Views on Free Agency Conflict Despite a River of Cash With labor peace and rising broadcast revenue throughout baseball, money seems to be flowing to teams like the waterways that crisscross the Opryland Hotel here. Free agents coming off mediocre seasons are commanding exorbitant salaries. Times are good. But the Yankees, who often lead the checkbook charge, have been silent. They did their major spending in previous years, on Alex Rodriguez, C. C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and others, and their main objective is to keep their 2014 payroll below $189 million to take advantage of the significant incentives built into the collective bargaining agreement. Brian Cashman, the Yankees" general manager, has been shopping for bargains, despite openings at right field, catcher and, with Rodriguez's latest hip injury, third base. Scott Boras, the game's premier agent, can hardly believe it. "I can't speak for the Yankees," he said Wednesday, and then did just that. I think the model to be a Goliath is wholly different than the approach they're taking. They're reducing their payroll from past practices, despite record revenues in the $800-$900 million area, and frankly, when you look at the collective bargaining agreement, their reason for doing it, with the value of their brand, has to be looked at very closely. Randy Levine, the Yankees" president, who has negotiated with Boras for years, was not moved to take the advice. "Scott's a great agent, but he's an agent," Levine said. Last I looked, he had zero experience running a professional sports team. I think the Yankees have done pretty well following our own course. My advice to Scott is stick to your day job representing players. The Yankees have spent more than $200 million on payroll in each of the last five seasons, winning the World Series only in 2009. Other teams, of course, have won titles with much smaller payrolls. Beyond that basic logic - nobody wants to waste money - there are real dollars at stake. Under terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, passed after the 2011 season, the Yankees would pay no tax if their payroll stays under $189 million for 2014. If they do that and then exceed the payroll threshold in 2015, their tax rate would be only 17.5 percent. But if they go above $189 million in 2014, their subsequent tax rate would jump to 50 percent. The Yankees would also recoup substantial revenue-sharing rebates by staying under the threshold. So while the Yankees have eagerly signed Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera to one-year contracts, they have been leery of long-term payouts, hindering their flexibility on a generally uninspiring free-agent market. They also must keep space in future payrolls for their best offensive player, second baseman Robinson Cano, who is eligible for free agency after next season and is represented by Boras. The sides have not talked about a new deal. "Our attitude with contracts, and it's certainly been Yankee policy, we just will get him ready to play for the season - play out the season - and then evaluate things at the end of "13," Boras said. Boras said that was also his approach to another high-profile client, Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who is eligible for salary arbitration and can be a free agent after next season. The Red Sox have a contract agreement with the free-agent outfielder Shane Victorino and have reportedly explored trading Ellsbury. But Boras said Ellsbury was focused on this season only. Last December, Prince Fielder, a Boras client, commanded much of the attention at the winter meetings in Dallas. Boras left without a deal but convinced the Detroit Tigers" owner, Mike Ilitch, to give Fielder a nine-year, $214 million contract in January. Fielder helped the Tigers win the American League pennant. Boras seemed to have the Tigers in mind Wednesday when asked about Rafael Soriano, who opted out of his Yankees contract after a strong season as a substitute closer for Rivera. The Tigers insist they will use a rookie, Bruce Rondon, as their closer next season. Without mentioning the Tigers, Boras insisted that teams serious about winning must use proven closers. "I think you can count on one hand the number of closers under the age of 23 that have ever gone to the big leagues at a young age and put together 30 saves, let alone pitch in the postseason and be effective," Boras said. Last year there were three or four teams, if they had a 90 percent save-opportunity ratio out of their bullpen, they would have been in the playoffs and they weren't - the White Sox, the Brewers and the Angels. It really is a position, in my mind, that few men can do. Soriano turned down a $13.3 million qualifying offer from the Yankees after opting out of his contract, so he seems certain to be seeking at least that much on a multiyear deal. Boras said "midlevel players" have been getting $13 million salaries this winter, and closers, he noted, are not midlevel players. The last two World Series, however, have been won by teams with relatively unproven closers who had not yet reached free agency. Jason Motte closed out the 2011 title for St. Louis, and Sergio Romo did it in October for San Francisco. Boras dismissed those examples. "There are more teams that have lost their way out of the playoffs than there are teams that have sustained their way through the playoffs functioning without a known, stable force in the bullpen," he said. Boras's other top free agents include starter Kyle Lohse, whom he said could fill "a No. 1 role"; center fielder Michael Bourn, whom he called "a franchise guy"; and shortstop Stephen Drew, whose market, he said, is "ever-growing." All of those players, and Soriano, remain unsigned, although Boras proved last winter that he usually gets what he seeks, even when that seems impossible. With the industry awash in cash, Boras is in no hurry. "Patience often proves the wise path," he said.