Well the season's over but there's still plenty of baseball stuff on tap. The real games as it were.
October 31st 2026 – Cleaning Out
Not the lockers or the rosters.The cleaning out I’m talking about is the elimination of the last of the alcohol consumed while watching the World Series from my system.
November
2nd - Negotiating Window Ends
There
is an exclusive five day negotiating window where teams can try to re-sign their
Free Agents. After November second the players can negotiate with the rest of MLB. During this period teams can also make the Qualifying Offer to their Free Agents.
Last
year Cashman trying to be too clever by half decided to give Trent Grisham $22 million dollars
to stay for the extra year. He looked at Grisham’s numbers and figured he
wouldn’t take it because he could do much better in the open market and the
Yankees would get a free draft pick.
Grisham
looked in the mirror and said… KaChing!
This
year the only guy being seriously discussed is the team's closer David Bednar.
The QO is $23.15 Million. That’s a lot
for one year of a closer.
The 2nd
is also the night before Election Day. Don’t forget to vote.
November
9-12 General Managers Meetings
Brian Cashman, he of his 29thyear as GM of the Yankees is the dean of these meetings. Dean Wormer. He’s now the old guy at the bar.
Typically not a lot of deals get made here. It’s more of a set up for the
Winter Meetings but due to the potential lockout there will be even less to do.
Well other than the traditional playing of “Pin The Third Baseman on the Yankee
Roster.”
November 11th The Cy Young Award
Schlittler!!!!! There are other awards but none that concern
the Yankees. Schlittler!
November17th Rule 5 Draft Protections and player acceptance or rejection of the qualifying offer.
For the second year in a row Trent Grisham is expected to accept the qualifying offer even if it was not and could not be offered.
He will stand outside the
offices at One E. 161st and River Ave. in the cold rain with his nose pressed against the
glass, his mustache drooping, and look very, very, sad.
Then
he will get into his Lamborghini, bought with last year’s $22 million dollar
salary and head into Manhattan for lunch at Chez Fifi.
Rule
Five Question
If
there is no Rule Five Draft due to the lockout do they need to protect anyone?
Minor League baseball will be played on schedule next year. So they might want
to take one more look and discover someone worth protecting.
Will MLB
move the draft to after the lockout ends? Will Cashman THINK MLB is going to
move the Draft and not protect the team’s best players?
NOV.
17-19: The Owners Meeting
The Owners descend on NYC for their
annual meeting wearing their traditional Top Hats and carrying diamond tipped
canes. They will then hold press conferences to explain why they have no money.
The Owners will also talk about how no small market teams can be competitive without a salary cap.
When it is pointed out to The Owners that the Milwaukee Brewers, a small market team, just beat the Tampa Bay Rays, another small market team, and won the World Series… the reporter who asked the question will be beaten to death with their diamond tipped canes.
NOV. 20: The Tender Trap
The tender deadline, sometimes called the
non-tender deadline, like it matters, is when the teams offer contracts to the their
arbitration eligible players. Generally these numbers will be turned down and
the players submit their own numbers representing what they think they are
worth.
This sets up the possibility of arbitration hearings where the club seeks to denigrate the players they hope will play hard for them next season.
They do this by using statistics to prove that the player isn’t any good because he always swings for the fences and strikes out way too much conveniently ignoring the fact that it was the team encouraged him to approach At Bats that way.
The most interesting offers will be to Clark Schmidt because he’s always hurt, Anthony Volpe, (Because he’s elite if the definition of elite now means he sucks) Austin Wells and Helliot Ramos. Maybe Ramos should be paying them.
December 1st The Lockout Begins
The current CBA expires at 11:59. That’s it for baseball until the two sides decide to come to an equitable agreement.
On the players side you have men who have worked their entire lives to perfect skills that have both a huge market value and a limited window to cash in before age and injury end their careers.
On the owners side you have robber barons and nepo babies who will be billionaires whether baseball exists or not and whose boundless greed and hubris and lack of caring about the national treasure that they find themselves stewards of are willing to destroy the game and any goodwill in the communities they syphon tax dollars from, for the sake of throwing more money on a pile so large they couldn’t spend it in one hundred lifetimes.
A Legitimate Lockout Question
If you hire someone and you signed a contract and he shows up for work and you decide not to let him in the building but there is a signed contract, why don’t you owe him the money?
