Last time the Death Barge rated a parade, it required signing the three best free agents in captivity: CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixiera.
It's time for Food Stamps Hal to unzip his fanny pack and re-establish the Yankees as the franchise his pa meant them to be.
Look, I don't wanna hear all your crapola on why this can't/won't happen: We don't need no Joe Manchin Yank fans. Our team may be shattered, but our dreams still live.
Here's the list of prospective MLB free agents. It includes players with opt-out clauses and some who will surely stick with their current teams. Nevertheless, pick three, damn the money and explain why.
My choices are circled...
As you see, my choices are:
Max Scherzer - yeah, he's old, but a year or two left. Reduced innings and sage presence.
Freddie Freeman - the 1B glove we need and lefty bat. Hits between Judge/Stanton, with 120 RBIs.
Carlos Correa - a showboat but the best/youngest SS available.
We use everybody else - Urshela, LeMahieu, Sanchez, et al - to trade for a catcher and pitching.
Runners up:
Kyle Schwarber - passable defense at 1B and LH bat.
Justin Verlander - see Scherzer, above.
Buster Posey - the catcher we need for 80 games (but let's face it, the Giants won't let him go.)
So... pick three, any three. Yeah, it won't happen. Hal loves his coins too much. Still, it's "BREAK GLASS IF EMERGENCY" time, and let's not let him ruin our fantasies.
Correa / Seager, Freeman (he won't leave Atlanta), Robby Ray.
ReplyDeletePineda
ReplyDeleteOttavino
Paxton
Why?
They will be cheap.
We already have uniforms that fit them. (This saves money!)
and they will not cost a lot.
BTW there are ten pitchers on that list who are former Yankees.
---
OK forget that.
For some reason I did not sleep last night. Could have been residual excitement from the Knicks double overtime win or it could have been that just before I fell asleep I saw a spider, the size of an Eisenhower silver dollar, on the ceiling over my bed. After dispatching it I couldn't help but notice a few others in different rooms. Clearly there had been "a hatchin'"
By the time I was done removing the threats to my loved ones and my ex wife, it was 4AM so here I am.
---
And here is my real response... Your choices are all good. Especially Freddie Freemen. I wonder if Scherzer would be like the time we got Randy Johnson. Just a little too late. But sure. Sign them all.
That said, here is who I think they will actually sign...
Noah Syndergaard - Two Tommy John surgeries. Only pitched two games last year. Sounds like a true Yankee to me. Massive upside. Discounted price. Can handle NY. Tell me Brain can pass this guy up. He can't.
I don't think they will go big for a SS because they have three top prospects in the minors that could be ready by 2023. Plus the Lindor deal. While I don't think it will be equaled it probably added 50M to any final number.
We have outfielders. Sorta. I hear Aaron Hicks is again able to hit live pitching (wedges).
If I had to go one more probably Schwarber - A Lefty who slugs and can kind of play first. That's our M.O. as well.
No one. Nada.
ReplyDeleteUse our kids and see.
I predict Seager, Ray and Marte (Sterling). Seager will switch over to 3rd if Peraza or Volpe make it up and Cashman would love to take a pitcher away from Toronto
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Yankees could swing a trade for Oakland's Matt Olson.
ReplyDeleteHe's coming off an extraordinarily underappreciated season. He hit .271/.371/.540 (.911 OPS/153 OPS+) and was a fine defender (6 DRS) at 1B. He's only 27 years old, he's left-handed, and he stays healthy. Since 2018, he's played in 505 out of 546 team games (92%), only missing time due to a freak foul tip.
He used to be a fairly high strikeout guy (26.0 K% from 2018-2020), but made huge strides in 2021, dropping his K% rate all the way down to 16.8%. Additionally, he's had excellent walk rates his whole career (over 13% the last two seasons) and has elite hard-contact and exit velocity numbers.
Olson has two years of arbitration control remaining. MLBTR estimates his 2022 salary at $12M, and we can expect his 2023 salary to be $16M or higher if he has another All Star-caliber season.
The obvious questions are: would the A's trade him? And what would it cost to acquire him?
