Results, From The Winter Meetings So Far...

 

As the Yankees tamp down expectations, Braden Shewmake could be ready to bloom

Last night, with nothing better to do - (a foot of snow outside!) - I doom-scrolled the Yankee 40-man. 

I did this, so you needn't. I don't recommend such activities. It's like a day trip to Utica: Things you cannot un-see, mysteries you cannot solve.

I found Braden Shewmake.

Yes, Braden Shewmake. He's a 28-year-old infielder who toiled last year in Scranton, hitting .244 with 4 HRs. With Anthony Volpe on the mend, Shewmake is arguably one tweaked gonad from being Opening Day SS. 

I don't mean to pick on The Shew. He's a former first-rounder - (the Yankees love them) - who has played 31 MLB games, with 1 HR and a .118 BA. He bats LH. He's from Texas. His jersey number is "89." In 2022, he ranked fifth on the Braves' prospect list. Downhill, ever since.

With a due respect, when I see a fellow like Shewmake on our 40-man, it makes me ponder the gravitas of the Yankee system. Right now, our depth chart looks as thick as a coat of Windex. (Again, I don't wish to malign the guy; he stole 15 bases last year; speedster?) 

Apparently, the Yankees will protect Shewmake in next week's Rule 5 draft. It's part of Cooperstown Cashman's intricate game of 3D chess. We should breathe easier, knowing the Yankees cannot lose Shew. Right? Show of hands? Uh-huh... 

Lately, all we hear from the Brain Trust is how Food Stamps Hal doesn't want to spend $300 million on the payroll, and the Yankees are already tailgating that number. Last month, when Trent Grisham accepted their $22 million, one-year qualifying offer, Cashman quickly assured us that all was going to plan. He resembled a waiter who just dropped a platter of clams, and shouts, "I meant to do that!"

The Yankees appear to be stepping back from bidding wars on Kyle Tucker and/or Cody Bellinger. Meanwhile, they're talking about trading The Martian and/or Spencer Jones. 

If they're seeking to reduce expectations, they're doing a great job. 

So, sleep easier, folks! Outside, it's a white-out. But next week, in the Rule 5, we're on course to keep Shewmake. 

Apparently, some Yank fans are angry that Devin Williams is a Met. Actually, we should be celebrating.

One of the most heartbreaking moments of my life was the episode of LASSIE, where our hero is presumed lost - gone for good - and the family grieves to remember him. Timmy can't handle it. He runs to his bedroom, flings himself onto the pillows and cries his eyes out. (I'm weeping now, just remembering.) As Timmy rages against God, screaming a Hellish torment known only to Prometheus and Pete Hegseth, from far, far off, he detects a sound. (Woof.) Then, it happens again. (Woof.) Timmy raises himself, blinks. (Woof.) Could it be? It can't be. But it is! Lassie's back! Lassie's alive! Lassie hasn't left us! GLORY TO THE WORLD! WE ARE WHOLE AGAIN!

This is not how NYC should react to the news that Devin Williams is staying.

As everyone surely knows, Williams recently signed a three-year contract with the Mets, for $51 million, or $17 million per season. Seventeen million.

Yesterday, the newly christened lifetime New Yorker went on social media to answer the angry words he has been reading on social media. 

“For a bunch of people that didn’t want me back on your team," he posted, "y’all sure are mad in the DMs.”

FWIW: I did not want Williams back. And I am not mad.

Nope. I am not perturbed, flummoxed or dismayed, though I must admit to being slightly flabbergasted, almost to the point of discombobulation. Yep, I am a tiny bit gobsmacked, but not in a bad way. In fact, I believe I speak for the Yankiverse in saying, "Meh." We should wish Williams the best, as he seeks to find whatever it was that eluded him throughout all of 2025.

In Williams, the Mets have purchased a vast bouquet of red flags. For starters, he is 31, the most transitional age for a professional athlete since his gonads drop. Hitting 31 affects the jock in the way that puberty does the church choir's best soprano.

Last year, after six great seasons in Milwaukee - a career ERA of 1.83 - he shat the bed. His ERA as a Yankee: 4.79. He lost the closer role and was given better platoon matchups. Didn't help. Now and then, he'd pitch a scoreless inning, to be hailed by the YES team as if Lassie had bounded in from the bullpen. Then, he would fail again.

Listen: If you want to rant - (and we all do) - let's not confuse Williams with Juan Soto, who lapped up every morsel of Yankee fan love and then pissed on us, all for a few extra thin dimes.(He loves only gold... only gold.) Soto turned out to be so pathetic that he actually blamed a security guard for his leaving. There's a special dung heap in Hell for Soto, and we should scrape his name off the bottom of our shoes. He should never hear the cheers of Old Timers Day.

But holding anything against Williams? I say, Meh.

Yeah, last year, he sucked. He squandered our trust. Maybe he'll figure out what happened and correct it. In fact, I bet he throws a perfect inning now and then, prompting the Mets broadcast booth to yell that LASSIE IS BACK!

But I donno. I bet Williams signed with the Mets because his family wanted to stay in NY, his kids are in school, and the Yankees simply didn't make an offer. To Cooperstown Cashman, he simply represents a deal gone bad.

(Woof?)

"It feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees, right?”

Re: THE MATTER OF GRAY, SONNY, V THE CITY OF NEW YORK AND RUDE CABBIES, PIZZA RAT AND INCESSANT MEDIA ASSHOLES... 

Yesterday, Sonny Douglas Gray - aka "Pickles," according to Baseball Reference - addressed the word for the first time since becoming a Boston Redsock.

Make no mistake: Gray is a Redsock, 100 percent, all-in. He has guzzled the Kool-Aid, swallowed the Blue pill, donned the bloody shirt, requested the Grey Poupon. And by the time his 2026 teammates visit Gotham - June 5 - the world will know, once and for all, whether his miserable 2018-19 seasons were due to the mean streets of New York - or the fault of "Pickles," himself.

The accompanying chart shows Gray's rather successful career, with the exception of his time in NY - at ages 27 and 28, peak years for most players. He was one of Cooperstown Cashman's "Great White Whales," ace starters who would win Game One. At the time, the Yankees seemed to pay heavily for him: 

OF Dustin Fowler (played three seasons, a career BA of .215.)

SP James Kaprielian (four years, ERA of 4.61.)

SS Jorge Mateo. (Still going, a defensive fixture in Baltimore, .221.)

You could argue that, in the end, the Yankees didn't give away much. Fowler, Kaprielian and Mateo all showed flashes; Kaprielian looked like the real deal, until he hurt his arm. (Fowler's story was particularly tragic: In the first inning of his first MLB game, he chased a ball into foul territory at Comisky Park and wrecked his knee on an electrical box. Manager Joe Girardi wept as Fowler was carted off the field. He later sued the White Sox and, after a lengthy legal battle, settled out of court. Shades of Moonbeam Graham.) 

Honestly? We've never squared Gray's wretched time in NY. We've never explained his rebound seasons in Cincinnati and St. Louis. Some players - Jason Giambi, Cody Bellinger, et al - seem to be born for NY. (Yet as Giambi showed, the first months can be hard.) Some simply never cut it. Gray is one of the most prominent examples. 

Did we give up on him too soon? (The Yankees eventually traded him for Shed Long.) Or is there something in the NY experience that poisons certain players?

Will the booing of a supercharged rivalry upset Pickles? 

On or about June 5, we'll know.

Toronto signs some Ponce

Fly like an Eagle. To Toronto.

He played in Pittsburgh, he played in Japan, he dominated Korea last year. Can he do the same here? Well, he developed a Yesavage-type curve/changeup/dipsy-doodle before the Korean season by working out with Pittsburgh pal Clay Holmes. It's also reported that he had to learn a new grip to better accommodate his hands, which are bigly. That's a new one. Guess his massive mitts couldn't effectively find their way around a baseball. 

Regardless, his stats from Korea are ridiculous. I think the article said a 1.79 ERA. Of course, it was Korea. So who knows.