He came ready to work. You both signed the contract. You can’t just change your mind. I mean you could decide not to do the job or hire someone else or even fire the guy. But since there would be no cause… why don’t you own him the money?
The Most Important Date - Sixty Games Missed
From MLB Trade Rumors:
“... a key cutoff point will be if the lockout extends long enough to cancel at least 60 games of the 2027 season.
If that comes to pass, the league
would still be paid for 2027 as part of their national media deals. However,
most of those deals would tack on another year for the broadcasters.
The deals currently expire after 2028 but would push to 2029 if at least 60 games are missed in 2027. If the entire 2027 season is missed, the broadcasters would pay no fees at all for 2029. If a partial season is played, the networks would pay some fees. The specifics of a partial season fee aren’t mentioned but it is referred to as a “bargain rate” in the piece. The fees would presumably be relative to how much of the 2027 season is played.”
In other words, after sixty games lost, the owners start to lose money.
Hey, those diamond tipped canes don’t pay for themselves.
Posts
22 comments:
"Last year Cashman trying to be too clever by half decided to give Trent Grisham $22 million dollars to stay for the extra year. He looked at Grisham’s numbers and figured he wouldn’t take it because he could do much better in the open market and the Yankees would get a free draft pick."
See, I'm not sure why anyone thinks that. Seems like Doug is not alone in thinking that. A lot of people seem to think that was what Cashman was thinking.
I think you're giving Cashman too much credit. He wanted to re-sign Grisham, and he would've done it if it took even more money than that. So, actually, I think if Grisham had turned down the qualifying offer, Cashman would've upped the offer. That's how much Cashman values Grisham.
That's because Grisham checks all the boxes for Yankee management. He sucks; he hits barely .200; he costs a lot of money, relative to his production; he hits home runs; he hits a lot of solo home runs; he draws walks; he played a mediocre to barely adequate center field. And did I mention it, he totally sucks overall.
I'm not being facetious. They actually like this type of player. I guess he fits into their risk management plans. He's their ideal player.
Cashman might re-sign Grisham again this winter. If there is no lockout, I'm sure it will happen. But the impending labor dispute, coupled with Grisham's inability to stay healthy, might mitigate against it.
Grisham got a lot of bad press this year, with all the injuries and ineffectiveness and bad defense. In a vacuum, I think Cashman would retain Grisham for sure, but the bad press/bad public relations might make him reconsider.
Besides the risk management, that's one other goal that they always consider here. Whether it'll look really bad, how much bad press they might get, etc.
So, if there's no lockout, I think Grisham's coming back. 99% sure of it. If there's a lockout, then everything's up in the air. The new collective bargaining agreement will pretty much dictate how Yankee management moves. If everything stays pretty much the same, Grisham will be back. If there is huge upheaval, then maybe not.
I would be very wary of re-signing David Bednar. He's at the age where he might fall off a cliff any year. Yes, he just had a really great year. Maybe he'll have one more good year. Maybe not. Maybe he'll have several good years. But it's not a good bet. Get younger. Make a trade.
They had a chance to get a real good free agent closer Josh Hader. They didn't do it. If you didn't make an offer for Hader back then, why make an offer for Bednar now?
Terrific, Doug! And everyone should definitely "read more": Doug's description of the two sides in this is perfect. Also, all very funny, particularly describing Grisham at the window...
BUT...you got one thing wrong. This is actually Brian Cashman's 29th year as GM, not his 20th.
A mere 20 years of The Brain at the helm takes us back to the halcyon days of 2017, when the world was young, and life was mellow. Ah, the hopes we had then!
Hammer, I agree about Grisham. At the very least, Cash thought he would get another year of Grish's "peak" performance, and after that, he could evaluate him about a longer term deal...never mind that Grisham's career year was wholly unacceptable, despite all the solo, un-clutch home runs.
I can't believe that Grisham would get a serious offer from anyone else this year...but yes, it's entirely possible that Cashie might play "hard ball" and sign him for a couple mill or so. Still an utter waste of money, but he'll make out that it's a bargain.