I feel like the A's are at a crossroads. Even with Olson's excellent season, they only mustered 86 wins and finished third in their division. The Astros remain good, the Mariners are on the way up, and the Angels will probably panic splurge this offseason to try to add talent around Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
At the end of 2022, Oakland's Sean Manaea, Chris Bassitt, Stephen Piscotty, Andrew Chafin, etc. will be free agents. At the end of 2023, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Frankie Montas, etc. will be free agents. Do the A's go all-in and spend big in free agency this offseason trying to make a final run with this core? I think we all know the answer there. That's not how they operate. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Oakland ownership looked to reduce payroll this offseason. It's very much the A's MO to move quality players when they have just one or two years left on their contracts.
If the A's were willing to move Olson, I have no idea what it would take prospect-wise to bring him to the Bronx. I'd love to see Steinbrenner flex his financial might and offer to take one of Oakland's bad contracts (Elvis Andrus?) in order to lessen the prospect cost. (Just DFA Andrus if we think he's cooked.) I'd hate to lose Anthony Volpe, but I'd be willing to part with pretty much any of our other top prospects to get this done.
If the Yankees could swing this, they could allocate their big free agent spending to the shortstop position.
Olson is a talent, and his name pops up often. But when I think of Oakland dealing for prospects... Sonny Gray. Olson would cost far more than just Volpe. Urshela, for sure, and he's one of our better players. (Remember the Jeter catch diving into the dugout?) All depends on the price tag, but I think they'd try to raid our system down to its butt plugs.
ReplyDeleteDid we really miss any of the prospects we sent away in the Sonny Gray trade?
ReplyDeleteJames Kaprielian: 4.17 ERA/98 ERA+/4.50 FIP in 26 games. Meh, the Yankees seem to be fine at developing oft-injured, mediocre pitchers. We have a whole minor-league system full of 'em.
Jorge Mateo: career .236/.281/.364 (.644 OPS) hitter and he's already been dumped by multiple teams
Dustin Fowler: career .215/.253/.326 (.579 OPS) hitter and was DFAed by Oakland
In recent history, 99% of Yankee prospects don't pan out to much. I'd rather dump them now for a proven good player then wait for them to bust with us down the road.
Zach, which of these “proven good players” are you referring to? Did we get any, or is it a case of ‘garbage in garbage out?’
ReplyDeleteSOS. Our "dreams" are a recurring nightmare. "We" won't get fooled again. No more pied pipers, thank you.
ReplyDeleteSo's my dick.
ReplyDeleteCashman and Steinbrenner are the Manchin/Sinema duo of this team, not the fans. You're going to blame fans for the smoldering wreck that this team is? You think a fan's complaints or wishes are heard by any of the self-serving incompetents in the front office?
ReplyDeleteInteresting analyses, guys.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the Braves will let Freeman go, and his age—going to be 32—makes me a little nervous.
The official rumor mill is rolling out that we're going out for Corey Seagar or Correa. Seagar is the better all-around hitter, with a great postseason record. But he gets hurt a lot.
Correa is a little younger and a great glove. I guess I'd get him. I know, I know: our leading prospect is Volpe. But by the time he's ready for the majors we can plug him in for Urshela or—more likely—The Gleyber, who I DON'T think is going to be the long term answer at second.
So...an infield of LeMahieu at first (maybe much better with his hernia taken care of), Torres, Correa, and Urshela next year, with with Wade and Velazquez backing them up. Sounds pretty good, if The General is back.
OR...pissed off as I was about Rizzo's anti-vaxxing bullshit, he IS a great glove, a good Yankee Stadium hitter, and a team leader. And we can probably get him relatively cheaply.
Then we can plug LeMahieu in anywhere, and maybe deal Torres, Urshela, or both for pitching...
As for the pitching, well, I think we should consider Scherzer short-term, but also consider Stroman. He always shows a lot of desire, and is a spark plug. Plus he's pitched in the AL East before.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's Robbie Ray.
A starting rotation of Cole, Ray, Stroman, and Montgomery next year—along with whatever scraps will work; German? Taillon?—sounds pretty decent, if not overwhelming.
Still need to do something about the pen and add OF depth.
Interesting what you were writing, Zach, about the Yanks' going after Sonny Gray.
ReplyDeleteI remember we were all ticked about how Cashman was going about getting the one guy to put the Yanks over the top in 2017-2018. And it's true that many of the minor-league stars we regretted losing never did a damned thing.
Where Coops really screwed up was going after Sonny instead of Verlander in the first place—and then really trading Gray, who still had considerable value in the NL—for absolutely nothing.