But, but, but...this potentially gives Toronto a pretty solid six-man rotation. While we'll have three guys back from surgery (crapshoots all). Plus Fried, Schlittler and Warren.

It seems so quintessentially Cashman.

Who, of course, has done nothing so far. But I'll give him a break. I mean, we only need a bullpen, a starter or two for if/when the crapshoots turn out crappy (Cole will not be Cole and neither will Rodon), a third baseman who can hit (you know, like the one we traded for Dopey Devin), a real shortstop, a reliable left fielder and a catcher who can hit.

Plenty of time, plenty of time...

YOU have been warned . . .

               2 0 2 6 6 6 

The Hot Stove is upon us. RUN!

The Winter Meetings - baseball's version of a Juggalos gathering - are a week away.

The Mets just signed their first ex-Yank of the postseason.

Cooperstown Cashman is making calls, chasing his newest White Whale.

If you've got any serious drugs - I mean, felony grade, maybe a three-month sleep gel? - now is the time to uncork. According to the Internet, Cashman may be on the verge of his first winter crime against humanity. 

Actually, he started last month by offering Trent Grisham a $22 million contract, and Grish took the hook. That leaves the Yankee outfield in a logjam, with Cashman charged with setting the dynamite. 

Last night, the Mets reacted. They signed last year's biggest Yankee disappointment, Devin Williams, a man whose only achievement was to end the Steinbrenner Beard Ban. They'll have him for three years. I speak for the Yankiverse in saying, "He's all yours!"

Unfortunately, the Yankee bullpen right now looks like that Jersey Giants' place-kicker who last night channeled Anthony Volpe in the world series - whiffing entirely on a field goal attempt. (It's a future NFL classic, almost on par with The Fumble, although - honestly - nothing can beat The Fumble. On the Manning Cast last night, they were practically playing it on a loop. It's for the ages. Google it.) We're so thin that Jake Bird looks like an option, and his Yankee career ERA stands at - lemme get the calculator, hmm -27.00. That's a fine piece a' bombing.

Today, the rumor mills are grinding about a possible Yankee trade with Miami - the people who gave us Giancarlo and Jazz - for Sandy Alcantara, three years passed Cy Young and just one beyond Tommy John. He's 30, finished nicely last season, and the Marlins are ready to deal. He will draw a bidding war of prospects, and it looks as though we will soon learn how coveted Spencer Jones truly is, outside of the Yankee hype bubble. Jones - who resembles a young Joey Gallo - would apparently be the centerpiece of any Yankee deal, though Mephistopheles always lurks in the players named later.     

The Yankee fantasy goes this way: We get Alcantara for Jones and some magic beans version of Jeter Downs. Then we sign Kyle Tucker and keep The Martian as 4th OF. That looks good. Maybe too good. It looks like just the kind of offer that the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies and Boston can beat, as they all have deeper farms. You can't purge your system every August and expect an endless conga line of youth.

Soon, maybe even before the Winter Meetings, Cashman might make his move. It's a crazy feeling right now. The first Nor-Easter is hitting the coast. We're heading into a slow economy. We're actually pondering war crimes. They days are still getting shorter. And the Yankees are just getting started.

Winter's here, and it's time for the 10 Yankee Questions of the Apocalypse

For 16 years now, the great and glorious New York Yankees - in the words of Kurt Vonnegut - have not won doodley squat. 

Sixteen years... 

Epstein's favorite number. 

Longest drought in Yankee history.  

All the way back to 2009, when Trump's Celebrity Apprentice competition was won by Joan Rivers.

Sixteen years. Yet the owner seems more concerned about the rent he pays on Yankee Stadium. 

Maybe the Mets should outbid him and move to the Bronx? The Yankees could move to Tampa and play at Steinbrenner Field. Big savings. 

Time is ticking on the careers of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole.  This upcoming season may be their last, best chance at a trip down the Canyon of Heroes. Yet the owner was lamenting the high payroll. 

I wish IT IS HIGH commenters had been allowed in last week's media Zoom call with Hal Steinbrenner. Here are 10 questions I'd love to hear.

1. Will you ever top the Mets in a toe-to-toe bidding war?

2. Will the Yankees really trade Jasson Dominguez, at age 22?

3. How deeply do you plan to raid your farm system, the team's future, in trades?

4. Are you ready for the Mets, Dodgers, Blue Jays or Redsocks to sign Kyle Tucker?

5. Do the Yankees have a Plan B, in case Anthony Volpe simply fails?

6. Short of him dropping his pants in public, is there anything that would cause the Yankees to fire Aaron Boone?

7.  Is Ben Rice the future catcher or first baseman? Do you plan to decide in 2026?

8. Last year, did we see the best seasons we will ever get from Max Fried and Carlos Rodon?

9. With Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm, can the Yankees ever be a team that manufactures runs, rather than relying on homers?

10. Are you prepared for the Mets to become NYC's premier team?

10 Terrifying Reasons to Dread What's Coming (for the Yankees, anyway)

Damn... 

Today, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed - the glass half-empty, the world off-kilter, the Matrix glitched, the ghosty world around me whispering, "Quiet, quiet, Piggy." 

I look at the Yankees and see the apocalypse.

Armageddon outahere. 

Ten reasons to fear what's coming. in 2025.

1. Owner Hal is already poormouthing about the 2026 Yankee payroll, which will fall well below those of the Dodgers and Mets.

2. That means Cooperstown Cashman must improve the Yankee roster through trades.

3. To do so, Cashman will have to give up the only things other teams covet - the Yankees' best youngish prospects.

4. The Yankees blew up their farm system last August at the trade deadline. They will have a hard time matching other teams' prospect packages.

5. To get anybody of quality, they will have to deal Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, Spencer Jones - maybe even Ben Rice and/or Cam Schlittler. 

6. Of these players, only Jones and Schlittler might be at their peaks as trade chips. Volpe and Dominguez had disappointing seasons in 2025. 

7. For the last three years, Aaron Judge has played relatively full seasons without injuries. Eventually, that luck will run out.

8. Giancarlo Stanton will be 36. He hasn't hit 30 HRs in a season since 2022. He is not getting younger. 

9. There is no guarantee that Gerrit Cole, at 35, will be the same pitcher he was before surgery.

10. The AL East will be baseball's toughest division in 2025. The Redsocks wave of prospects will be peaking, Toronto is here to stay, and one of these years, all that talent in Baltimore will coalesce. 

Mamdani is said to hate the Yankees. NYC is ready to become a Met town. 

The days are still getting shorter. 

THIRD IN A NEW SERIES CALLED: WHEN REAL MEN RAN THE YANKEES – PART 2 – "DA'BOSS"

Always the beloved prankster, here's Hal's Daddy daring Yankees beat reporters to pull his finger 

Mike Tyson says that everybody has a plan until they get socked in the mouth. Brian Cashman has a plan. He should brace for impact.

Last week, while Hal Steinbrenner was publicly poormouthing over the Yankees' 2026 payroll, Boston traded for Sonny Gray, and Toronto signed free agent Dylan Cease. 

It left me recalling a song by John Mellencamp that goes, "It aint the end of the world, but you can see it from here."

Listen: Neither Gray nor Cease is the nuclear bomb that imperils the '26 Yankees. But you can see it from here.

The big punch is coming, and if there's anything to be gleaned from Hal's sad moment with the media this week, it's that the Yankees' plan is to clutch their wallet and wait for the bargains to emerge. 

They are no longer MLB's premier franchise - haven't been for years, and they soon might not even be NYC's - whose bold moves set the winter agenda. Though they still possess perhaps the most lucrative fan base in American sports, they act like your Aunt Prudence, clipping coupons and combing the bargain bins for old 8-tracks of the Guess Who.     

The big fish are the Dodgers and Mets, who will spend whatever it takes to dominate the upcoming free agent winter. Once they are sated, the Yankees will bid with the Phillies, Cubs, Boston, Toronto (and probably still the hungry Mets) - for the leftovers. 

