I can handle the usual beatings and degradation from the juju gods, recognizing that their systematic torture is done in good sport, and constant suffering will make me a better fan. Yes, they kick us in the head. No problem. (The x-rays say no brain cancer, just a fractured skull, and I'll be back soon, riding that nuke with Slim Pickens.)
Still, now and then, you see that freight train coming, full blast, 80 mph, and you can't move, and you simply must ask: Okay, juju gods, isn't enough, enough?
I say this because today, after 11 years of watching Luis Severino slog toward what we thought would be Yankee greatness, Sevy is now a Met. The Yankees would not outbid them on a one-year, prove-yourself, $13 million contract.
Instead, they're expected to bestow a similar deal upon Frankie Montas, who has done nothing but ice his shoulder over 16 withering months as a Yankee. It's the Steinbrenner family tradition of valuing outsiders above the hired help. What's especially concerning is how quickly the Mets moved. They wanted Sevy, and they got him: A sweet, swift backhand to our frontal lobes.
Okay, at this point, I must dodge the tomatoes being chucked my way because - yes - I understand the frustration of watching Sevy all these years. He once looked like the second coming of Pedro Martinez, only to barely rate comparison with Tippy Martinez. For the last five seasons, he constantly disappointed us, either by tweaking things or failing in new and creative ways.
Still, everyone here knows what's going to happen, am I right? Who wants to tell us? Class? Raise your hands. Okay, Dougie, in the back, with the cigarette, tell the class.
"He's going to thrive, Mr. Duque. He's going to challenge for the Cy Young, the way Sonny Gray did this year. He's going to succeed, just like Justin Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi. And when he pitches against us in the Subway Series, he'll throw a shutout. And in the locker room afterwards, he'll tell everybody how happy he is to be a Met, and how much he was abused by the fans-"
Okay, that's enough. Good job. Thank you, sit down.
Look... we all knew Sevy was a goner. Frankly, I'm surprised the Redsocks didn't outbid the Mets. He's not even 30. He could be the next Bartolo. He could pitch for years, decades, centuries...
Another chapter in this Yankee nightmare has turned a page, though it might not have ended. If Sevy succeeds, it will add power to the image of the Yankees as this era's most toxic organization in baseball.
Believe it or not, I've chosen those words carefully. I believe this is the most important Yankee offseason in this millennium. With a bad signing or rotten trade, the Yankees could easily fall into a five-year quagmire, like the late 1980s, adding to the longest championship drought in their history. By the time the Yankees next win a world series, we could be dust, and their reign as baseball's premier franchise could be a punchline of the distant past.
On the other side, if they acquire, say, two great players - (Masamoto, Bellinger, Soto, Snell?) - they can challenge Baltimore over the next few years.
Whatever they do this winter, it will have long term consequences.
And Sevy is now a Met. Damn. Why am I feeling so queasy?
Relax, the mutts have a worse record keeping pitchers healthy than the Yankees, and if they do give a one year prove it to Montas it’ll be about half of that Sevy contract.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, Montas.
ReplyDeleteQueasy, Knees.
Flushing, Sevy.
Intern. Minable.
( seemingly endless, endless, never-ending, unending, without end, nonstop, everlasting, ceaseless, unceasing, incessant, constant, continual, uninterrupted, unbroken, sustained, monotonous, tedious, wearisome, boring, long-winded, long-drawn-out, overlong, rambling, meandering, laborious, ponderous, countless, numerous, many, untold, manifold, multitudinous, multifarious, innumerable, numberless, unmeasured, unnumbered, incalculable, indeterminable, myriad, legion, innumerous, unnumberable )
See ya, Sevy! Hope the epicureans of Queens enjoy your meatballs!
ReplyDeleteAA, you are getting artsy, man. I can dig it.
ReplyDeleteIf Sevy were to take the mound as a Yankee in 2024, every one of his outings would bring a mixture of curiosity and dread.
Now that Sevy will be taking the mound as a non-Yankee in 2024, his outings will bring a mixture of curiosity and meh.
All other things being equal, we should be happy he'll be a non-Yankee in 2024.
I can see it all now: Sevy pitches decently in 24, The Intern signs him to a long-term deal in 25 and Sevy needs TJ after his first outing and never pitches again.
ReplyDeleteAnd why give up anything to sign Soto? He's a goner who will make no appreciable impact in 24. Then he can sign anywhere for nothing. But he won't sign in the Bronx, a place that used to be somewhere, now become nowhere.
I've always liked Sevy and I hope he wins the Cy Young over at Citi Field. I think he will do much better with another year removed from TJ surgery. But, we will see.
ReplyDeleteI hope the Yankees value Montgomery as much as most organizations do and re-sign him. But only Jordan, not Justin ;)
Regarding Soto: The Pods want a ton for a player likely to get a one-year arbitration salary of 33 million and who is a free agent next year. They want at least 2 current or close to MLB-ready SP plus Volpe and The Martian. They lust after Drew Thorpe as they view him as a top-of-the-rotation starter within 2 years. The Yankees would be extremely foolish-hell, they are already extremely foolish with Cashman running the show- to pay such a price for a player repped by Scott Boras who will sign Soto to a team that offers a penny more. Sure, if the Yankees were just one really good hitter away from a championship. But, they've got a need to upgrade at so many positions that the trade as proposed would be exactly the kind of fuck up Cashman has done historically- depleting the farm system of their best prospects (such as they are) for short-term rentals or washed-up former stars.
