In fact, I'm down with the great oracle of our times, Mr. Tom Selleck, on the matter of Reverse Starter Trades. He has assured me, personally, that there is nothing wrong with trading starters - teams do it all the time with fantastic results! More importantly, and I cannot stress this enough, on a Reverse Starter Trade, nobody - NOBODY - is coming to take away your five-man rotation.
Let me repeat that, again, with a reminder that, I wouldn't be on this blog, saying this, if it wasn't true. That's simply not who I am. You know me. And you certainly know Mr. Tom.
Now, I know what you're thinking, and - yes - trading a starter is not for everybody. It might not fit every team's situation. But I've done my homework - this isn't my first rodeo, pally-boy - and I can tell you that Reverse Starter Trades happen all the time - with great results!
It wasn't long ago that the Yankees made one. They traded Jordan Montgomery for an outfielder. And last season, Montgomery was a complete bust. Horrible. How lucky were the Yankees to have traded him! If you disregard 2023, when Montgomery was - um - with the Rangers, you know it was a bold and successful Yankee deal.
A Reverse Starter Trade can be a sound bet, and I wouldn't say otherwise, simply because someone wants to save himself $18 million in a salary thing.
So, yesterday, Brian Cashman sluffed off talk about whether to trade Stroman, saying there's six weeks before opening day. Let's wait and see. Tra-la-la!
But clearly, the Yankees have too many pitchers. Their Olympian rotation includes Clarke Schmidt, who started 16 games last year. He strained a lateral muscle on May 30 and didn't pitch again until August.
Then there's Gerrit Cole, who suffered elbow inflammation in spring training, and didn't throw a real pitch until July. He started 17 games last year.
Luis Gil achieved 29 starts. He also missed a month. Stroman made it to 30 starts, though he was drained into nothingness at the end. (He still beat our new No. 2, Max Fried, who started 29 games for Atlanta.) Nestor Cortez (now gone) started 31 games. His fateful pitch to Freddie Freeman in the world series came after missing a month. Carlos Rodon was the staff Iron Man - he started 32 games. Nobody pitched 200 innings. The days of a staff ace who throws 40 starts? They're gone.
Great time to trade a starter. Take it from Tom.
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12 comments:
Ok, here’s the crazy idea. Leave Stroman in the rotation and put
Gil in the bullpen for April and May. June 1st, send him down and stretch him out to start. This only applies if all starters stay healthy. When it comes to trade deadline week, again assuming all is going well, move Stroman and put Gil back in the rotation. It’s wacky but it keeps Gil’s innings down a bit so he’ll be fresher down the stretch and it keeps Stroman out of the 2026 rotation. Might even get them an infielder at some point. Yeah it’s crazy, so crazy it just might work.
We have too many starters, maybe, but we really have too many GMs, managers, and grubby billionaire owners. By the way, did I ever mention that back in the 70s a gay friend of my sister used to see Selleck in a gay bar when he was shooting Magnum in Hawaii? Maybe true, maybe not, but that's what the guy claimed.
There's a "reverse" joke in there somewhere.
Never liked Stroman, didn’t want him, and felt he was an overpay, which shouldn’t matter to the Yankees but does since Steinscammer will scrimp on other areas as a result. Having said that, this rotation is very fragile health-wise, and new addition Max Fried may be the most fragile of all so additional starters will be needed. The next up Warren-Beeter-Hampton of minor leaguers have been injury prone or unable to sustain success at the higher levels. We all laughed at Carlos Carrasco, but I predict he will be starting for us at some point this season as long as his arm doesn’t fall off first.
Speaking of pitching, you may have heard about the young pitcher who had to be carried out from ST to the hospital rhe other day, (it was a nut allergy) but did you know he is an under the radar prospect? Eric Reyzelman, a reliever, struck out 63 men in 38 2/3 innings across three levels, mostly at Double-A Somerset, in 2024, finishing the year with a 1.16 ERA. Not too shabby. Hopefully the coaches don’t ruin him and Cartman doesn’t trade him. Our new closer, Devin Williams, is a one year rental who will be a FA after this season and will seek a massive contract. Steinway is probably squirming already, so a low cost power arm like Reyzelman would be a big add. Keep him away from the peanut butter!
With a greater reliance on bullpens and a decrease in starter innings, I don’t understand why no one has simply gone to a six-man rotation. Seems to me it’s the next obvious step.
The great debate - always discussed, never universally implemented.
I agree with every single word of 999's post. Don't like Stroman—any player THAT much more interested in his internet posts than the mound is not for us—didn't want him. And yes, while his contract was not obscene by today's generally obscene standards, it always costs us out the other end, thanks to Food Stamps HAL.
But...now that we have him...and before Pal trades him for the next Shedd Long...now is the time to hang to him, in anticipation of the next injury. OR...go bold and start the six-man rotation already, as DickAllen says!
Of course, we will do neither. Prepare for the next Shedd. And keep that Reyzelman guy away from nuts!
I don't anticipate a six-man rotation becoming the new normal for all but a handful of teams, if even that many. Why? Because MLB starting pitchers are like QBs in the NFL. Positionally, they make the most money on the team. So, it's more economical to keep extra bullpen pitchers (and stash some at AAA) on the team rosters. Even mediocre, over-the-hill pitchers like Frosty The Strohman command 18 million dollars or more. Hal and many other owners would rather keep an extra lug nut or 2 @ 2-3 million than another starter.
You know who's not allergic to nuts? Tom Selleck. Or so I've heard.
Duque, Genius Cashman will screw it up as he always does. He has free reign by Hal to be a fuckup.
Mildred, are you trying to say something else about Tom that you don’t want to say out loud?
I think Mildred meant, using a baseball metaphor, that Tom has been hit in the chin by more foul balls than Yogi Berra.
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