In this reverse-Hunger Games analysis, the Mets would sign starter Tatsuia Imai, and the Redsocks would grab 3B Munetaka Murakami - two Japanese stars, the human equivalents of those $30 Amazon mystery pallets, which might contain iPads, but probably have electronic doo-hickeys that analyze your dog's stool. As for the Yankees? They would grab Alex Bregman Kyle Tucker Bo Bichette - um - Cody Bellinger.
Yep. The Belli of the Beast. Last year's lineup, but with another season of well-ground grist.
Yank fans adore Bellinger. Last year, with two strikes, he choked up and situationally hit his way into our hearts. He patrolled LF with aplomb. He hit 29 HRs, 98 HRs, a .272 BA - a poor man's Triple Crown. He's only 30. He's seen it all - from MVP to DFA. He's worth a three-year-deal, maybe five. He won't embarrass us. We could do worse.
But but BUT... Every Yank fan knows the underside. He's a fundamentalist, with a disturbing likeliness to DJ LeMahieu. Moreover, Bellinger's return would leave no air in the room for the most hyped Yankee prospects of the 2020s: Jasson Dominguez, 22, and Spencer Jones, 24. If Belli stays, there is nothing for The Martian or The Judge Clone - aside from what Cooperstown Cashman gets in some massive trade - the most defining deal since Jesus Montero left for Michael Pineda.
At the mere thought of Cashman orchestrating a huge deal, I believe I speak for the Yankiverse in saying: GAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Okay, I know what you're thinking: Jeez, man, at least let's see what Cashman gets in a trade. You can't condemn something without seeing it.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Listen: Everybody likes Belli. But wouldn't it be nice if something in 2026 actually changes? Last year's lineup, one year older? I say, Quiet, Piggy! The Yankees need to, a) Spend a jazillion dollars, b) Beat Stevie Cohen in a bidding war, and c) give a chance to their big-ass prospects. For 16 years now, they've tried to trade their way to a championship. It's time for Hal to go out on a massive, dangerous limb. Cody Bellinger is just too safe.
Don’t worry the Yankees will offer Bellinger 4 yrs and come in second to whomever offers 5.
ReplyDeleteYou know, you have a point there. (Baggy pantsed follow up: but if you comb your hair right, no one will notice.)
ReplyDeleteI think, though, we need Bellinger. He works. The Cashman gaffe of making that qualifying offer to Grisham does create a real conundrum where the youngsters are concerned. On the other hand, Judge is 34. Once Stanton gets injured, he'll get a good share of DH ABs this year. Bellinger can play right, which not every outfielder can do. (Jasson, a CF by trade, has had problems in left. He may have had problems in center, but moving him to left probably exacerbated his issues.)
It's a tough call. I think you need to throw into the mix the idea that Grisham will not repeat 2025 and at some point will need to get familiar with the bench, as in 2024.
Plenty of moving parts. Our real problems continue to be short, third and catcher. What's happening about them? Oh, right. Nothing.
We need Bellinger. I think the LeMahieu comparison is overheated. What makes the Grisham signing even worse is that he will become an extreme example of one of the most cherished axioms of Yankee management, that being “If we’re paying him, we’re playing him”.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry, I just can’t believe in either Dominguez or Jones. I will gladly eat crow if either of them develops into a comparable player to Bellinger.
I want some tasty thanksgiving food in my belli !
ReplyDeleteThank you very much . . .
Not one of these guys we're discussing will be - and I DO have a crystal ball in front of me - on any sort of future Yankee dynasty. They are all placeholders.
ReplyDeleteOh, Duque. Poor, poor Peerless Leader. You have stumbled into...THE CASHMAN CONUNDRUM. And there's no escape...
ReplyDelete...Whether Cashman makes a deal or doesn't make a deal...we're screwed.
ReplyDeleteI would favor going to the mattresses to sign Imai, and some relievers, too. Pitching, pitching, pitching. Deal away Wells and Jazz for more, if possible. Let Spencer and The Martian fight it out for/share that last OF spot. Done...
...But if he wants to bring back Bellinger...hey, I can live with that. He PROBABLY has a longer shelf life than LeMahieu did, and you can put him in the OF or at 1B.
ReplyDeleteTHEN you could trade Spencer and The Martian. But here's the conundrum: he won't.
He will put them on the bench, or stick them back in Stanton to rust and rust and moulder. Anything to avoid them blossoming with other teams and showing him up.
Here we have been stuck for many a year, and here we will stick again.
placeholders, in my narrow and limited experience, are only put there until someone, or something else more and/or better suited, for whatever reason, becomes available and steps in and/or takes over for the placeholder.
ReplyDeletebut what if a better suited replacement never arrives
i feel like being a yankees fan today is sorta, like, uh, you know – sitting in a packed mid-town emergency room late on a friday night, surrounded by a tour bus full of passengers suffering from food poisoning, vomiting and crapping themselves into a state of near unconsciousness, and you're only there because your friend needed a ride . . . or worse.
walking the dogs this morning i thought about how much the fan base is getting played by the Yankees front office. its sorta sad, sorta annoying, sorta frustrating and definitely not changing anytime soon because if you stop and look very carefully you can see that all of baseball is in a steady, slow motion decent into the murk.
but i continue to remain . . . positive
and I appreciate proper formatting
DeleteWhile we are all fussing about Belllinger, the RedSux have been making deals. Case in point: they just traded for Sonny Gray, who I guarantee will be looking forward to shoving it in our faces next summer.
ReplyDeleteSure thing he'll hurl 9 inning shutouts against the Yankees. Look what Red Sox coaching did with our garbage: Chapman, Eovaldi, Garrett Whitlock. And that's just the pitching side. There's plenty of position players too that they turned around. Gotta be the coaching. What else could it be? Dirty water?