Make no mistake: There are gems to be had. Jiggering the scrap yards has been Brian Cashman's greatest skill as a GM. But his downfall has been in finding that ace pitcher who would lead the Yankees to a world series. 

Don't worry: That pitcher is not Sonny Gray, and it's probably not Dylan Cease. But soon, the Dodgers and Mets will make their moves. The Yankees will bid just enough to come in second. The plan is simple: See what happens.  

Black Friday Special

Thanksgiving is over and it's time to Deck Mel Hall with boughs of holly because it's Hal Steinbrenner's favorite season. No, not the off-season and certainly not the baseball season. Those two cost too much money...  

It's shopping season, and AA and I are kicking it off with a Black Friday Special... 

The CASHmere Sweater

 

Keeping warm during the off-season requires more than a hot stove.

 

Show your fealty to the New York Yankees with this this unisex turtleneck CASHmere sweater, named for 2025 General Manager of the Year Candidate Brian Cashman. 

 

While the playoffs may be a crapshoot there is nothing crappy about this GOAT soft yarn sweater complete with a felt New York Yankees logo patch.

 

Expertly assembled, the CASHmere sweater provides a luxury experience mirroring the team and the man it honors.  

 

·         The Elite Large Pal-Hole™ with ribbed stitching, located at the top of the sweater, is both a tribute to the Yankee infield and offers a perfect way to pull the sweater over your head.

 

·         The Ralph Lauren inspired rib design at the sleeves and neck is an homage to past championships and is stitched together using remnants of older “classic” fabrics hand selected by Mr. Cashman himself.  

 

·         Your purchase Includes a state-of-the-art analytics “How To” guide telling you what days to wear the sweater regardless of the actual temperature.

 

$495 (Pinstriped pants not included.)

Disclosure:

 

Sweater may unravel at inopportune times. Avoid wearing in the month of October. Money from the purchase of the CASHmere sweater will not be used toward operating expenses or appear in any way on the New York Yankees profit/loss statement.

 

Dear Mr. Steinbrenner: At some point, you must stand up to the bully

Dear Madam or Sir,

Didja see what those dirty rotten Mets just went and did? Unbelebable! They traded Brandon Nimmo, a lifetime Met, leaving a big-ass hole in their outfield. Hah. We should start drinking, right?  

Uh, well, why isn't anybody hoisting a grog? Everybody looks a bit stressy, woeful, downcast. It always gets this way when Daddy poormouths - as you did last week - about paying the rent. 

It's the way you've been grumbling lately, while the Mets just grin.   

That hole in their outfield? It won't last long. They might decide to sign Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger, or both. They might just headfirst into bidding wars, and if so, Yank fans have dark fears over how they will end.  

Sir, at some point, you must face off against the schoolyard bully - super-billionaire Stevie Cohen - yep, the guy who kicked your ass last year in the chase for Juan Soto. 

Once again, the Mets may seek to sign one of your main free agent targets. 

It won't do any good to call Cohen and plead prudence, as you've done in the past. He is the pimply eighth-grader who decided your bike belongs in his garage.  Meanwhile, you're the pipsqueak who thinks everybody can get along, if they simply go behind closed doors and divvy up the work force. Nobody needs bidding wars. They should just do what owners always do... collude.

Soon, maybe this week, Cohen is going to declare interest in Tucker and/or Bellinger, and back it up with more money than the Tampa Rays pay in a year. He won't be alone. The Dodgers, Cubs, Phillies and maybe even Boston will join the bidding. 

I can't tell you who to sign. But this business of finishing second in free agent bidding wars needs to end.

Yes, those awful, mean-old, hedge fund billionaires have more money than you. And yes, it's terrible - just terrible! - that the taxpayers of NYC expect you to pay rent on Yankee Stadium. How dare they! Commies! 

Sir, at some point, you must stave off the bully - beat the Mets in a contract war. You must show- (even if it's not true) - that the Yankees are still New York's top team. Right now, that perch is perilous. 

I know you don't want to hear this, but this winter, it's time for you to dig deep... and spend.