There is really nothing else to say.
Rumors suggest Grisham will ditch the offer and head to free agency, in search of a three year deal. If so, the Yankees would have an extra $22 million in movie money, plus a 4th round draft pick.
The difference in alt-Yankee future lineups is staggering.
If he stays...
cf Grisham
rf Judge
1b Rice
2b Chisholm
dh Stanton
lf Dominguez/Jones/somebody?
3b McMahon/Cabrera
c Wells/Rice/somebody?
ss Cabalero/Volpe/somebody?
If he bolts...
2b Chisholm (or cf?)
rf Judge
lf Tucker/Bellinger?
dh Stanton
1b Rice (or c)
cf Jones/Dominguez/Somebody?
3b McMahon/Cabrera?
c Wells/Rice?
ss Cabalero/Volpe/a 2b/Somebody?
Until Grisham decides, there is no sense trying to ponder the Yankee paths to success in 2026. In three days, Brian Cashman will learn which alt-Yankiverse he'll inhabit.
Three days...
In either case--or any other case, realistically--Judge will still not have a championship-level team around him. Maybe half a team, if that.
ReplyDeleteIt really is criminal. Hoss is right.
This reminds me of that SNL sketch, many years ago, when Candace Bergen was playing Anne Boleyn and Phil Hartman was a noble assigned to tell her what her alternatives were regarding her execution.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/1kbj084/anne_boleyn_a_jack_handey_penned_absurdist_gem/
Either way, it's not pretty, though of course Grisham is the "drawing and quartering" version.
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ReplyDeleteI'm confident it won't come to pass, but I don't think Kyle Tucker is a great match for the Yankees. Yes, his bat is sweet. Low K's. High W. A 20-20, 4 WAR, solid bet. Love it. He would plug that lineup hole left by Bellinger nicely.
ReplyDeleteBut he's a RF and a mediocre one at best. He hasn't played LF since 2020 and only 72 games at that position in his MLB career. And he'll cost top dollar.
We already have a RF. What we don't have is a LF'er who knows which way to run, as well as a plethora of other holes that need plugging.
No easy answers here. Dominguez can hit, but he can't field. It seems he went the same school for non-fundamental baseball that Volpe did.
Spencer can crush the ball and field well (in center), but his 40% MiLB strikeout rate last year is truly frightening. He's only played 12 MiLB games in left and he wasn't very good.
If HAL 9000 were ready to spend what it takes to win a championship (yeah, right?), I'd say roll the dice on Tucker. But if he does buy Tucker, he'll make Cashman go dumpster diving to solve every other problem the Yankees have.
Grisham is looking better all the time.
Doc, I don't think they'll even acknowledge the problems.
ReplyDelete(clears throat)
ReplyDeleteCashman already has a dumpster to dive in.
That dumpster is called the New York Yankees.
(There's no place like home.)
Remember when the off-season used to be fun?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI made an error in my attempt to express my previous comment, hence I eliminated it.
DeleteOnce again (as THEY say) with meaning . . .
I enjoyed the off season between 2008 and 2009 quite a bit, Bit!
What New York Used To Be
DeleteThe Kills
Coma comma drama come on
Draw it scratch it say it
say it make it to the bottom
ladder climb it drop an
apple off the top it stop it
I don't want to eat it
need it know it force it
feed it leave it be it
Just keep it in its box
What easy used to be
What love used to be
What drugs used to be
What TV used to be
What music used to be
What luck used to be
What art used to be
What you used to be
Coma comma drama come on
Drawl your skin your
mile longer love song
sure it tells the future
fingers crushed and
run em' under water shark
infested sea of secrets
in the open fire beat it
broke it don't believe it
just keep it in its box
What easy used to be
What fun used to be
What dreaming used to be
What fame used to be
What the city used to be
What fast used to be
What low used to be
What New York used to be
What New York used to be
What New York used to be
What New York used to be
What New York used to be
IT certainly seems like they don't understand the problem, JM. Everything boils down to PR and perception for Cashman's Yankees.
ReplyDeleteThey don't sell championships. They sell the hope of a championship. Which makes me stare at the relationship of gambling to baseball. Hope and perception, fueled by PR, spurs gambling and impacts margins. If hope is high, margins widen and when they crash - as the Yankees always do - the house wins big time.
I'm not sure if my suspicions are true. As I often warn my more conspiratorial-minded friends, politics is a messy business and you should never underestimate politicians capacity for screwing up.
The more likely answer is that Cashman lives and dies by the perception of his reputation. He's fatuous, ego-driven and vain. He thinks he's a lot smarter than he is. He surrounds himself with sycophants and yes men. It's a top-down organization. An insular fraternity. Consequently, the most glaring lack of talent is in the front office. Poor development.They pump the kids up with ridiculous PR comparisons, but they never taught them how to field their position, baseball fundamentals, baseball smarts or prepare them mentally, beyond PR prep.
Nobody can read a medical report. Hiding the dirty laundry is more important that having a back up plan. Roster construction is completely fakakta and carries the faint whiff of panic. As if they spent all their time on sales, promotions and PR and remembered at the last minute they also needed a championship team to sell tickets.
I dread the hot stove season and trading deadlines. I sigh resignedly as I watch prospect blossom on other teams, while the veterans they traded them for implode in Yankee Stadium. Or show up broken, with injuries any doctor could see in their medical files.
It's as if everyone in the Yankee organization is afraid of telling Cashman his brilliant idea isn't a good one, because all those who did are gone.
Or they are juking the team to maximize profits in the gambling arena and elsewhere. If they were a publicly held company, I'd assume they were pulling an Elon Musk and juicing the stock price. The Yes network is publicly held, so..........
Either way, they value PR at the expense of everything else and it shows.