DeleteThey stress fundamentals and intelligent development. Not rocket science nonsense and robotic skills.
Hoss, I'm with you. Sign Imai & bullpen help, trade Wells and Jism, put Dominguez and Jones in LF, CF.
ReplyDeleteYou know Grisham will have a bad year. By end of May, they'll have to replace him in CF anyway. Might as well be with one of the kids.
And if they trade Jism, then I'd get someone like Brendan Donovan from the Cards to play 2B. Shouldn't cost too much in prospects. One lower tier prospect or two.
ReplyDeleteWhy does everyone think that Cashman's qualified offer to Grisham was a "mistake"? (Saw the same reasoning on yardbarker.com recently.)
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's any question about it: Cashman wanted to keep Grisham. Actually, it might've been Grisham's agent who made the "mistake". Because if he declined the qualifying offer, then Cashman might've made a multi-year offer to keep him. (Though it might've been for a lower annual amount. Maybe 7 yrs/120 million?) But Grisham took the safe bet and just said yes to one year, 22 mill.
Cashman will go back to HAL and report that the Yankees made out like bandits. Because now they can let Grisham play and see what he does in 2026. If he plays great, they'll give him a huge offer. If he plays like crap, they can let him walk away in free agency. It's almost like the Yankees are playing with house money. They only had to waste 22 mill.
Grisham offers them stability for another year. Imagine if they had not made the qualifying offer and Grisham had been signed by another team. Then the Yankees would run the risk of not being able to sign Bellinger or Tucker. They'd lose out on Grisham, Bellinger & Tucker. It would look bad, bad p.r. Not that anyone is jumping for joy that they signed Grisham, but it's a move that ensures mediocrity and stability, at the least. Hey, risk management.
With the current Yankee management, it's confusing because you always have to think about every situation from at least two different perspectives. You have the management/ownership's goals, which is all financial. And you have the goals of Yankee fans, which is all about winning, goddammit. Those two goals are in big time conflict here most of the time. Throw in the public relations bullshit that management/ownership spews out, and you have yet another layer of crap to analyze. It's become a very Machiavellian theatre.
ReplyDeleteNow that they've signed Grisham for a year, and probably won't sign Bellinger or Tucker, the fans will them to at least bolster the pitching by signing Imai and just play the kids in the outfield.
ReplyDeleteThat won't happen either. They'll stash Dominguez and Jones in the minors. They'll probably keep someone like Austin Slater to play LF. They'll make offers to Bellinger & Imai but won't win the auctions. They won't trade Jism, Wells, Volpe or Stanton. It'll be another crappy year where they barely make the playoffs and then get booted quickly.
It's pretty much all by design. Driven by management/ownership's financial goals. They'll dress it up nicely with plenty of bull shit p.r.
ReplyDeleteJust like in the movie "Apocalypse Now", the bullshit piles up here so fast, you need wings to stay above it.
Money. They worship money.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be a fly on the wall and listen to the cynical conversations between Hal, Cashman, Randy, et. al. I'm sure it would not contradict our theses, but it would certainly explain it.
ReplyDeleteBut back to filling out the roster. On the one hand, Bellinger certainly earned his keep in 2025. But if he's signed long term, who do we get? The guy who hit 307, or the guy who hit 210? He's 50/50 for a great season or crapping the bed. On good years, I love his bat and his glove. In bad years, only the glove seems to work.
DJ, on the other hand, had a great first half contract, and lost it completely in the second half. I have warmer feelings about that. Time and age betray us all. IT means he's mortal.
Of course, if Hal was a Yankee, he'd be playing for a championship, instead of working the margins. That championship mentality would be seen throughout the organization. But it isn't. PR rules everything. So, top prospects arrive with dreams of HOF in their head and ready like half-baked bread. Spencer, Volpe and the Martian are the latest loaves of underbaked bread. Cooked by PR experts, blowing hot air, instead of teaching baseball fundamentals.
Sadly, Hal's dream of a team with the payroll of the Royals and the heart of a champion, are dashed by mediocre yes men, culled from the 'best schools', full of buzz words, praise for the boss and false enthusiasm. You know, over-privileged bullshit.
Whether to sign, Bellinger, cover the failures of Yankee development, throw two more prospects under a bus and hope we get better than 50/50 out of Cody? Or, fire everyone in Yankee management and put together a winning organization instead?
Hal will probably do neither and count his money instead.
In fairness, Doctor T, Bellinger was a young player off to a HOF start in his career—rookie-of-the-year and MVP in his first 3 seasons. Then he sustained devastating injuries that it took him 3 years, 2020-2022, to work his way back through.
ReplyDeleteSince then, 2023-2025, he's been consistently excellent, if not great: BAs of .307, .266, .272; OPS of .881, .751, .813. So good. Only 30 in 2026, a lefty in Yankee Stadium, he's likely to be a fairly effective player for the next 3-5 years.
So—good. The question is if you're passing up something better by signing him. I think the Yankees—determined to falsely limit their salaries—would be better off taking a risk on Spencer and The Martian and signing pitching instead.
But...I doubt if they'll make that move. And, if anyone is determined to outbid us for Bellinger, I imagine they will.
Fair enough. He's a solid and mature player. Is he worth 30 million plus? I dunno. It depends on whether Hal is going to use his salary as an excuse to leave us with an incomplete team. He might not even be necessary, if they developed their prospects to understand baseball fundamentals, how to field their position, situational hitting or not how to strike out 150 times a year. Or had competent in-game management.
DeleteBut maybe I ask too much of a professional baseball club.
But for me, adding Bellinger and doing nothing to address the incompetence of all the useless suits who run the team, is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. You could sign every top FA out there and they would still lose. Especially when it mattered.
Doc, you are correct. Sadly.
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