Thursday, December 6, 2018

With all the money in the world, the Yankees still read the menu from right to left

Today, the Internet says Nathan Eovaldi is on the verge of signing a four-year deal to stay in Boston. This is terrible, horrible, rotten news on multiple levels of human torture. Not only is Eovaldi the best pitcher currently available on the free agent market, but he is a certifiable "Yankee killer." It was one thing to balk at Patrick Corbin's six-year deal. Now, are we walking away from Eovaldi because he's getting four? Apparently. 

Listen: Every starter on the market will come with serious flags about his future health and well being. And they will all want deals that run longer than the Yankees want to give.

One difference is emerging: The Redsocks have looked at Eovaldi and decided they want him. They see a power pitcher with ace potential and a good heart, who has proved himself in the post-season cauldron.  

The Yankees, on the other hand, don't see Eovaldi. They see just four years at a certain price tag. 

They walked into the restaurant, saw the price of steak, and they're settling for the salad bar. Get ready for the garbanzo beans, folks. We're going to fill up on bread. 

Right now, when we look at the two franchises, we can see a fundamental differences in their philosophies.

Boston looks at the player. The Yankees look at the price.

Okay, I know what you're thinking... Duke, it's wa-a-a-y too soon in the winter to rage against Food Stamps Hal Steinbrenner's unending cheapness. Tomorrow, he could sign Bryce Harper for more money than the state of Delaware and blow all budget expectations out of the water. Also, we can't sign everybody. Presumably, if Boston keeps Eovaldi and Steve Pearce (whom they already signed), they'll be done for the winter, blah blah blah.

Listen: Boston is the new Yankees. There is no reason to think they'll be done after Eovaldi. Their ownership wants to win multiple rings. Ours doesn't want to overpay on kibble. 

I believe Cooperstown Cashman is wavering between two strategies:  

1. The scrap heap picker: Instead of big splashes, Cashman will tweak the roster through a series of Luke Voit-type acquisitions. Over the years, his wheelhouse has been finding position players off the scrapheap and getting decent value. His weakness has been in trading for power arms, who have logged too many innings. If the Yankees go cheap and small, they will let Machado and Harper sign elsewhere, find a cheap Didi replacement, grab some bullpen lug nuts and secondary starting pitchers. At the July deadline, they'll drain the last dregs from their farm system for salary dump rentals. 

2. The bludgeon: They sign either Harper or Machado, even though neither fits this roster. If it's Manny, he plays SS (where he's not that good, range-wise) and tilts the lineup to the RH side. If it's Bryce, the OF becomes overcrowded, or he takes up 1B, a risky move considering Gleyber's and Andujar's errant throws. In both scenarios, Clint Frazier never sees the light of day, and the Yankees try to homer their way to the world series. They'll get great ratings on YES, but they'll be a plane with five propellers and one wing. 

There is the mixture of #1 and #2, but that requires a total makeover - trades of Frazier, Bird, maybe even Andujar, or maybe even Giancarlo, if the Dodgers would bite. Cashman could tear everything apart and start over. 

Either way, right now, the Yankees are looking at players and cringing over the price tags. Soon, Hal must pull out his wallet. The days are growing short.

17 comments:

  1. ditto Harper. bring up Clint when the inevitable injuries happen. they always do.

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  2. YES...

    KEEP IT SIMPLE.

    HARPER.

    NOW.

    THEN GO GET A STARTER.

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  3. Harper, Kluber, Bumgarner. but don't trade Miggy. if this happens, I'll repudiate all the vile things I've ever said about Hal. i'll keep my thoughts, however. I may want to put some of those into action and it's best to keep quiet about such things.

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  4. Both. Plus Happ and two relievers.

    Sevi
    Tanaka
    Paxton
    Happ
    CC/the kids (lot's of kids because the rotation has a LOT of fragility built in.

    2B Gleybar
    RF Judge
    SS Machado
    LF Harper
    3B AnDUjar
    CF Hicks
    DH Stanton
    1B Voit
    C Sanchez

    That is one hell of a lineup. I have former NL MVP Stanton batting 7th. 7th! Sure the infield will make errors. A lot of errors and Voit is no Tino but that is one strong offense. Add better than avg pitching and solid relieving and they would be a force to reckon with. And all it would cost is..."One Billion Dollars!"

    Doug K.


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  5. Plan on a Food Stamps Hal banner in the spring.

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  6. Duque, it's even worse than your excellent analogy. At least salad is good for you and bread fills you up. (Mmm. Bread. Uh-uh-uh-uh.)

    What we're talking about is walking away from the steak so we can flop the mouldy hamburger with an odd greenish tint on our plate.

    Doug K., you're right about the lineup, but look at that pitching staff!

    You know CC will be lucky to get through spring training, Tanaka's arm continues to hang by a thread, Paxton—who has never thrown more than 160 ML innings—is an excellent DL candidate, and I still say there's something hugely wrong with an "ace" who turned in that second half and then can't turn up on time for the biggest game of his life.

    Drugs? A hidden injury? Plain old craziness? Who knows?

    But this is an entire staff on the eve of destruction. Happ is the very least of what needs to be done, AND JUST THE FACT THAT BOSTON IS INTERESTED IN EOVALDI means we should sign him. NOW!

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  7. And...Eovaldi's gone back to Boston, according to the Daily News.

    Good work, team.

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  8. Hoss,

    Yeah, the pitching staff is VERY fragile. But we're pretty much stuck with four of them and Happ seems durable. (BTW there are worse things than being stuck with Sevi, Tanaka, and Paxton.) They really need that one more ace don't they? Happ isn't that but he'll win 15. Plus "The Kids!"

    I don't know. Never did. I guess the key will be who they get to replace Britton and Robertson. (Or keep Britton and/or Robertson.) There's gonna be a lot of five innings and out next year.

    They should spend the billion dollars. What else are they going to do with it?

    Doug K.

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  9. Four fucking years. We couldn't have gone in for four fucking years on a 28 year old that can throw 100 mph and killed us in the postseason!?

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  10. Hal must have wanted to give him 3 years. That's the NEW New York Yankees. always a day and a dollar short.

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  11. I agree, Doug K., but the trouble is...there ain't no more kids. At least, nobody who is going to be a starter anytime soon, with the possible exception of Michael King, who has yet to pitch an inning in the show.

    Everybody else who showed promise was either traded off for short-terms rentals or is now healing from major arm surgery.

    This is the craziness of what Coops and Co. have done—bartered away the future for nothing, then refused to recoup with free agents. It just doesn't work.

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  12. Yep. Well there's still time to get the above. So there's hope.

    Doug K.

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  13. There is no hope. Hal is a diseased cunt who didn't care about the Yankees winning championships. That's obvious from his desire to "stay under the salary cap." Fuck him. What Yankee fan gives a shit about the salary fucking cap?

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  14. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?

    NOTHING.

    THAT'S WHAT.

    NOT A FUCKING THING.

    ReplyDelete

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