Wait... did I get that right...?
He has cherished his time in New York. Great city. Wonderful food. Hot waitresses. Celebrities. Pulsing discos. Friendly people. And the Yankees - bravo! Lavish clubhouse buffets. Smiling dugout attendants. Witty reporters. Caring radio personalities. Cheerful, happy cab drivers who fill every ride with conversations of hope.
But but BUT... as much as he hates to do it, Bellinger's going to opt out. He's just gotta. If the Yankees want to keep him, they'll have to sign him for - well, let's say five years. That way, it's assured that, in the end, he'll be hitting .183 with no power because - hey, that's Chinatown, Jake.
Sad to see him leave. Wish him all the best. We'll always have Paris. Best of luck in the new venture.
Same will soon happen with Trent Grisham, (though in his case, he checked out two weeks ago.) And Luke Weaver. And Paul Goldschmidt. And Devin Williams. And Ryan Yarbrough. And J.T. Brubaker. And Jonathan Loisiga. (One guy we'll still have, through 2026: D.J. LeMahieu.)
So, here we are, in that limbo of the lost known as late October, with nothing to watch but the door, as Yankees say goobye. Last year, around now, we were preparing for Juan Soto to thank Yank fans everywhere, from the bottom of his heart, for their love and supreme hospitality, as he made the difficult decision to opt out and feed his entourage.
Throughout my life, in contract decisions, I've almost always sided with the players. We always learn what they're making, and nobody ever reports on the incomes of the Steinbrenner family. It's the players who get hit in the head, crash into walls and tweak their gonads running to first. The owners can hide in their luxury boxes, so they don't even need to mingle with the smelly, grumbling hordes. So, yeah, I sided with the players.
But - damn - I dunno anymore. When you're making $30 million a year, you're taking home a paycheck of more than a half million per week. I'm not sure that makes you a working stiff, or somebody who gets to be adored, as he thanks us for our love and loyalty, as he heads for greener pastures.
The Yankees have Judge through 2031, (when he'll be 39.) We have Fried and Rodon, Cole and Giancarlo, and then whomever comes and goes, loving their moments in the Big Apple until the day their opt-out clause takes effect.
So long, Belli. Click the door on your way out. See you in the Old-Timers game.
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Yeah, Bellinger will be an Old Timers Day guest the year they celebrate also-rans because all the past champions are too sick or dead
Future Old Timers' Games will be played between the 2013 Yankees and Players Who You May or May Nor Have Forgotten Were Yankees but Remind You of the 2013 Yankees
Can’t wait fort the the Old Timers games honoring the Wild Card teams of the 2020’s.
As far as Bellinger (who I like) what can I say? This shit’s been going on for years. The ideal way is to properly develop young players and extend them when they’re in their 20’s. Then again why should we give a shit? Money has ruined MBL just like it’s ruined everything else in this collapsing country.
I'd let Bellinger walk. He end up having a pretty good regular season, but we could (and should) do better if we want to win a championship. Plus, he's come up lame of late, got some kind of heel issue. That could compromise his speed for next year, maybe for the rest of his career. Time to say goodbye.
Ditto with Grisham. Please, please, please don't keep Grisham. He blocks the development of both Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones. I don't know how that's possible, but he does.
Here's my winter cleanup: (1) Clean house with new manager, coaching staff;
(2) Trade Rodon; (3) Trade Jazz Chisholm; (4) Trade Volpe; (5) Trade Stanton
The new manager has to be an experienced, great baseball man. Someone like Bruce Bochy would be ideal. Let the new manager put together his own coaching staff.
I'd want Cashman fired, but I know HAL would never do that. So I haven't put that on the list, but if it had been even remotely possible, it would've been #1.
Now I'll predict what Brain Dead Cashman will do this winter: He'll ink Grisham to a big contract, just like he did with Aaron Hicks. Say, 8 years/160 million.
He might also re-sign Austin Slater at 1 yr/4 million. I wouldn't be surprised. That would ensure that the Yankees do NOT develop Dominguez and Jones next year. Grisham would play CF, Slater LF, and Judge RF.
Stanton will remain as DH.
Rodon will stay put, as will Jizz Chasm, Volpe, Wells.
There’s something about the typo of MBL which just sort of enhances and supports your comment, BTR.
Not sure how I replied to my own post. Sorry about that.
Also forgot to say I'd trade Austin Wells. But Cashman'll definitely keep him around too. And of course, Cashman keeps Boone and the rest of the coaching staff. Including our pitching coach, who if he had coached Cy Young, would've turned him into a crap bag within half a season.
It's interesting that the kids who come up from the minors pitch or hit well. Ex: Schlittler, Dominguez. This is before the Yankee coaching staff gets their claws around them. It must be that the instruction in the minors is different from up here in the majors.
When Dominguez came up, he wasn't an off speed singles hitter. That's what they gradually turned him into over the course of this season before benching him in September. Gotta be something to do with the coaching and analytics.
Next year, chances are they will start working on destroying Schlittler. Probably have him learn a splitter, give him instructions (orders) to throw splitters 25%/curve 25%/sweeper 15%/4 seam fastball 15%/2 seam fastball 15%/changeup 5%. He'll be so busy doing calculations in his head on the mound that he'll pitch like shit. The lack of fastballs would be a current Yankee trend. Batters will wait out his off speed pitches. There'll be droves of base runners. He might get ahead with fastballs, but then won't put away anyone with the off speed, which is another current Yankee trend. He'll get away from using the inside corner and fixate on the outside corner with two strikes. Good hitters will spoil the splitters and curves because he never sets up those pitches by busting the fastball up and in. Most games, he'll last only 3 or 4 innings. Sound like Yankee pitching strategy?
Cam Schlittler is a power pitcher right now and a good one. Come this time next year, I betcha they've transformed him into a very ineffective off speed machine. And then they'll blame him for not being able to "adjust" to major league hitting.
Sad to say, Hammer, you're probably right. About all of it.
And amen, Duque. I like Bellinger all right. I thought they should have taken a flier on him the first time he was a free agent, before the 2023 season.
But he's a man with a .211 BA, .660 OPS in 298 playoff plate appearances. If we thought Judge was a choker before his magnificent playoffs this season, Belli is a nonentity. Who will also be 30, and has an injury history.
Let him go, let him go, let him go, as the song goes. Grisham, too—I agree, Hammer. Try to sign Kyle Tucker, give Dominguez and Jones an honest shot. If, somehow, they all work out, put one of them—or maybe Judge—on first base. Or better yet, give poor Rumfield a real shot.
Make Ben Rice the starting catcher. PLEASE get rid of Jazz! And McMahon. And Volpe. With the latter two, their hitting has become so woeful that they can't be hard to find equivalent value. Jazz has trade value—and won't have it for long.
Don't underestimate the MLBPA. It "encourages" players to seek and accept the highest contract possible in every situation. I think they give Latin guys a pass once in a while, but an American born ballplayer with a high-ish profile, like Bellinger? No way the union will stand for him taking a discount. Bryce Harper is the clearest case of this I'd ever seen. He wanted to ge a Yankee, and according to this theory would have been but for the union which told him he had to sign with the highest bidder. Not for him, for everybody else. Under no circumstances can as high a profile player as Harper take less than top market value. That hurts the union's leverage across multiple vectors. Continuing the theme, Harper didn't love having to sign with the Phillies but did so and cemented himself 100% as a union man. It has become part of his identity. Hence his locker room diatribe against Manfred this summer. Bellinger is likewise a good union man.
Hammer, I'm afraid nothing you want to see will happen. Cashman is incompetent, and relies heavily on an incompetent analytics team. Even if he did rid us of some obvious roster members, he'd trade for or sign the wrong replacements.
We're doomed. I don't think I'll live to see a return to sanity, much less a championship.
When player opt out contracts first started taking over, I hated them. I can't quite remember why they bothered me so much, but I think they just always seemed to screw the Yankees over when key players upon whom they were relying would opt out and derail everything. Now they don't really bother me at all. Because any plan the Yankees are using absolutely should be derailed as much as possible. Because it was Cashman's foolishness to depend too heavily on any one particular player in the first place. And because it cuts a long-term contract short. Any player that has an opt out clause has it as part of a long term megacontract, and no matter how good a season that player has just had, the back end of the long term megacontract is 98% certain to be ugly.
Hammer for GM!
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