Don’t these people pay attention? The owner said the Yankees were just one of the boys, and that was before they lost pitcher Gerrit Cole for the season.
Clearly, the Yankees have to be excited about this. The pressure will be off them. Won’t that be liberating?
I started with Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
“I don’t know,” Boone said. “I always think people want to beat us, and we usually get everyone’s best. I don’t think anything’s changed there. We’ve got a ton of stars. And I feel like people are always gunning for us. You can decide who the empire is or not.”
I pressed onward.
“Have you heard the Yankees are not the Evil Empire anymore?” I asked shortstop Anthony Volpe.
“No,” he said. “To me, they always will be.”
I said: “You saw the quote from your owner, right? That no team can do what the Dodgers do. So, obviously, they’re now the Evil Empire, and you guys are off the hook. You’re not seeing it?”
Volpe said: “There will never be, in my opinion, another team like it. That’s because of the Yankees that came before us. Just to carry on those traditions is really important to me.”
Volpe had many more thoughts on the Yankees’ place in the game. He was not wrong about any of them. But I also recognized he might not have a big-picture perspective. He was drafted by the Yankees, has played only for the Yankees and, before that, grew up rooting for the Yankees.
So, didn’t we need to hear from someone who had spent most of his life and career outside the Yankees bubble? Someone such as infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr.?
Chisholm was born in the Bahamas, grew up in Kansas and signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks at age 17. He played five seasons with the Miami Marlins before being traded to the Yankees in July. I could not get my entire question out before Chisholm shot down the premise, saying, “The Yankees have always been the Evil Empire.”
I said: “Not anymore. You’re off the hook. The Yankees are just a normal franchise now. Does it feel like that’s a good thing or a strange thing?”
Chisholm said: “That’s a strange thing. I don’t think the Yankees are a normal empire. And I don’t think our owner should say the Yankees are just a normal team.”
Did Chisholm just give his owner unsolicited advice? I think he did. But he was just getting rolling.
“I mean, we’re still the Yankees,” he said. “We still have the history. So, I would rather have the mindset of thinking that we’re still the Evil Empire, even if we’re not. I still love that mindset because that means that we’re still on top of everybody.”
I should have jumped in and pointed out that the Dodgers, who beat the Yankees in the 2024 World Series, are actually on top. I chose not to.
And what about the Dodgers? Are they enjoying their experience in their spiffy new Empire of Evil.
I sent a text message to their team president and CEO, Stan Kasten, and asked him a related question: How sorry should we feel for the Yankees now that the Dodgers are the Evil Empire?
“I feel like this is a Mike Myers ‘SNL’ skit,” Kasten replied. “The Los Angeles Dodgers were neither evil nor an empire. … Talk among yourselves.”
“Call me,” I wrote back.
On the phone, Kasten said: “Did you know that the oddsmakers claim there’s a 75% chance that someone other than us wins the World Series this year? So, it’s hard to be that evil or much of an empire if that continues.”
I tried to explain why “Evil Empire” could apply to his team. He was not impressed.
“I do know this: I think our fans, Dodger fans, who are my primary concern, are very happy with us,” he said. “I’m happy about that. I think Major League Baseball is benefiting greatly from the attention our team gets, both in Los Angeles and everywhere else we travel to, as well as the increased attention and business we are helping to generate internationally. All of those are good things.”
So, if Dodgers fans and baseball’s bean counters are happy, does that fundamentally mean the Dodgers cannot qualify for Evil Empiredom? Or would the $1.5 billion they spent on free agents these past two years override that? Talk among yourselves.
But while you are talking, I hope you will not mind if we hear from the president of the Yankees, Randy Levine. He goes back to the days of the Boss, George Steinbrenner, and the days when Larry Lucchino, as president of the Boston Red Sox, labeled the Yankees the Evil Empire, in December 2002.
“It came in the throes of a great rivalry,” Levine said. “It happened when we signed Jose Contreras in the middle of the night. It really was something for the fans and the media to hang on to. It was a nice marketing tool, for both of us, in the rivalry.”
