Should I Stay or Should I Go Know? Episode I

To answer Doug K.'s request, we've brought in The Clash to ask the musical question for key Yankees ballplayers, "Should I stay or should I go?"

Remember, in this feature we're going to be considering just what "going" will mean for the team, as well as what prospects (if any) for decent returns we have on these assorted flotsam and jetsam.  We want to hear all of your suggestions—and ultimately, get your vote!

Very well then, let's begin with the obvious:

Darling you got to let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Greg, our broken-winged Bird:  I think the big questions here are, was his meltdown this year due in part to his injury—and just how likely is he to be injured again?

The revelation that, for years now, he simply can't catch up to a major-league fastball, was certainly sobering.  Is there any way that could a symptom merely of a still recovering set of ankles that seem to be more delicate than a prima ballerina's?  And if we keep him, what happens if and when he breaks down again?

Certainly, we already have any number of possibilities to take over for him at first.  Not only Voit, but also McBroom, maybe Stanton or Andujar or Sanchez.  (And let's not forget Mike Ford!)  But at this point what could we get for Bird?   Should he stay for that reason alone?

Yo me enfrio o lo soplo?

Ice Cream Sandwiches:  Certainly, the putrid season he has turned in, one of the worst ever, has Gary Sanchez deserving of a one-way trip to Cincinnati?

But again, what would we get?  And how would we replace him?  I keep thinking there must be some way to palm him off on Miami for Realmuto, but I don't think Jetes would ever fall for that, not even as a cost-cutting measure.

Should he go to first?  But again, that would be wasting much of his value, including his great arm and pitch-framing ability.

This is really the greatest predicament the Yanks have to solve in the off-season.

If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double

Neil Walker:  A number of our pride have insisted they will walk away from lifelong commitments to the New York Yankees if Walker is back.  I'm afraid I'm too addicted to quit, but it's easy to see their point.

It's not just Southern man or Lynyrd Skynyrd that doesn't need old Neil around anymore, it's every Yankees fan and everyone with a brain in his head.  The very presence of Walker screwed us up all year long—a longer review of his awful season will be forthcoming—as it kept us from giving more extended tryouts to young players.

And in the end, of course, he was the magic, evil ingredient in the last game against the Sox that put our tender Snow Whites to sleep for the season.  To keep him around, even as a back-up, is to invite the sort of season Jose Reyes had for the Mets this season—or even worse.

To be continued!