I wouldn't trade The Martian for Soto. Could be that the Yankees know more than we do about the injury; could be that The Martian will never be any more than 65% of his former effectiveness. Then again it could be that the Friars are smart and see what we've seen with The Martian: that he'll be a better player than Soto in just a year or two. At the very least, he's good enough that the Friars are willing to take a gamble on an injured player. What's that tell you? It tells me that he's pretty damned good and that we should hang on to him.
ReplyDeleteI'm with LBJ on the Severino signing by the Mets. Curiosity and meh. Mostly meh.
ReplyDeleteI'll go out on a limb and predict that he'll pitch decently well for the Mets. Much better than here, at any rate.
We don't need no stinking Soto.
ReplyDeleteThe Martian and Austin Wells should be the untouchables in trade talks. Now watch the freaking weasel sell The Martian and Wells for Javier Vasquez III.
ReplyDeleteWhy so queasy?
ReplyDeleteWith apologies to Bartolo, here’s the skinny : Severino was arguably the worst SP IN MLB last year and $13m is a ridiculous waste of money. I’d much rather see that dough be applied to Yamamoto, and promote one of our young pitchers as needed during the season. I would’ve been OK with bringing Neverino back for >$5m, anything over that makes it harder to dump him during the season. If Montas wants to use this contract as a benchmark, he can pack his bags too. There are plenty of replacement level arms in the system. Finally, if we ever do make it to October, inconsistent (at best) pitchers like Severino have no value.
As I always say, Mars Needs Women!
Amen, BTR999! Severino actually admitted that he was the worst pitcher in baseball last year. And he spoke the truth! Why would we bring him back and pray that Matt Blake would get him out of his funk this time? How many times are we going to watch the same movie? Next year, Rodon will probably be worse than this year. How long can we tolerate seeing two starters go out and get their brains beaten out every start? If you think about it, those two starters, Severino and Rodon, were the #1 culprits who sank the 2023 Yankee Titanic. Any kind of decent pitching by those two, they would've made the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteGood article in the Post about Yankee analytic troubles: https://nypost.com/2023/11/28/sports/zack-britton-details-analytics-rift-thats-plaguing-yankees/
ReplyDeleteRecently retired Zac Britton says: “You can go down the rabbit hole with analytics and you can kind of find anything to justify anything, right? The numbers, you can skew them any way to paint the picture you want to paint."
And: "I just know that, as a player there, a lot of times in the clubhouse it felt like there was this disconnect between some of the things we were presented with, and what we were seeing on the field as players,”
“What the players were saying, like, ‘Hey, we should be doing this,’ and ‘This has been working well,’ and then sometimes the way that was implemented through the data didn’t line up, and I don’t think I’m the only player who feels that way.
“But I don’t think it was Brian Cashman or Aaron Boone. I think it’s an organizational thing.”
Please allow me to translate the nice, tip-toe, gentle language into plain english:
(1) Yankee analytics don't know what the fuck they're doing.
(2) Boone and Cashman don't know what the fuck they're doing.
(3) Boone and Cashman don't know what the fuck they're seeing.
Simple enough, when you break it down into plain english, right?
Brilliant, AA!
ReplyDeleteAnd I share your queasiness, Duque. (Though a small caveat: the longest Yankees streak without a ring remains 20 seasons, 1903-1922. We're closing in on that, but not there yet.)
The quease-making factor is that the Metsies did sign our bench coach. A foolish move, I think, when it meant dumping Buck. BUT...could it be that, Mendoza goes over there, first thing Stearns says is, 'Hey, we're thinking of taking a year on Sevvy. Whattaya think?'
And Mendoza replies, 'Oh, definitely! He woulda been back to full strength last year, but they kept making him do this one, stupid thing...'
That's where my queasiness comes from, anyway.
I can certainly see letting Sevvy go. Chances are, he's another Toonces Betances. But maybe not.
ReplyDeleteAnd the worst thing is...there is no plan.
I'd like to imagine a Yankees' front office where, even as we speak, a driven Brian Cashman is barking out directives; "Too bad about Severino, but he wasn't in our plans anyway. Sign Yamamoto, sign that Japanese reliever, sign Monty, sign Bellinger and maybe Gurriel, if we have to. Then, I got this genius deal all set up to dump Rodon..."
I could also see forgoing Soto if the price is too high and we had some great plan.
But sadly, that's not happening. The Yanks are getting ready to once again punt on the major free-agent market. Right now, they are kicking the tires on Kevin Kiermaier ('Hey, he'll come down a lot once we get into March!') and telling each other that Everson Periera really showed us something last year. They're telling themselves that they have the deepest pitching in the minors, just ready to go.
They are lying to themselves, as they always do.
Severino has even worse connective tissue than Stanton. At best he becomes a shut-down reliever who needs to be carefully managed. No thanks.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.si.com/mlb/red-sox/news/rangers-postseason-star-reportedly-one-of-red-soxs-top-targets-in-free-agency-pat3
ReplyDelete