After Gerrit Cole, who the fuck starts for us?
His answer: Dunno.
“Would I like to add to [the rotation]? The answer is yes, if we can. I think it’s best served to do so, but at worst, you could certainly daydream just to believe that you might actually have everything that you need there.”
So, lemme get this straight: The wealthiest team in American sports is California dreamin' on such a winter's day. Our rotation is Cole & slaw. James Paxton is gone. J.A Happ is gone. Masahiro Tanaka is probably gone. And our number two is the comedy team of Jordan Montgomery and Deivi Garcia.
“We’re really high on Montgomery, and I think he’ll continue to take his next steps,’’ Cashman said. “I think Deivi Garcia at the end, what he did last year, was something that gives us great optimism.”
For the record, what Garcia did at the end last year, was to disappear after one inning against Tampa, so Happ could come in and embarrass the organization.
So it goes. With each shortening day, D.J. LeMahieu seems to drift further from the Yankee shoreline. They want to sign him. They just don't want to pay the bill. More and more, it feels like a losing situation.
If LeMahieu walks, we lose our best player - perhaps to the Mets, Redsocks or Blue Jays. If we keep him, it will tie up our finances and force the trades of either Luke Voit, Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier or Miguel Andujar. Our bullpen looks old and creaky. The rotation is a mess. The roster is straightjacketed from bloated contracts. And we're told Hal "Food Stamps" Steinbrenner wants the 2021 payroll below $210 million.
Here are the deals already on the books, according to Cot's Baseball Contracts.
Cole: $36 million
Giancarlo Stanton: $29 million
Aroldis Chapman: $16 million
Zack Britton: $13 million
Aaron Hicks: $10.8 million
Luis Severino: $10.8 million
Adam Ottavino: $8.9 million
Out of the blocks, that's $124.5 million. Incredibly, after Cole, you can imagine a total wipeout. And what if Cole sprains an ankle covering first? (Wait... I forgot: We're supposed to only imagine good things, right?)
After the big deals, there are substantial raises coming via arbitration: Aaron Judge made $8.5 million last year; he'll get a bump. Gary Sanchez made $5 million; believe it or not, he'll get a bump. Gio Urshela earned $2.5 million; he'll get a big bump. And then come raises to those who were stuck near the MLB minimum: Voit, Gleyber, Frazier, Andujar, Luis Cessa, Mike Tauchman, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green, several others.
We're closing in on $180 million with LeMahieu still adrift, with a second-baseman playing shortstop, without a big lefty bat, with a withering pen, and with our No. 2 starter being - gulp - Montgomery or Garcia.
Listen: If Hal truly intends to hold the line, it's LeMahieu or pitching? Dark times, people. And the days are still getting shorter.
Are these payroll limits arbitrary? What's the decision making process? On the information available to the public, Hal's payroll limit seems like an end in themselves. And the extent to which the organization publicizes the payroll limIt, year after year, is very odd. Even if you set a payroll limit, why tell the world? Why destroy your leverage, along multiple lies of effort? You're sick of phone calls from Scott Boras?
ReplyDeleteAll of which leads to psychological speculation: payroll control as the antithesis of his Hal's father's management style. Hal's a better "businessman" than George, just look at how he controlled payroll!
A hell of a way to run a multi-billion dollar corporation whose business model is based on the enthusiasm and good will of millions of non-affiliated customers.
A very astute analysis, Pub.
ReplyDeleteDid we pick up"Dunno" in the Rule 5 Draft and I missed it?
ReplyDeleteThe Archangel
I think Hal's public pronouncement of a $210 million payroll is twofold:
ReplyDeleteOne: To tell fans that he is not cheap and every organization has a limit. So don't expect any major signing without commensurate payroll subtractions.
Two: To tell fans he is not cheap and if someone is to blame for not using the payroll wisely it is Cashman's fault and not his. There is some merit to that argument.
Cole and slaw.. brilliant! Give this man a Pulitzer!
ReplyDelete"Cole and Slaw"
ReplyDeleteDefinitely phrase of the month.
Let's just hope the rotation doesn't get nicknamed the
Slawterhouse Five
Doug K.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing on payroll...
So the 2nd best catcher available, one who plays better defense and hits over 100 points higher than our catcher signs for a mere 10M a year. While we give a raise to our guy who is already getting 5M+. So the difference is going to be 2-3M?
Alphonso is right. (Actually, we are all right) Stanton's contract is killing us.
Or, Duque and Publius are right (Actually, we are all right) Hal is one cheap SOB because the contract only restricts their spending because he set an arbitrary limit.
And may I add... Gabby Johnson was right when he said,
"I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin' bushwackin', hornswagglin' cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter."
Doug K.
Great points, Publius and Doug K. And I, too, LOVE Cole & Slaw.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love that Doug K. picked up on "authentic frontier gibberish."
Meanwhile, the Yankees continue to talk like a rebuilding team when they are ALREADY COMMITTED to "win now."
That's what Stanton's contract means. That's what Cole's contract means. Do they not get that?
He's hoping the young arms develop. It's a consummation devoutly to be wished—though judging by Cash's track record, they won't. But maybe they do—just in time for Cole to hit his downward slide?
Giancarlo's contract, as we have mentioned here once or twice, is an abomination. But if you're not going to do anything about it, EMBRACE IT.
Thanks to Brain's usual incompetence, it's highly unlikely that the Yankees have a team or can assemble a team that will win anything. But there is always the odd chance that Stanton and Judge could get through a season uninjured, and that Cole will continue to look like our Ace from Outer Space for another couple years.
So why NOT go all out? Re-sign D.J., sign Realmuto, sign Bauer, sign a bunch of relievers, trade the pure chaff like Chapman, and see what can be done. Go all 2009 on MLB's ass.
If it works out, you've bought another 5-10 years of goodwill and record earnings. From HAL'S OWN PERSPECTIVE this is the only way to go. Instead, he's going for second place, with hopes that it all works out in the playoffs. For a team that always performs worse in the playoffs than in the regular season.
Sigh.
Thanks Doug K
ReplyDeleteIt is not often you see printed down authentic frontier gibberish
Gotta love that authentic frontier gibberish. Well done Horace.
ReplyDeleteJP
ReplyDeleteI don’t know why we labor under the impression that Hal is interested in winning. He’s not. There is only one thing: running a successful business and you all know what that means: increasing shareholder value.
Here’s how he is described by Wikipedia:
“ Harold Steinbrenner is an American businessman. He is the owner, managing general partner, and chairman of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball.”
First of all, we expect a more devoted attention to winning baseball from a guy named Harold. My apologies to all you Harolds out there, but come on Harold, seriously? Harold is also in possession of an MBA and that middle initial stands for Business, not baseball.
I for one, am going forward without pulling any more hairs out of my head hoping that Harold and Brian will one day wake up as baseball people. They are in business, not the business of winning.
That is all.
PROGRAM ALERT!!! PROGRAM ALERT!!! PROGRAM ALERT!!!
ReplyDeleteThe YES Network is actually broadcasting, right now, a special featuring Brian Cashman's annual, elfin rappel down a building in beautiful, beautiful downtown Stamford.
I am not making this up.
It’s Brian’s team and he works for Hal. The buck stops somewhere, no matter how hard each one may shovel the bullshit.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame Hal for having this budget, if you want to call $210m a budget. I blame him for keeping that DB Cashman around. The guy over 20 years has mismanaged the personnel, misread the market and has taken the greatest sports franchise to the sewer.
ReplyDelete
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