He went just 40-39 with a 4.07 ERA, however, in his final four seasons. Hunter had a monster 1975, pitching 328 innings, tossing 30 complete games (!) and finishing second in the Cy Young vote. With the Yankees, his salary jumped to $600,000. Hunter made $100,000 with the A's in 1974, when he went 25-12 with a league-leading 2.49 ERA, pitched 318 innings and won the Cy Young Award.

An arbitrator declared Hunter a free agent, and two weeks later Steinbrenner made him the highest-paid player in the game with a five-year, $3.35 million contract. Hunter became the first modern free agent due to a technical snafu: A's owner Charlie Finley didn't make a payment on a life insurance annuity as required in Hunter's contract. Does this year's group match up? (With each addition, I'm adding the player's previous season WAR.) With that, let's go back to 1975 and the first free agent in major league history and look at what new toys the Yankees brought in each offseason. Fans easily can go spend their money on another viewing of 'Hamilton.' A broken-down, past-his-prime Troy Tulowitzki doesn't count. For Yankees fans who grew up in the Steinbrenner era, that became the expectation: an expensive new toy under the Christmas tree every offseason.

If he made one lasting impact on baseball, it was this: There was never a name too big or a salary too large that it couldn't be shoehorned onto the Yankees' roster. The Boss, of course, is the late George Steinbrenner, and he loved his shiny new toys. The subhead read, 'Yanks introduce another good player, but with big names out there, it's hardly a crew The Boss would brag about.' Indeed, that's M.M.'s general reaction, even if he's ignoring that Paxton is arguably the best pitcher to change teams this offseason. sent me the cover of the New York Daily News with the headline 'The Snore 4,' referring to LeMahieu, James Paxton, Troy Tulowitzki and Zach Britton. I mean, I think he's happy about trading Sonny Gray, but after the club recently signed DJ LeMahieu, M.M. isn't completely happy about the Yankees' offseason. It's not Mickey Mantle, but if you want to believe it's Mickey Mantle speaking to me from baseball heaven, that's fine. I have a friend who roots for the New York Yankees.

A Shiny New Toy by M.J. O'Shea