The New York Yankees have long been known as a team that will spend whatever it takes to get the players they want.
Since the death of the Steinbrenner Family patriarch, George, in 2010, the Yankees haven’t operated quite as fervently but they have still shown that they have plenty of money as they took on Giancarlo Stanton’s massive deal from the Marlins and signed Gerrit Cole to a nine-year deal for $324 million.
However, the Steinbrenners are not as rich as you might think. In fact, there are some small-market teams (really small-market teams) that are richer than them, like the owners of the Cleveland Guardians.
The owners of the Cleveland Guardians are richer than the Steinbrenners, the owners of the New York Yankees
One of the teams with the smallest payrolls in baseball, the Cleveland Guardian, has one of the richest families in baseball: The Dolan Family. For New York Yankees fans, the Dolan family that you are probably thinking of is the Dolan family that owns NBA’s New York Knicks. While they don’t have the same direct go-to people, the families are one and the same.
Larry Dolan bought the then-named Cleveland Indians in 2000 and his nephew, James Dolan, is the principal owner of the New York Knicks.
MLB Trade Rumors recently compiled a list of the 30 MLB teams and their owners along with their net worth. The Dolan Family is worth $4.6 billion. That is sixth-highest in baseball, ahead of the Chicago Cubs ($4.5 billion), New York Yankees ($3.8 billion), Boston Red Sox ($3.6 billion), Philadelphia Phillies ($3.4 billion), and Houston Astros ($1.4 billion).
The Dolans nearly have the net worth of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, whose net worth is $5 billion.
However, Cleveland currently has a payroll of just $29 million, according to Spotrac. The New York Yankees have a payroll that is more than seven times that at $211.2 million.
It just goes to show that while the Yankees haven’t won a World Series in more than a decade, they are fortunate enough to have owners that will invest in their team. If Cleveland actually spent more like the Yankees, perhaps they wouldn’t have the longest World Series-winning drought in MLB.