“It’s certainly a goal,” Cashman said of meeting the threshold. “It’s not a mandate. It’s a goal that we have, and if it’s possible, there’s a lot of benefit to staying under that. But it’s not a mandate if it’s at the expense of a championship.”

The Yankees will have $41.15 million to $108.15 million coming off the books for 2014, depending on whether several players — Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and Hiroki Kuroda — leave in free agency and whether Alex Rodriguez’s 211-game suspension is upheld in arbitration. (The Yankees would save $25 million even if the suspension were reduced to 162.)

The Yankees are also considering ways to improve their amateur player procurement. Ownership is concerned that the team’s drafting in recent years has not yielded great success, and that department, headed by Damon Oppenheimer, could face changes.

But there is almost no position that does not need to be addressed. Cashman noted that of the four infield positions, three remain uncertain, but he could have said all four, including first base, as Mark Teixeira is coming off wrist surgery.

Rodriguez is in the midst of an arbitration battle to stave off his suspension for supposedly using performance-enhancing drugs, Derek Jeter is coming off a major ankle injury that limited him to 17 games and Cano is expected to file for free agency.

Cano asked for a 10-year, $310 million contract, which the Yankees will not give him. They have made a substantial offer and are expected to sweeten it, perhaps to as high as $25 million per season over seven or eight years, but that may not be enough to satisfy Cano. Cashman has appealed to Cano’s possible desire to retire a Yankee and receive the same kind of adulation that Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte did.

“We’d love to have Robbie back,” Cashman said, adding: “He’s been a great Yankee. I think if he stays he’ll have a legitimate chance to experience what you just saw for Mariano. Maybe he has the chance to be the first Dominican-born player in Monument Park. A homegrown Yankee. But at the same time, it’s a business.”