Last year, Hicks hit .216. The previous year, .194. The year before that, .225.
Over the last four years, he's hit a grand total of 30 HRs.
At 33, he no longer covers CF.
We have him for four more years at $10 M per season.
In other words, he's all ours.
ReplyDeleteIt's gonna be the same team next season isn't it.
No, it will be worse.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHe's all ours due to Cashman's expertise and far sightedness.
ReplyDeleteIt seems pretty obvious (Hicks, Donaldson, Stanton, Cole -- etc.) that offering contracts that retain players into the years when they age (get the other side of 31/32/33) is dumb.
Isn't it? Doesn't it take a special sort of athlete -- or one on PEDs -- to outperform into the late 30s?
Rizzo is on the other side of 33. Judge turns 31 in April.
All of this money-spreading would work if Hal would agree to spend more and more, and let some of this deadwood go. Trade Stanton, pick up 80pct of his contract. Release Hicks, eat his salary. See if anyone still wants Gerrit, pick up 80pct of HIS salary.
Shed the deadwood.
But....
He won't.
So: We are stuck. And if they sign Rizzo and Judge for big money, we are going to be stuck for longer.
I love Judge. But I'm fairly certain I don't want to see him play at age 34. Rizzo might be on the verge of becoming a problem. He hit all of .224 in 2022.
SO: Do you really think ADDING MORE DEADWOOD is the way to grow and win????
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ON THE OTHER HAND: Juan Soto is now 24. He becomes a free agent in 2025. He will (then) still be on the productive side of 30. And he will cost a fortune.
Assuming health, wherever he goes, Judge will likely produce all-star numbers for the next two or three years. League average DH after that for a couple more, then an off the cliff drop in production, and relegation to DH/PH against lefties at the end. It won't be pretty at that point but it's worth signing him. The key is clearing Stanton out. He's gotta go. Hicks is little more than an annoyance at this point. He'll be an overpaid extra outfielder next year, then disappear like Ellsbury.
ReplyDeleteCashman is either a dope or an evil bastard constantly trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
ReplyDeleteTough call.
The Genius selling Hal, "We pay them, we play them!"
ReplyDeleteAnd let's not forget who resigned Barron Hicks.
ReplyDeleteOscar Azocar is still available, soooo maybe.
ReplyDeleteor perhaps Mike Blowers for 3B?
Gotta go with Publius on this one.
ReplyDeleteYou're not wrong that players decline, Joe FOB, which is why you have to be wary with long-term contracts. But when you're at least dealing with players who are proven commodities, you have reason to believe that their decline will be gradual, and they can still be valuable contributors for years.
The Hicks contract was just the opposite. Hicks had a long history of being injured and/or unproductive. Finally, in 2018, he produced something like a good year: 27 homers, 90 walks, .833 OPS, played a strong CF. Then, in 2019...he was hurt again, managing only 59 games.
That should've been a warning. Nonetheless, Cashman decided to throw that big contract at him! Ridiculous!
But point taken, Joe FOB. There was certainly an argument to be made for the Yankees trading Judge before 2022 for some good, younger players, then going full bore after Juan Soto (though I do find Soto's drop-off in production this year, at just 23, a little alarming).
ReplyDeleteInstead, Cashman and HAL took a gamble—an insane gamble—against their own team and player, betting that Judge would be injured or unproductive in 2022. That was nuts—but it's done, and now if they let Judge walk they lose all his future production for nothing.
Similarly, Hal Steinbrenner hasn't nickel-and-dimed around the edges for years, just to eat the immense contracts of Stanton and Cole, and peddle them off somewhere—intriguing as that idea might be.
The Yankees will be a worse team next year, and probably a worse team for several years after that.
The question is: do you want this to be a declining team with at least one player on it you want to watch—Aaron Judge—or do you want it to be a declining team with no players you want to watch? I agree, the choice sucks. But that's what we're left with.
Damned if you do and damned if you do, Hoss.
ReplyDeleteDamned if you DooDoo and Damned if you can't DooDoo
ReplyDeleteWe're caught in the same cycle that every team goes through. Remember all that bullshit called "competitive balance" that was talked up twenty years ago? That was just laying the groundwork for socialist baseball. Teams need more luck, and the stomach for spending crazy money to consistently field championship teams. Oh, and please spare me the Rays story. That plays well with the media, but in New York fans would only call them "cheap".
ReplyDeletehouston will offer rizzo 2yrs at 40 m(or more) just to aggravate us
ReplyDeleteThe biggest proof that Genius Cashman is a moron.
ReplyDelete