Yankees

Contract Value Index

The Yankees' roster earns a B- Contract Value Index (CVI), a middling portfolio grade that reflects a front office caught between championship-window urgency and long-term payroll discipline—a tension playing out across 17 graded contracts on a 31-man roster. Of those 17 deals, five represent genuine value: below-market commitments that provide leverage in a competitive AL East race where New York sits atop the standings at 26-13. However, the portfolio is dragged down by four notable overpays, deals where guaranteed money or annual average value outpaces production or age curve expectations, suggesting the front office has swung aggressively to retain or acquire pieces mid-window rather than optimize contract efficiency. The CVI gap—five good-value anchors versus four anchor-weight contracts—reveals an organization willing to absorb payroll inefficiency for competitive depth, a calculated bet that makes sense with 141 regular-season days remaining and a top playoff seed to defend. The ungraded contracts (11 of 31) likely include pre-arbitration depth, young controlled assets, or mid-roster role players outside the efficiency calculus, which masks some roster construction truth. Overall, this front office is trading margin for mediocrity: they're not running a surgical salary-cap operation like a small-market contender, but they're not loading up on obvious stars either. The B- grade signals a team comfortable spending into redundancy if it helps them win now—a reasonable choice for October, a riskier one if injuries or performance decline test that philosophy before September.

Team Performance