Its extremely unfair to categorize this move as typical Yankee spending. They were not very active in the free agent market before this season began and only had to pull the trigger on this trade because two stars have been injured for almost the whole year. Many fans(myself being one) thought when Sheffield went down after Matsui already had that our season was over with. Lets face it, the Yankees have been winning with guys named Cairo, Guiles, Cabrera, Phillips,a past his prime Williams, and Crosby. This is the best "team" that they have fielded in years. Arod has been a disaster and not contributing either.
The guts that these replacemnt players are showing has been great. And Wang and Mussina are as deserving of CY Yound consideration as anyone.
The Yankees would never have made this trade if they were 5 games out of contention, they'd simply take the lumps. But when you trail Boston by 1/2 game as August comes with the players you have been filling holes with, you simply have to get another hitting outfielder in case either Sheff or Matsui doesnt come back in time to matter or not 100%. Its going to be tough to stop the Yankees now with Abreu and Cano definitely coming back. Now there is no pressure on either Matsui or Sheffield to return before they are 100% and when they do return can gear up towards being ready for postseason play, and believe me, the Yankees will have postseason play.