A Rich Fix in the Spirit of Steinbrenner Elsa/Getty Images Jacoby Ellsbury was a key figure for Boston in his seven years there, winning two championships. But injuries have also limited him over his career. It was just a line in a news release, and it was not even about Jacoby Ellsbury. But it made you stop for a moment and imagine that Hal Steinbrenner's words had been said by his father. "The singular and unwavering desire of this organization is to construct a team each and every season designed to play meaningful baseball deep into October," the statement said, and while George Steinbrenner would have specified championships, not simply meaningful baseball, the sentiment was the same. A singular and unwavering desire ... each and every season ... October. The Yankees might still construct a roster with a payroll less than $189 million, the magic number to reset their luxury tax rate. The math could work, especially if an arbitrator deletes Alex Rodriguez's contract from their budget. But after the Yankees agreed to a seven-year, $153 million contract with Ellsbury on Tuesday, pending a physical examination, it is also conceivable that they could just blow past the $189 million mark and grab every free agent they want. George Steinbrenner might have been driven to do it by his insatiable - irrational? - competitive nature. Hal Steinbrenner might do it because it is good for business. The most rational way to rebuild the Yankees is probably to hang back for a while and reconstruct a skeletal farm system. The absence of dynamic, major-league-ready prospects is forcing this spending spree, which includes the five-year, $85 million deal for catcher Brian McCann that was formally announced Tuesday. The Yankees really should break the cycle of depending on aging veterans prone to physical breakdowns. But they do not grow players like they did in the mid-1990s, and they cannot plunge into a vast rebuilding project like the Houston Astros or the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees will try to improve their player development, to be sure, but for now, there seems to be no other option than to spend big. Attendance dropped and television ratings divebombed last season, when a creaky Yankees roster missed the playoffs. The team's business model depends on stars, and although McCann and Ellsbury have relatively low national profiles, they will jolt a lineup and help the Yankees win. And only winning - or, at least, the promise of winning - will sell high-priced seats and attract TV viewers again. The Yankees" signing of Ellsbury, 30, theoretically weakens the Red Sox, the team he just helped win another title. But Boston, if it chooses, has a handy replacement in Jackie Bradley Jr., the 40th overall choice in the 2011 draft. The Yankees did not pick until 51st that year, having sacrificed their first-rounder to sign reliever Rafael Soriano. Their top selection, Dante Bichette Jr., batted .214 in his second season of low-Class A ball in 2013. With Ellsbury, the Yankees gain leverage over Robinson Cano, their free-agent second baseman. They could dangle Brett Gardner - a left-handed, speedy outfielder like Ellsbury - in a trade for the All-Star second baseman Brandon Phillips, whose tenuous standing in Cincinnati seemed to be underscored Tuesday when that team left him off its list of participants in RedsFest, a popular promotional event. Gardner is just a year from free agency, but the Reds may lose outfielder Shin-Soo Choo this winter. More likely, though, the Yankees will simply hold the line on Cano and his lead agent, Jay Z, whose $310 million contract request was pure fantasy. The notion that Cano could sign with the Mariners runs counter to his motivation for signing with Jay Z: marketing, fame, and the expansion of his personal brand, whatever that means. Seattle is a beautiful city, with passionate fans desperate for a winner and a ballpark that might be the best in the majors. But it does not seem to be aligned with Cano's motivations. A seven-year contract for Cano, which could cost $24.5 million a year, would be an overpay for the Yankees but would keep Cano in a city he probably does not want to leave. The Yankees will look ancient in a few years, but with their sickly farm system, this is what they get: an occasional season like 2013 in which they are undone by a decaying roster, only to be saved the next winter by a major cash infusion. Even without Cano - and, let's say, Rodriguez - their lineup looks a lot better now than it did at the end of the season. Ellsbury and Gardner would cause havoc at the top of the order, and three power hitters, Mark Teixeira, McCann and Alfonso Soriano, could hold down the middle. Derek Jeter returns at shortstop and Ichiro Suzuki in right. It is far from perfect. Suzuki is 40, Jeter is 39 and Soriano is 38. Jeter and Teixeira missed most of last season with injuries. The team still has holes at second and at third and in the rotation. But the Yankees are improving, and you can see their pattern clearly. Whichever Steinbrenner runs the team, the Yankees always understand who they are. They are baseball's imperial franchise, and they never step out of character.