Yes, Oswald and Oswaldo look like they might be for real, and Volpe is showing promise.
But none of them are likely to reach the peaks of their careers for another 3-4 seasons. By which time Judge will be 33-34 (if he's still with us), Gerrit Cole will be allowing 62 home runs a year, and Gleyber will have wandered off somewhere and disappeared because he can no longer remember where the Stadium is.
Even if the Yankees really did want to wait for the Oswaldy Trio, they probably could have signed Carlos Correa for the one-year-contract-with-options he got from the Twins. After all, without us taking Josh Donaldson's salary off the books for Minnesota, Correa would have had nowhere to go.
Carlos finished with 22 homers, a .291 BA, an .834 OPS, and a 6.3 WAR—compared to Crusty Donaldson's 15, .222, .682, and 2.5.
Or, the Yanks could have gone out and got a serious left-handed bat in Corey Seagar. Or they could have signed Manny Machado four years ago, which probably would have brought them a couple championships already...
Or...they could simply have kept Gio Urshela, and slotted in IKF, bad as he is, for a season.
Would that have helped us? Take a look at the graphics, courtesy of a friend:
I'm struck, as well, by the disparity in money. It's the ongoing debate with Coops and HAL: Greedy? Stupid? Or both? You make the call!
Oh, and for all of Donaldson's vaunted fielding? Gio's fielding average was 22 points higher, and he made half as many errors in 32 more games at third.
Yeah, brilliant move.
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16 comments:
Great post.
And I don't want to hear the excuse "well the trade allowed us to get rid of Gary Sanchez!"
Sanchez is still in arbitration. The Yankees could've DFAed him early in the offseason. Wouldn't have cost them a single penny.
We have the dumbest front office in baseball. It's the only aspect of the sport where we're still #1.
Go Cleveland. Up 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth.
Another of these games with zero excitement for anybody who is not a fan of either team. All the runs on homers, nobody looking vaguely competent at the plate.
I can't believe that either will take the Astros.
HC66:
Thank you for reminding me why DonaldsonDaddy is so bloody awful.
:)
Anyone notice that CASHMAN has pretty much been MIA lately?
Guardians win.
Michael Kay (and ARod) on the Phils v Cards call. Never watched a second of the Sunday night Kay-cast, so this is slightly odd.
AA, Cashman is somewhere reveling in the fact that Monty is relegated to the Cards' pen for this series. "See, losers?"
Kay is very uncomfortable doing these KayRod things when AROD says something critical of the Yankees/Yankees front office. Watch him squirm.
Kay is a shill and a toady.
We probably should've signed Seagar, a lefty hitter. 'Course, it would've cost a ton of money. And poor Ebeneezer HAL is broke and can't afford to put another coal on the fire. "Cratchet, touch that coal and you'll be spending your Christmas unemployed!"
Kay has become too much of a sock puppet and should be fired. It won't happen, of course. He's probably another one who will only leave in a hearse.
The strange thing about Hal is that he lets Cashman spend stupid money on guys like Donaldson, but the Yanks don't sign guys who are younger, actually good, and wouldn't cost any more. Often less.
It's that kind of illogic that drives us nuts. When you look at all the guys we could've signed over the years and didn't, the spending Cashman does do usually generates subpar returns and no rings.
Zach is correct; we could’ve simply released Sanchez at any time, or traded him for peanuts (maybe we did! But they are some expensive nuts!) No, I’m afraid the trade was Cashman’s idea of resetting the left side, with a lottery type C thrown in. The move has spectacularly backfired, mostly due to Donaldson who is not only a disagreeable redneck, but seems to be more washed up than kids before Sunday dinner. But what I really want to say is how it puzzles me that we gave Urshela away so easily. There was no great out pouring of grief despite his above average play for us both at bat and in the field. The disparity between Urshela and Donaldson will be even greater next year, and ultimately Donaldson will be benched or released. The team has a lot of overblown salaries right now, with Donaldson right up there. Cashman should be held accountable for this and his many other failures, but instead will be rewarded with a new contract. The rot at the very top of this organization is palpable.
Exactly, JM!
And love that expression, BTR. Also, you're right: that is EXACTLY how Cashman thinks—or overthinks. Or rather, it's how he poses as a genius for the more gullible Knights of the Keyboard.
"For them to take Sanchez, I had to throw in Urshela and take Donaldson off their hands. But that way I could rebuild the left side of the infield to something that would last until these incredible kids come up! Genius!"
Uh, no.
Just dump Sanchez for lottery tickets, and if you feel you must wait for the kids, plug in IKF—or any of half-a-dozen other candidates—and wait.
But that way, no one raves about what a Zen master you are.
@JM "the spending Cashman does do usually generates subpar returns and no rings"
Yes! And that's exactly the point, that's what Yankee management tries to do!
This franchise has not really tried to win a championship since 2009. That was the last time it went out of its way to "go for it".
Since then, it has mostly just collected earnings and made sure that taxes would not get out of control.
There's a good reason why Cashman brings in guys who can't play but earn tons of money. Similarly, that's why they don't like young players who make next to nothing. Too many young players make the payroll dive down and cause net earnings (profits) to rise. They like to keep a certain amount of money going out via payroll to neutralize earnings. And of course, this is why guys like Stanton will never be moved. And when Cole really starts to go downhill, that's why Cole will never be moved. HAL & Cashman like their financial status quo.
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