Yankees, Dodgers forecast a winter of austerity - but can we believe them?

DALLAS - OK, who’s the wise guy who sneaked into the board rooms of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, and convinced ownership there’s no reason to spend money to win?

These are the two richest franchises in baseball, spending more than $500 million on player salaries last year, but are acting these days as if they’re the Milwaukee Brewers.

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner revealed Wednesday that his mission still is to get the club’s payroll under the $189 million luxury tax threshold one day, just days after the Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly told the Los Angeles Times he would like to slash payroll by nearly $100 million.

If this is the most prodigious free agent market in baseball history, no one has bothered to tell the Yankees and Dodgers, which has agents scratching their heads in disbelief at the slow rate of the marketplace.

We’ve had two free agent signings worth a grand total of $9.75 million. And while the Dodgers are expected to make an aggressive bid to retain co-ace Zack Greinke, the Yankees have been involved in trade talks, but no major free agent discussions.

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“I shouldn’t have to have a $200 million payroll to win a world championship,” Steinbrenner said at the quarterly owners’ meetings. “It’s been proven over and over again, right?”

Well, yes. The Kansas City Royals just won the World Series with an opening-day payroll of $116.6 million, which is about $100 million less than the Yankees’ opening-day payroll.

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Now, after spending $485 million alone two years ago on free agents Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann, the Yankees are acting as if they might sit out of this free agent market. Maybe they’ll be back in a couple of years but not now.

They have $181.7 million in guaranteed salaries in 2016, but their future commitments will be slashed dramatically by 2018 with $94.64 million on the books, according to detailed salary information obtained by USA TODAY Sports. Gone will be the hefty salaries of Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez.

“The last couple of years, the money that has come off,” Steinbrenner said, “we’ve had to put it back in.

“Fill voids because we haven’t had the young players to do it with. The guys that we picked up two years ago, the McCanns and the Ellsburys, they’ve been great. Glad we did it.

“A couple of years from now, the payroll situation will be different. I’ll have flexibility. We will be active on the free agent market. We always are.

“But (now) I’ve got other options.”

The free agent marketplace’s worst nightmare might have been the Yankees’ success this season. They reached the postseason for the first time in three years, buoyed by the reinforcements from their farm system, getting boosts from pitcher Luis Severino and first baseman Greg Bird.

The Yankees finally kept a first-round pick — drafting UCLA pitcher James Kaprielian 16th overall last June — and are starting to enjoy that infusion of talent rather than forfeiting the picks for signing free agents. They have the 22nd overall pick in the 2016 draft.

“It’s important not to be giving away those draft picks,” Steinbrenner said. “It doesn’t mean that if the situation requires … we got to do what we got to do to win. And that’s always the goal.

“But if we’re going to have this balance that I’m talking about, we’re going to work to get under the threshold as money starts coming off and we get out from underneath some of these eight-year deals, you’ve got to have those kids.”

Yet, until now, the Yankees didn’t bother paying attention to it, declining to let a few extra zeroes stand in their way of signing the greatest free agents in the land.

Here we are now with a star-studded pitching class featuring Cy Young Award runners-up David Price and Greinke, along with proven horses Jordan Zimmermann and Johnny Cueto, and the Yankees are acting as if they might not bother to make a call.

Is that being shrewd or stupid?

“Cost cutting is a welcome theme of every business,” agent Scott Boras said. “The question is: In doing so, is it good business to cut corners and potentially harm or potentially deface the brand of the franchise? Major market clubs with far greater resources are expected to contend and win with greater frequency. Fans, regional network partners, sponsors, vendors and advertisers are all paying premiums and expect annual rosters filled with star players.

“That business model is highly successful for a number of premium franchises, and caution to those who attempt to change the swing of a great and proven economic organization.”

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The Dodgers, whose payroll reached a record $310 million by the end of last season, also are acting as if they plan to skip out on the free agent market aside from Greinke, preferring instead to swing trades and build from within their system. They wouldn’t even part with any of their top prospects to acquire Price, Cole Hamels or Cueto at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

Perhaps, this is why Boehly predicts their 2016 opening-day payroll will be much closer to $200 million than $300 million. The Dodgers have $527.4 million in future commitments, but it drops to $40 million in 2019.

Hey, if the Yankees can refrain from reaching into their checkbook, why can’t everyone else?

“But this is New York,” Steinbrenner cautioned. “In a big market, you need guys who have been there.

“We need marquee players. We know that. We also need the veterans, which happens to be a lot of marquee players. You need that mix.

“But there’s no doubt, if you’ve got young talent, you can win championships.

“And it gives you more flexibility as far as the payroll.”

Who knows, maybe it’s a bluff. The Yankees need pitching.

If Greinke leaves, the Dodgers need a replacement. Perhaps neither ream will be able to help themselves if Price is sitting in that showroom window a few weeks from now.

Then again, maybe this is the new reality.

“I feel better than I did two or three years ago,” Steinbrenner said.

Pardon every free agent and his agent for starting to feel a whole lot worse.

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