Comparing the Phillies and the Yankees

by John Sickels on Oct 26, 2025 2:58 PM EDT Comment 14 comments

Here is a comparison of the Philadelphia and New York World Series rosters:

Phillies Roster Breakdown: 25 Players
Acquired by Trades or Waivers: 8 (32%)
Phillies Farm System Products: 8 (32%)
Major League Free Agents: 8 (32%)
Rule 5: 1 (4%.)

Yankees Roster Breakdown: 25 players
Acquired by Trades or Waivers: 7 (28%)
Yankees Farm System Products: 12 (48%)
Major League Free Agents: 6 (24%)
Rule 5: 0.

Phillies Origins Breakdown:
North American High School Draftees: 6   (24%)
Junior College Draftees:   2    (8%)
Four-Year College Draftees:   9   (36%)
Undrafted North Americans:   2   (8%)
Latin Free Agents: 5   (20%)
Asian Free Agents: 1   (4%)

Yankees Origin Breakdown:
North American High School Draftees: 9 (36%)
Junior College Draftees: 2 (8%)
Four Year College Draftees: 6 (24%)
Undrafted North Americans: 0
Latin Free Agents: 7 (28%)
Asian Free Agents: 1 (4%)

The current Phillies roster was constructed one-third via trade, one-third via the farm system, and one-third via major league free agents. The Yankees, in contrast, have almost half of the current roster (48%) developed via the farm system, with the other 52% by trade or free agent. If you want to count Andy Pettitte as a farm system product, flip those two numbers. I would note that farm products Jeter, Rivera, and Posada were developed by the system in the 1990s, a long time ago, but that important bullpen components of the pitching staff such as Chamberlain, Hughes, Coke, and Robertson are recent products.

In terms of ultimate origin, the Phillies roster is more college-oriented than the Yankees roster. The Phllies have five former first round picks (Hamels, Werth,Blanton, Lidge, Utley) while the Yankees have six (Hughes, Sabathia, Jeter, Rodriguez, Swisher, Teixeira) plus two supplemental first round picks (Chamberlain, Damon). The lowest draft picks were Ibanez (36th round) and Gaudin (34th round).

Finally, combining both clubs to get the 50 players in the World Series this year,

Combining Both Rosters: 50 players
Acquired by Trades or Waivers: 15 (30%)
Developed by Farm Systems: 20 (40%)
Signed as Major League Free Agent: 14 (28%)
Rule 5: 1 (2%)

North American High School Draftees:   15 (30%)
Junior College Draftees:   4 (8%)
Four-Year College Draftees:   15 (30%)
Undrafted North Americans:   2 (4%)
Latin Free Agents: 12 (24%)
Asian Free Agents:   2   (4%)

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Comments

IFAs are not "farm system"

The Yankees only drafted 7 of those 25 players themselves. Counting the IFAs as “farm system” products is disingenuous because it presumes that the other 29 teams had an even a remotely equal chance to acquire those players.

by Wooden_U_Lykteneau on Oct 26, 2025 3:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

uh

Every other team had the chance to acquire them. They just chose not to because they decided to allocate their resources elsewhere.

by yoda1 on Oct 26, 2025 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Actually.

The international free agent market is probably the most fair right now. Yeah, the Yankees can still offer big money, but they really don’t offer that much more than other teams.

The Mariners work on a tight budget every year and still manage to snag top tier talents from the Latin American markets. Bob Engle, who has been doing the Mariners international scouting for about a decade now, has built up such a reputation down there that he can get in good with all the top tier talents easily.

In this case, it’s not necessarily about the money. Besides that, the Latin market in producing talent is probably more volatile than those in the First Year Amateur Player Draft what with age-gate problems, potential chemical enhancement problems (There’s a recent article about that floating around somewhere), and Carlos Lugo pretending to be someone else.

It may change. You could see more NA Agents taking on clients down in the international market and hardballing teams away so they get a ton of money from the Yanks, but that hasn’t really happened yet. I’m guessing there’s reasons for it that I don’t know.

Also, there seem to be new markets and veins of talent springing up all over the international scene. It’s hard for a team like New York to dominate when new prospect mines are developed in places they aren’t.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Oct 26, 2025 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Somebody tell the Twins

They didn;t have a remotely equal chance of signing Sano. Heck, get the Athletics on the phone and tell Billy Beane he can’t sign Ynoa.

Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

by CasanovaWong on Oct 27, 2025 8:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

IFA's are most definitely 'farm system'

The fact is that EVERY SINGLE TEAM has a great chance to acquire IFA talent for their farm, for far, far cheaper than what you pay for top draft choices in the draft. In fact, I would say that IFA system is much more indicative of a team’s scouting and farm success than the draft, wherein consistently successful teams like the Yankees have a supreme disadvantage every single year.

by Aisengard on Oct 26, 2025 4:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

and lets not forget

that there are many many more examples of low cost LA signings being successful than the big bonus babies….

JD’s like, "you want some fucking pitching? Here’s all the pitching you can stand. Now choke on it, bitches!"- RCCook

by laxtonto on Oct 26, 2025 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The inequity

is not in where the players come from. It’s in the amount of money employed to fill out the roster.

by parish on Oct 26, 2025 4:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I just let loose a nice diatribe on this in the other thread.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Oct 26, 2025 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yankees pay to play

Parish is exactly right. It is not the number of players that are free agents that point to the inequity. It is the amount of money for particularly desired free agents that separate a few of the teams, notably the Yankees but also the Phillies, from the others.

by Knothole on Oct 26, 2025 10:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think the money excuse is over simplifying things

Buying a WS hasn’t worked out very well for the other New York team. As a Phillies fan, I give Cashman props for not just signing any high priced FA, they clearly have locker room make-up (read Jeter) to be able to incorporate big personalities. They’ve also avoided the injury bug on most of their FAs (unlike the Mets)

by Cormican on Oct 27, 2025 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They've avoided the injury bug so far

Let’s check in on Burnett and Sabathia’s arms in a few years and see how they’re still doing.

http://www.chop-n-change.com

by alexwithclass on Oct 28, 2025 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It is the amount of money for particularly desired free agents that separate a few of the teams, notably the Yankees but also the Phillies, from the others.

Actually, the money involved separates the Yankees from pretty much everyone, with the possible exception of the Mets and Red Sox.

For example, only 5 of the current roster came through free agency compared to 8 for the Phillies — I’m counting Pettitte as farm system — but that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Those 5 Yankees (Burnett, Sabathia, Teixeira, Damon, and Matsui) signed initial free agent contracts worth a staggering $496.5 million. The 8 Phillies (Durbin, Pedro, Park, Bako, Cairo, Feliz, Ibanez, Werth), on the other hand, cost the club $47.475 in initial outlay — with $31.5 million of that coming from the Ibanez signing. There’s a big difference between signing Chad Durbin to a minimum deal as a free agent, and handing $180 million over to Teixeira.

That doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of what Cashman’s done — I agree with Cormican in that he should be commended for doing the right thing with the resources at his disposal. But whereas the bulk of the Phillies’ core has been homegrown (Utley, Rollins, Howard) or gotten on the cheap (Werth, Victorino), a much larger share of the Yanks’ success has to be attributed to their impressive financial resources.

by PhillyFriar on Oct 27, 2025 5:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

On the other hand...

Phillies were able to build their team from home grown talent because they sucked so bad for 20+ years while the Yanks won multiple championships and competed. But hey, the only reason why the Yanks are doing well is because they spend money from making money (as if that is such a bad thing).

by yoda1 on Oct 29, 2025 4:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs