We should be happy. After all, yesterday was a great day for the franchise. An extraordinary moment in Yankee history. Not just because it was the first official day in Volpe’s Yankee career, but that it happened at all.
A break in the pattern. An escape from the Whirlpool of Doom that is Yankee player development.
A pattern of ill use that contains variations of the below...
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Tinkering. (Also known as changing what they are good at to fit some organizational philosophy.)
A high-pressure Cup O’ Coffee. (After the inevitable injury to the above.)
Being sent back down to Scranton upon the return of the injured player without regard to how well he played.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
And finally… The Trade.
--
Miraculously, Volpe has managed to skip all of these.
Sadly, Peraza is still caught in its vortex.
His time with the big club turned out to be a Cup O’ Coffee.
When the Yankees decided to go with IKF in the playoffs, despite Peraza clearly being the better option, it was stupid but he could take
comfort in the idea that this year was going to be his year to play short.
IKF was just a placeholder. A placeholder for him. Instead the
spring became a high-pressure
competition and it screwed with his head. He was pressing. He lost.
He has now been replaced by a player that blocks his path. OK it wasn’t a trade. It was a miracle. He’s blocked regardless. Peraza is
supposedly the superior defensive SS by the way.
He now faces a depressing, soul crushing, return to Scranton.
Unless there is an injury he will be there for at least a year
and, if Gleyber plays well, he will
languish there... forever. A broken man subject to “tinkering.”
All that’s left for him is… The Trade.
While I have no faith in the Yankee leadership to make smart baseball choices, especially with prospects - or trades - I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Peraza. He had a crap spring. No doubt. Getting his head and his batting stroke together in AAA isn't the worst fate and the Yankees have way too many infielders at the moment. Something has to give. The best answer is trading or releasing Donaldson, DFA'ing Hicks when Bader gets back and trading IKF when Peraza is ready to return.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the fence about Torres. He's a streaky player and struggles badly for long stretches, but he had the second highest WAR among Yankee position players last year. So I'm disinclined to give him away just to open a roster spot.
But if Volpe keeps hitting the way he has and Peraza returns and performs as expected, I'll feel better about trading Torres for a left fielder or pitcher of equal or greater value. That said, Cashman prefers 'old and busted' to the 'new hotness' as Agent J put it, so any trade will be fraught with fear, poor decision-making, post-trade medical bills, lost time and buyer's remorse. Under those conditions, keeping Torres is the smarter play.
Not inconceivable that Volpe could start season on bench. Unlikely but not inconceivable.
ReplyDeleteDoctor T
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with you.
That said, I'm not a fan of Gleyber. He's OK. Maybe even pretty good, but there is an urgency that is missing with him. We see it on the base paths. We see it on his casual throws to first. I would be more than happy for him to be the one that gets traded.
Ultimately I would like to see Volpe at second and Peraza at short. My point was that the Yankees have this pattern of wasting and consequently ruining talent by mistrusting them.
I'd trade Gleyber today for a decent left fielder. I would have said as part of a package for a starting pitcher but of all the areas where Cashman has proven himself, let's call it uh, inept, trading for pitching has got to be at the top of the list.
That tic-tic-tic you hear in the background is the drumbeat of Torres’ future with the team growing louder. He is a FA after next season, and there seems no point in extending him, so trading him becomes the best option in order to get something of value for him. I agree the future of the team is some IF iteration of Peraza/Volpe, so wouldn’t it make more sense to trade him sooner rather than later? The more team control he has, the higher his trade value. Plus we need to dump salary.
ReplyDeleteDid some cynic from the methadone clinic just say move him to CF next year?
A walk and a (induced) balk for Volpe, followed by the obligatory DP by Stanton who didn’t even try to beat it out.
ReplyDeleteDoes Boone dare to bat him leadoff on Thursday?
Doctor T, are you any relation to Professor T? The really good Belgian one, not the British remake.
ReplyDeleteSo assuming Jackie is here for the season, who takes third when he's gone? I guess DJ, but he's getting a little bit long in the tooth. Though the Duck is as long as they come and DJ isn't that far gone.
Do we have anyone in Scranton or lower who can play third? Really well? What about first?
And we're going to need a catcher pretty soon, I bet. The bag of muscles will never see a game in pinstripes at the major league level. That seems clear.
We gave away all of our great pitching prospects, so who knows what happens there.
JM,
ReplyDelete3B
This guy!
"Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami to be posted to MLB after 2025. The 22-year-old third baseman, who became Japan's youngest Triple Crown winner this year, signed a three-year deal worth an estimated 600 million yen ($4.4 million) per year."
Gleyber day will be here sooner than you think.
ReplyDeleteI HOPE you're not right, Doug...but you may be.
ReplyDeleteSo, as far as Peraza's morale goes...sure, he must be disappointed. But you're a highly touted rookie and you get beat out in spring training by another highly touted rookie? Hey, players have got through a LOT more, and if that does him in, well, then he probably didn't have the intestinal fortitude to be a valuable major-league in the first place.
Working in Peraza's favor is the fact that he's a Cashman Original, and so will reflect well on the Great Man.
Torres is more or less in that category, too, of course. But even Cashie must be tiring of Mr. Sunny, the man who gets bored with baseball...
What I would love to see is The Gleyber dealt for pitcher or left fielder, and a 2024 infield of:
ReplyDelete1B-Rizzo
2B-Volpe
SS-Peraza
3B-Cabrera
...with DJ backing up or filling in everywhere and IKF—who can at least play a lot of positions—backing up the backing up. That still leaves us with the problem of what to do at catcher. But dammit, Jim, I can't solve all your problems at once! I'm a doctor not a blogger!
JM, I was Professor T, but now I'm just Doctor T.
ReplyDeleteTyler Hardman is the best prospect for 3rd base. But he is only 4 games into AA stage and has a lot of work to do to justify an MLB day job. He's an okay fielder. But at this point, he's a budding two true outcomes hitter, with a 255/320/464 slash line, a 9% walk rate, a 34% K rate and a 18/1 AB/HR rate. Cashman will love him, if he can just cut down on his walks.
So, unless the Yankees plug in one of their SS options (like Oswaldo) or press DJ into full-time service, they'll be in the market for a new 3rd baseman this winter.
Florial has become another of Ca$hole's failures. Stinks with no options. More evidence of the intern's superior player development.
ReplyDeleteHe's trying to develop the Ozzies the same way.
We shouldn't assume that Florial was "ruined" by Yankee coaching. Thousands of baseball careers have been nipped in the bud because of the inability to not the curve. Damned shame, having a four tooled player who lacks the most thing tool, hitting. Hopefully he gets thrown into a package with Torres and others and we could score a decent left fielder. He has enough skills to be useful to some teams. Cashman had better come up with a real bat, and some arms, or this will be a lonnng season. I would guess that we can all agree on this point.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Florial will make it, either. But I STILL would rather see a month of him in the outfield than Hicks.
ReplyDeleteHorace, I totally agree.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Florial. He keeps on swinging at every ball like its his last at-bat ever. Given Cashman's love for 3 true outcome hitters, its understandable he's trying to mash his way into the MLB roster. It's not working, obviously, because he's not that kind of hitter. Were I his coach, I would be pressing him to forget about home runs and get on base by any means necessary. With his speed, he should be working the count and concentrating on contact.
ReplyDeleteBut that probably wouldn't help him either. Given Cashman's obsession with 2 true outcome hitters and their mind-fracking approach to player development, he's got a better chance of making it to the looney bin than the big league roster.
One thing seems true, he needs a fresh start on another team. His desperation is palatable in every at-bat and the outcomes grow worse with with each one. For his sake, I hope the Yankees trade or release him and he finds success with another team. Prolonging his tenure in the Yankee organization just looks like water torture.
Here is the thing; Florial has had some chances.
ReplyDeleteYou don't get many with the Yankees. Not many, that is, unless you are a beaten down, over-paid, old guy with an embarassing contract.
Florial did not capitalize.
What Volpe did this spring is called, : "capitalizing on a rare opportunity."
Florial has shown that he can't hit a nickle. LoCastro was faster, played better defense, and hit more. And he is now on the Mets.
Peraza is a shortstop . A defender. An acceptable offensive threat. What the Yankees need to do is put him at shortstop and move Volpe to second or third. Because he can hit. And defend. We have to trade Torres or get Donaldson on the IL.
Why a I bothering? Cashman and Boone are calling the shots.
I wonder if the Yankees have tried to get Florial to try bunting, or just slapping his way to get on base? Otis Nixon and countless other center fielders have made long careers doing just that. Especially since the "Running game is Back". Well we'll have to see about that. Still, Florial has proven that he can't hit and it's not the fault of the Yankees. He needs to be traded for something of decent value based on his four tools, or make the team and hope that management can utilize the skills that he DOES have.
ReplyDelete