It does not sound like it is a marketing tool that the Dodgers will be leaning into anytime soon. But let’s say this for the Yankees: They took that Evil Empire stuff as a badge of honor.
Did you know they still play the Death Star alarm in Yankee Stadium any time a Yankees pitcher gets to two strikes on a hitter?
Remember when their general manager, Brian Cashman, described his star-studded roster as “a fully operational Death Star” during the 2018 winter meetings?
In 2013, when a company started selling Evil Empire T-shirts and merchandise, the Yankees unleashed their lawyers to put a stop to that unauthorized profiteering.
Asked if he recalled that, Levine chuckled and said: “That was strictly a licensing thing because if anybody was going to make money on the Evil Empire, it had better be us.”
The Dodgers have money, a lot of it, and they will definitely spend it. That has been their modus operandi since their purchase by Mark Walter’s Guggenheim Partners in 2012. Since then, the Dodgers have not had an opening day payroll under $200 million in any full season. In 2014, they passed the Yankees in the payroll standings for the first time this century.
From 2014-24, Dodgers payrolls have been $2.64 billion, according to Spotrac; Yankees payrolls have been $2.42 billion.
Of the 10 full seasons in that span, which team had the higher payroll? The Dodgers for eight of those years, the Yankees for two. So, who is the true fully operational Death Star? Seems pretty obvious.
On the other hand, the Yankees had a higher payroll than Los Angeles as recently as last year. And the year before.
The Yankees have six players earning at least $25 million this season. The Dodgers have five, although Shohei Ohtani will make $70 million (including deferrals). But you get the picture.
Oh, and one more thing: In Forbes’ 2024 rankings of the most valuable sports teams, the Yankees ranked first in baseball — and fourth in the world — at $7.55 billion. You have to read all the way down to No. 24 to find the Dodgers ($5.45 billion).
So, can we all agree that the Yankees will not be confused with the Pittsburgh Pirates anytime soon? The Dodgers are headed for a projected $389 million payroll, according to FanGraphs and Roster Resource — which seems like a lot.
Could baseball have two Evil Empires?
“No, I think everybody needs a public enemy,” the rival American League executive said. “I can’t remember a time, really, across sports, where there was more than one team in a given sport that had to wear the black hat.”
Are we sure that’s true? The Yankees aren’t.
“I think people used to think, after the cheating scandal, that the Astros were the Evil Empire,” Levine said. “So, I think there’s no shortage of Evil Empires.”
There was even a time when the Red Sox passed the Yankees in payroll, in 2018 and 2019 — while winning their fourth World Series of the 21st century to boot. So, if you do an internet search for “Red Sox Evil Empire,” you will find plenty of stories suggesting that not too long ago, many people thought Boston had grabbed that torch, at least temporarily.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Levine said. “There are a lot of teams that could legitimately be classified as the Evil Empire at one point in time or another.”
Is this one of those times? In the last labor agreement, a new tax threshold was called the Steve Cohen tax, in honor of the owner of the New York Mets.
So, maybe the Mets are in the running for Evil Empire status, too — especially after signing Juan Soto, who dumped the Yankees for the Mets.
But the Yankees still fly all those flags, salute all those monuments and flood the zone with payroll dollars and luxury tax payouts. They are still a World Series-or-bust operation.
“Do you know the famous Mike Royko quote?” Levine said. “He basically said: ‘Hating the Yankees is as American as pizza pie and cheating on your taxes.’ So, there’s nothing new about any of this.
“You know, nobody is evil,” Levine went on. “Yes, there are empires. But what’s wrong with that? I actually think some of these other teams can use a shot of a little Evil Empire. I think you know what I mean.”
Hmm. I think we do. But you know what team we can be pretty sure he does not mean? The Dodgers.
“We’re certainly not evil,” Kasten said, “not when we have this many fans and positive contributions to the game. And let’s face it. We’re not an empire. And if we ever become one, get back to me.”
If the Dodgers are not an empire now, how will we know when they become one?
“It’ll just take more of, well, everything,” Kasten said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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