Update: Through my work at Dugout Central, this article is now up on the main section of the Fox MLB site.

A lot has been said about the New York Yankees' recent spending.

The bottom line is that the Steinbrenner brothers are taking the Yankees' revenues and putting them back into improving the product on the field. Hal and Hank could be pocketing the leftovers, but instead the family continues to do what it thinks is the best way to uphold the Steinbrenner doctrine: win the World Series at all costs. (Let us save the salary cap conversation for another day, but this would only increase profits for owners, shifting the money from the players to those running the teams.)

What baseball fan would not want the owner of their favorite team to do the same?

With the recent signings of CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, New York now has four of the highest-paid players in baseball history on its 25-man roster: Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Sabathia and Teixeira.

The Yankees also added prized right-hander A.J. Burnett this winter, spending a cool $82.5-million over five years.

Despite throwing nearly a half-billion on a handful of free agents, however, New York's payroll is going to go down for 2009, with nearly $90-million coming off the books.

As the Tampa Bay Rays showed the world, payroll does not always dictate on-field performance, anyway. Smart management can trump finances through exploiting inefficiencies in the market. However, the Yankees, at least in the short term, are loaded, currently hovering near "best-in-baseball" status. Unlike its past infatuation with quantity over quality-Carl Pavanno, Jaret Wright, among others-New York flexed their financial muscle to add three of the premier players on the market in a deep free-agent class.

Good for them.

After failing to reach the postseason, it seems, Brian Cashman was not messing around.

But Cashman really had no other choice.

The American League East in 2009 may end up as one of the strongest divisions in baseball history. Unfortunately, there is going to be an odd team out between the Boston Red Sox, Rays and Yankees, three Top-10 organizations that would all be favorites to win practically every other division.

The Teixeira signing came as a surprise, but instantly makes the Yankees the favorite out of those three. Even with the addition of Burnett and Sabathia, one could make a strong argument that this was not the case-in fact, from where I am standing, they were looking up at Boston and Tampa Bay-until New York added the talented switch-hitting slugger.

Teixeira, who will turn 29 in April, is the best first baseman in the majors not named Albert Pujols and is entering his prime. He has produced a career batting line of .290/.378/.541 with a 134 OPS+, having averaged 36 home runs and 121 RBIs per 162 games in six seasons to this point. Although he did not come cheap, as a model of consistency, he was the safest bet among the available free agents.

Teixeira is also coming off his best offensive performance to date, as he posted a career-high 151 OPS+ combined between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a fine campaign. Essentially, he adds excellent on-base skills, plus power and the ability to drive in runs to the middle of an aging New York lineup. Combined with Rodriguez, the Yankees now have one of, if not, the most dangerous 1-2 hitting duos in all of baseball.

In addition, Teixeira is an excellent defender at first base-a major defensive upgrade over Jason Giambi. Considering how bad the Yankees' infield defense was in 2008, this is huge. The consistent .850-plus OPS production and Gold Glove-caliber defense that he brings to the table is hard to argue with. The man, make no mistake about it, is one of the elite players in the league, adding value on both sides of the ball.

Based on projections, the upgrade over Giambi should help the Yankees win around four-to-five more games; he is projected as about eight wins above replacement, but is not stepping in for a replacement-level player. This makes the financial cost seem reasonable, considering how much each additional win is worth to a franchise like the Yankees.

For year one at least (there is a lot of downside risk on the back-end of the Burnett and Sabathia contracts), the Yankees are in excellent shape. With that said, there are obviously no guarantees, and health will play a major factor on which team(s) ends up advancing to the October tournament from the A.L. East.

The Yankees are destined to improve on a run prevention front due to the upgrade in starting pitching. They boast an excellent rotation, barring injuries and another free-agent signing (Andy Pettitte?), with Sabathia, Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. However, there are still legitimate concerns about the team defense, which ranked near the bottom of the A.L. in team defensive efficiency in '08. The up-the-middle play is especially concerning, with Robinson Cano and Jeter making up a fairly inadequate double-play combination. The lack of range in the infield will not bode well for groundball pitchers Burnett, Sabathia and Wang, but the pure pitching talent will, to an extent, offset the mediocrity in the defense pillar of the run prevention equation.

There is also no telling if Jorge Posada will be able to catch on a regular basis, either. One thing adding Teixeira does is blocks first base as a landing spot for aging players. And the Yankees have several candidates, including Jeter and Posada, who seemed destined for the spot when they were forced to move off their current positions.

Outside of these concerns and a few others (how will the outfield situation end up?), the Yankees are much improved. This is saying a lot, because despite missing out on the postseason, New York was actually quite strong this past season, winning 89 games in a ridiculously competitive division. Injuries also killed the club at inopportune times, perhaps more so than any other team. If Cano, Jeter and others rebound offensively, the rotation remains durable and they have better luck on the injury front, this is a team that could threaten to win 95.

There is still too much unpredictability in the postseason-due to the small sample size-to guarantee anything. Getting to October, though, seems like a safe bet for the boys in the Bronx, though the pressure will be at an all-time high.

Look out, American League.

Tyler Hissey covers Major League baseball for Scout.com, serving as the publisher of RaysDigest.com. Hissey also co-hosts Around The Majors With Teddy and Tyler on BlogTalkRadio. The show continued its division-by-division breakdown on Monday (1:00, Eastern), focusing on the N.L. East. Click here to listen to the latest show.