I suggest you take a seat. Do you use blood pressure medication? Take it. Maybe a shot of Buffalo Trace? Breathe. Close your eyes and go to a happy place: You're running barefoot through a field of erect nipples. Okay, are you ready? Here goes...
Brian Cashman is right.
There, I said it. The world didn't explode. The floor didn't cave in. No Satanic trumpets blared o'er the hills. Don't worry: I won't say it again. You don't go taunting the Beastmaster. But Brian Cashman - yes, our Brian Cashman - is absolutely right in refusing to trade Spencer Jones and/or Jasson Dominquez for the missing link to 2024, a starting pitcher. Make no mistake: He is doing the right thing for the Yankees, even if it is not the best move for his job security.
How can I speak such blaspheme? Easy. It's true.
For better or worse, the 2024 the Hellbent Yankees have built an all-or-nothing roster, balanced on key players entering their "walk" years. This includes Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo and Gleyber Torres, all central to the batting order.
The Yankees are all-in for the coming season, but it might not be enough. They appear to be at least one starter short, and Hal Steinbrenner is refusing to spend more. That leaves Cashman with one recourse: Trade a top prospect for - say - Dylan Cease of the White Sox. Such a deal would instantly make the Yankees favorites in the AL East according to the lapdog media - (with a few exceptions: talking to you Mike Axisa and Joel Sherman) - and a YES team of analysts who should know better.
Thus far, Cashman is holding the line, refusing a trade. He could push the button, invoke the memory of Clint Frazier, and secure a starting pitcher. He is holding back at his own peril.
This is his Crunch Year, or as Mel Brooks would put it, Springtime for Cashman in Germany. If the Yankees flop, I gotta believe Cash disappears. Those barnyard photographs of Hal that he keeps in his safe? They have lost their punch due to AI deep fakes. If the Yankees shit the bed in 2024, mark these words: Cashman will be operating a McDonald franchise in 2025. He cannot afford to miss the playoffs two years in a row.
So, he can trade the remaining Yankee seed corn, further depleting a farm system that has already been seriously drained. In a way, he has nothing to lose. Those prospects won't reach stardom for years, and he might not last that long.
We rank on Cashman all the time. He's our go-to whipping mule. Now, let's give the guy some credit: He's refusing to push the button on a bad, long term deal.
Okay, open your eyes. You're no longer in that meadow of blossoming areola. You're back in Jersey City, or Lackawanna, or Ashtabula, and the engine light is still regularly flashing on your dashboard. Nothing has changed. But dammit, the world has been transformed. A miracle has happened. Cashman is right.
There’s no way they’d trade Jones or Dominguez, it would mean actually trying to resign Soto. They aren’t giving him 500 mil. Next year’s outfield will be Judge in right and Jd/Jones in left and center, whichever looks better fielding takes cf. They aren’t going to keep Torres either. They’ll put another kid there, Peraza or Vivas. The 2025 team is going to lean on kids making the league minimum
ReplyDeleteOK, I'll give him credit for protecting Spence and the Martian. (Sounds like a great sitcom.) But he's done this kind of thing before, holding onto minor leaguers, resisting the urge to give them up. And we are where we are.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see these kids become Yankee legends, but after tossing away so many young pitchers, most recently King, who looks more promising than the big-money hurlers Cashman has signed, I don't know if anything he does is right. Even when it seems right, it turns out wrong somehow. And that last ring fades further and further into the past.
I’d rather be known for what I did than for what I didn’t do..
ReplyDeleteCashman recently admitted that it would be difficult if not impossible to sign Soto. Thus not parting with Jones or Dominguez...
ReplyDelete"Cashman recently admitted that it would be difficult if not impossible to sign Soto." - Ranger_lp
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's interesting about that, in addition to the utter shame that should come with being the richest franchise in all of sports and saying you can't afford something.
The number of "high quality" free agents left unsigned even as baseball opens up for Spring Training tells me that most if not all the teams just don't want to overpay anymore (With the exception of LA - different market different strategy.)
So Soto, an outstanding DH isn't really worth 500M or "more". Just like Snell, a two time winner of the Cy Young Award, isn't going to get his 200M +.
I don't think it's collusion. I think it's analytics. A team can get the same production for a lot less. Like the Orioles did last year.
Unless you have a star based market, and don't forget, as the Yankees pretty much always do... stars can be made not bought, there's no reason to give a DH half a billion dollars. (Othani is a different fish. Soto ain't Othani in terms of marketing $$$$)
If Soto's market comes back to Earth it's entirely possible that the Yankees will sign him.
”You're running barefoot through a field of erect nipples.”
ReplyDeleteHow in GOD’S name am I able to maintain my balance!
Practice AA, practice…
ReplyDeleteGotta agree with you, Duque—especially because I share the skepticism about Dylan Cease. The Yankees are going to need bodies, period, in 2025.
ReplyDeleteAnd Doug, I think you're right that teams are—maybe—wising up at last.
But again: "Never underestimate the role of stupidity in human affairs." Particularly Yankee affairs. I have the feeling that, as always, Cashman just flies by the seat of his pants, hoping something works out.
Giving up all those pitchers for a pair of rentals is nuts, if you have no plans to sign them. That's how desperate, small-market teams (which, after decades of revenue-sharing, should not really be desperate at all).
And while I think Duque is completely right about Cashie's decision here, I suspect that, somehow, come hell or last place, the little bugger will be right back in the corner office for 2025.
Imagine an arrogant putz like the Genius keeping his job and gettiong a raise. He was reinforced by Clueless Hal. Ofcourse he is going to continue his hapless ways and become even more arrogant.
ReplyDeleteDuque, with all due respect, we are nowhere close to contending, despite what the collective hallucination might say. They have once again created the illusion, but the reality is much more dire. You know that and I know that. And the other thing is the Cashman will never lose his job, even if we all end up choking on our own vomit in a Back Alley, Cashman is immune. He is tied up in a death dance with Hal and nothing will pry him loose from this team.
ReplyDeleteHmm... choking on his own vomit in a back alley...it would look like an accident. Nobody would know, and Cashman would be gone.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm suggesting such a thing.
JM - the following might be considered a vile and troubling thing but, uhm . . . . I think that Brian Cashman thrives on eating his own vomit.
ReplyDeleteSo - the likelihood of him choking on IT is very, very slim.
There's always the chance that our NY Yankees could start the 2025 season in Moscow.
That might be what it would take.
ReplyDeleteI think of Brian Cashman. I think of time travel. I imagine going back in time to undo the trade for Stanton and the shedding of Monty.
I can't get past those two items.
And - yes - if we're going to do time travel, we should definitely kill Hitler first. But after that, the Stanton trade ranks pretty high on the wish list, don't it?