Somehow, heading into the holidays, the Yankees - with their analytics and algorithms - managed to completely misread the pitching market. What a fuckup: It's as if the city of Syracuse forgot to buy road salt. (Fun fact: The 'Cuse still leads in this winter's Golden Snowball contest, with 22 inches of snow thus far, three up on Binghamton.)
The Yankee strategic plan seems to have collapsed after the big domino, Yoshi Yamamoto, toppled last month.
After spending an entire year courting Yamamoto, the Yankees' offer came in $25 million below his final price. They weren't close, didn't even finish second. Apparently, they didn't imagine the Dodgers - after signing Shohei Ohtani - cooking the books and remaining in the bidding. The master plan went kaput, and the dominos began to drop.
They let Luis Severino walk to the Mets on a one-year deal for $13 million. Sevy may have outlived his Yankee preferred parking slot, but the Mets got a steal.
They misperceived Frankie Montas' one-year price tag of $16 million. Apparently, they thought Montas would show loyalty to a team that nursed him back to health last season. Yeah, right.
Not wanting to throw in with aging pitchers, they watched Lucas Giolito, 29, go to Boston for $38.6 over two years. Then they shelled out almost the same amount, $37 million for two seasons, for Marcus Stroman, who is pushing 33.
Apparently, they thought rotational lug nuts like Dylan Cease could be obtained in trades, only to find the asking prices outlandish.
And all this after giving up nine viable pitching prospects in trades or the Rule 5 draft.
Right now, both their rotation and bullpen look paper thin. And the first wave of injuries - the tweaks and tears that arrive every March - has yet to hit.
Look, I get it that nobody in the history of baseball ever figured out pitching. And the Yankees, in their trades for Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo, certainly needed lefty bats. But every day, another free agent pitcher signs for a price the Yankees are unwilling to pay, because they muffed their homework. Whomever they sign - if anybody - it's going to be at a price that causes Hal Steinbrenner to concentrate on soccer.
The music has stopped, the Yankees can't find an empty chair, and we might be watching the Bills-Steelers without beer. Stock up. Could be a long weekend.
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7 comments:
Stroman has been far better than Giolito and we know Sevy can’t stay healthy. The big free agent non Japanese pitchers are still out there for a reason. Nobody wants to pay Snell what he wants because everyone knows his arm took a beating last year. Don’t get me wrong, I still think Cashgrab is never going to put together a championship team but the one thing I can’t blame
Him for is the crazy pitching market this off season. If you were a gm would you give Montas that contract?
It's beating a dead horse talking about the incompetence of the Yankees organization. It glows so brightly, but like a kid who lives in a violent and dysfunctional family, daily thrashings only induce yawns. Cashman is a total idiot and Hal seems to be in a perpetual trance and exudes a couldn't-care-less attitude. It's so infuriating to observe. They are rarely proactive and make so many blunders that it's jaw-dropping. Cashman doesn't utilize their resources properly and unless it involves a scrap heap transaction, almost always gets taken by the other GM or by the free agent. The IIHIIFIIC crew could do so much better!
"Imanaga, 30, begins his MLB career after signing a four-year, $53 million contract with the Cubs this week. If he pitches well, the Cubs have the option, after his second and third season, to extend that contract out to five years and $80 million."
Cheap by today's standards. Will he be any good? I bet he will, and the Cubs got him. Replacing Stroman, who we got.
It is a crazy pitching market this season. And just a little bit of foresight would have stopped Cashman from trading and giving away nine pitchers. Now the Yanks won't pay to replace them effectively. Nice fuckup.
Long weekend? How about a long season?
It’s easy to see how this pitching staff could implode like a mini-sub visiting the Titanic, and leave us watching Luke Weaver, Cody Poteet, Cody Morris, Commander Cody…the only thing that might shake Swinebrenner out of his nepo-infused lethargy would be a 75 win season and an attendant drop in revenue.
How indeed? The men and women running the Yankees baseball operations are simply not very good at major league baseball operations.
One word, Cashman!
As long as HAL owns the team, they'll be an incompetent sycophant as GM. Even if he fires Ca$hole, he'll find another inept suckup.
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