In this offseason alone, the Yankees have spent $432.5 million on three free agents: pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and first baseman Mark Teixeira. To get Sabathia and Burnett, New York bid above market prices. For Teixeira they shot appropriately high. yet all those moves pale in comparison to what the Yankees could have bought with the same money in the downtrodden stock market: Freddie Mac, a controlling ownership of Churchill Downs, half of the New York Times or one-third of Foot Locker.

That’s right, Steinbrenner, Steinbrenner and Steinbrenner, Inc., clearly could have spent their money a bit more wisely, according to CNBC Sports Business guru Darren Rovell. Two years ago Freddie Mac was booming, and there’s no reason the organization couldn’t return to their previous glory of share-price highs. Just think: The Yankees could own one of the largest mortgage brokerages in history. They could call it Yankee Homes and go buy up one-third of New England delinquincies, forcing Red Sox fans to sign on to “Yankee Home” deeds. The possibilities are endless.

Instead, New York has two pitchers and a slugging first baseman. For five years (assuming Sabathia doesn’t opt out). Seems like a misallocation of resources, if you ask us.

Then there’s the alluring possibility of eliminating all that potential negative press in the New York Times. By owning 47 percent of the company, the Yankees could have essentially roped down baseball coverage in the paper’s sports section. Better yet: They could have just forced the paper to stop covering sports altogether! After all, if the Yankees choke but America’s newspaper of record doesn’t write about it, did it really happen?

(The Steinbrenners light up offseason victory cigars.)

Owning Churchill Downs? That would just make the Steinbrenners’ foray into horse racing a bit more streamlined. Think about it: What George Steinbrenner wanted more than anything else two years ago was a Kentucky Derby victory for his greatest horse, Bellamy Road. It didn’t happen. Well, it would have happened if he owned a controlling ownership of the track and decided which horses could have competed.

The Foot Locker option is a bit less enthralling, but it would give Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and co. a whole new way to get free shoes. They may not need it, but they’ve proved so cheap there’s little doubt that they’d jump at the chance for more free kicks nonetheless.

Here’s Rovell’s full list of all the different assets the Yankees could have bought with the money spent on Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira, just for good measure:

• 100 percent of Freddie Mac
• 82 percent of Churchill Downs
• 47 percent of New York Times (they could easily buy the Sports section!)
• 38 percent of Under Armour
• 37 percent of Foot Locker
• 23 percent of General Motors
• 14 percent of Burger King
• 8 percent of Ford
• 6 percent of Starbucks
• 2 percent of eBay