While Yankees use Dodgers as an excuse, Steve Cohen is using them as motivation

Safe to say that New York Yankees fans aren't thrilled with how the team's offseason has played out so far. Losing Juan Soto — to the hated New York Mets, no less — was a huge blow, and while Brian Cashman brought in big names like Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, Devin Williams and Paul Goldschmidt to try and fill the void, whether their production will match their collective star power remains an open question. And we haven't even gotten to the fact that the team failed to address its most glaring remaining weakness ahead of spring training, with the decrepit DJ LeMahieu currently penciled in as the everyday third baseman.

In defense of his franchise's fitful winter, owner Hal Steinbrenner had excuses at the ready. Sure, it would be nice if the Yankees could continue adding the talent they need to get back to the World Series in 2025. But the team was already at risk of crossing the highest luxury-tax threshold, and it simply couldn't afford to operate in such rarefied air — unlike some other teams that spent the past few months hoovering up players like there was no tomorrow.

"Well, look," Steinbrenner told reporters back in January. "It's difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that [the Los Angeles Dodgers] are doing."

The Yankees might be one of the most valuable sports properties on planet Earth, one that spent most of the past century in a position of financial dominance, but just look at what the Dodgers are doing right now. They're lapping the field, ruining the sport! Really, how could any team compete with that?

Of course, while Steinbrenner was busy turning out his pockets like the Monopoly Man gone bankrupt, the rival across town has been busy ... you know, trying to build the most competitive roster possible, regardless of what anybody else is doing. And rather than run from the challenge, Steve Cohen seems thrilled that the Dodgers are raising the bar.

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Steve Cohen refuses to run scared from the Dodgers like Hal Steinbrenner did

Cohen met with the media ahead of New York's first full-squad workout of the spring on Tuesday, and it wasn't long before the richest owner in baseball was asked about the richest team in baseball. There were no excuses here, though, no hand-wringing about what could possibly be done about the big, bad Dodgers. Cohen, instead, chose to be the anti-Steinbrenner, commending L.A. on what it's managed to build so far and relishing the opportunity to compete with them.

And while others around the league are crying foul over the Dodgers' recent penchant for including major deferrals in their contracts — a decades-old practice that they hardly invented — Cohen rightly pointed out that this isn't nearly the advantage it might appear on the surface, and that Los Angeles is hardly getting off easy when it makes historic financial commitments.

Yankees fans would no doubt love for Steinbrenner to be sounding like this, much less spending like this. This is how a team in New York, much less a team with the history and national fan base that the Yankees enjoy, should be conducting itself. Sure, the Yankees don't have Shohei Ohtani printing money for them from across the Pacific Ocean. But these are still the Yankees we're talking about; they should be aligned with the Dodgers and Mets, not the Reds, Guardians and Rays. Hal's dad, George, for all of his faults, never backed down from a challenge, and never had patience for owners who expected people to feel sorry for them for getting left behind. His son should take some notes.