Yankees Look Cheap for Not Committing to Pay Non-Essential Employees During Pandemic

It was confirmed on Monday that more than half of MLB's clubs took the initiative to commit to compensating their non-essential employees through at least the end of May. Of course, the league is suspended amid the coronavirus crisis, so teams aren't obliged to make such pledges.

For the franchises that can afford to do so, why not? After all, there are countless essential gameday individuals who make a living off those salaries.

That's exactly what makes the New York Yankees' omission from this list of 18 clubs shocking. We never thought we'd say it, but this makes baseball's most expensive organization look cheap.

The Yankees are really taking a page out of the Mets' playbook, and we never thought it would come to this.

ESPN insider Jeff Passan later confirmed that the San Diego Padres became the first team to commit to paying their baseball operations staff for the entire season. Based wholly on reputation, it almost would've been expected for the Yanks to lead this encouraging charge.

Even club legend Derek Jeter, now the CEO of the Miami Marlins, forfeited his $5 million salary indefinitely due to COVID-19.

According to Forbes' annual valuation of sports franchises, the Yankees ranked as baseball's most profitable at $5 billion, which is 47% more than the No.2-ranked Los Angeles Dodgers ($3.4 billion).

We really expected more from the Pinstripes.