Maybe This Whole Payroll Cutting Thing Started Earlier Than We Thought

Consider:

- The Yankees luxury tax for 2011 will be $13.9 million.

- The luxury tax they paid last year was $18 million.

- The luxury tax they paid in 2009 was $25.7 million.

Maybe I'm just slow on the uptake here, but I was surprised to read that today.  But now that I think about it, that makes perfect sense.  After they made their big splash with CC/A.J./Teix before '09, we haven't seen the Yankees be very active in the free agent market or at the trade deadline.  Lot more short, cheap deals like Bartolo, Freddy, Eric Chavez, etc.  Maybe there were already plans in the works to trim payroll before the new CBA even came to be.