But this is why we're forced to analyze potential moves in two completely different ways. (1) There's the rational method where you assume that the GM is actually trying to win. (2) And then there's what Cashman does, which is risk management, money management. Most of the time, these two are completely at odds with one another. Which is how you get things happening like the qualifying offer for Grisham last year. The never ending presence of Stanton. The terrible roster construction. The terrible manager. The terrible coaching staff. And I'm sure that all the things we don't see are terrible too: the scouting, the analytics staff, the medical and training staff, the nutritional staff, everything.
Fixed. Thanks.
And I agree about Bednar. These days, who is NOT a closer? Well, Devin Williams, of course, but that's so much blood under the bridge.
They should negotiate with him, but to just fling $23 mill at him? Not a good idea.
And yes, missing out on Hader! Yet another, gobsmackingly stupid Cashman move. Not to mention letting Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes go for nothing.
Very true, Hammer! That's why I maintain that Hal—through Cashman—is playing the long game. He doesn't WANT to build an actual dynasty; that means spending even more money down the road.
He's quite content with this: contend every year, maybe take a division title or two. Sure, some year he may blunder into a World Series, but that's all the better to keep the suckers hanging on (see, "Knicks, The").
A team like the late '90s dynasty, liable to win year after year after year? Fuhgeddaboutit!
Hey Hoss - Twenty years from 2027 is 2007 not 2017. Hah!!!! We both suck at math.
As to the season. Soon it's going to rain. I can feel it. Soon it's going to rain. I can tell. soon it's going to rain. What are we going to do?
It seems to me contradictory to allege that the ballplayers have 'perfected their skills' and so (the implication is) deserve the paychecks the (I agree) absolutely horrible billionaire owners are reluctant to pay them, and then to note that Trent Grisham is paid $22 million for a year of decidedly imperfect skills.
In other words, while it is completely right to hate the the billionaire owners for their massive contributions to the ruination of the game, it seems a bit silly to do so by implying that the players should be made incomprehensibly wealthy, regardless of their ability to play the game and entertain the audience.
The truth is that none of this makes any sense in a decent world: no one, neither the entertainers on the field nor the people who control the sport, should be awash in the money that we all (happily?) provide.
Grisham was a massive overpay. But if he is bad it's because he is worse in relation to the other MLB players.
He is still one of the best 600? 800? Baseball players in the world.
His earning window is small compared to non sports careers. If someone (Cough. Cashman.) was stupid enough to give him that kind of money he should and did totally take it.
All pro athletes sit at the top of a pyramid that starts in T-Ball or Pop Warner or wherever.
They are one knee, arm, ligament, back issue away from having all their years, all their training, all their blood and sweat, go Poof!.
That's the risk they take.
But, with great risk in a popular entertainment form that generates billions in revenue should come great reward.
Not sure why they're one knee, arm etc issue away from their years of training going poof!? Jacob Elsbury was paid $21 million a year for two years in which he didn't play a single game.
I'm with what Hoss has been saying for months - blow up the whole thing. And thanks, Doug, for the incisive post.
Great post, Doug.
Fwiw, I am willing to not play on any team for under one million dollars. In the unlikely event I have to play, I get a million per game.
randcoop is carrying water for billionaires. He's a simp or a shill for ownership. MLB is a multi billion dollar enterprise, but apparently the people who create MLB, the players, shouldn't be enriched for their excellence? Waaa! I wanna go see the Rolling Stones but I only want to pay $1 for front row seats! Waaa! I wanna go see the new blockbuster movie, but I want the actors and crew to work for free because I only to pay 0.25 cents! Waaa! I want to drive a Mercedes, but I only want to pay $250. Bust the unions and put the auto workers on slave wages. Waaa!
randcoop sounds like HAL.
Fucking simp.
Doug K., this year Grisham was bad compared to himself in 2025. 2025 was a banner year for Grisham and his mustache. His best year ever. This year he stank up the joint. Especially his fielding. Ouuff. He could have stunk at the plate if he ran down fly balls like Devon White.
I should have said Paul Blair, instead of Devon White despite White's prodigiousfielding ability. Blair won about 60 or 70 Gold Gloves (I don't rightfully rcall right now; I'm loaded up with cough syrup) and 4 championships, 2 of which were with the Yankees in 1977 and 1978.
This post was deleted because I will not tolerate any speaking out against Labor.
I am a saucy bitch with administrative powers!
Post a Comment