Friday, December 2, 2016

Four Yankiverse-shaking events that could happen next week

The winter meetings (pictured right) start Monday. By next Friday, assuming we're not at war, I predict the Yankiverse will be buzzing over four cataclysmic events.

1. The trading of Gardy. Let's face it: Deals are the Calgon Bath Oil Beads of the meetings. Everybody covets one. And for us, either Gardy or Jacoby Ellsbury simply must go. They are identical clones, and neither is what he was three years ago. Yeah, Gardy won a Gold Glove, but that's because he's a CF playing in left, where most teams stash their defensive buffoons. I can't fathom what we'll get for Gardy, but if it's two nobodies like Chad Green and Luis Cessa, whom we snagged last winter, I'll take it. Still, pardon my tears next summer when Gardy first appears in an enemy jersey. He is my favorite Yankee, and it hurts to think he will soon be gone.

(By the way, my negative tone is to reflect the depth of the black hole into which the Yankees have flown over the last four years. Make no mistake: If our big prospects fail, or - worse - we don't show the patience to let them evolve as players, this could be the worst period in Yankee history. Think about that, next time some 19-year-old expert extols the brilliance of our ownership: The. Worst. Period. In. Yankee. History.)  

2. The big losses from the Rule 5 draft. I think the super-serious Yankee blogs are sugarcoating this: We are about to get plundered. We will surely lose Jake Cave, a promising OF with Scranton. We'll lose a good pitching prospect. We could lose some of the lesser players we received in last July's rebuild. It's possible some team could reach down and grab Luis Torrens, a 20-year-old catcher with enormous potential; two years ago, before he got hurt, he was one of our biggest hopes. We should brace ourselves for a brutal draft day. Last year, two of the first three picks came from our system. This year, I suspect it will be worse.

3. A free agent signing, maybe two. Not sure how quickly things will brew. But by now, Aroldis Chapman, Rich Hill and Carlos Beltran must have a good sense of their future homes. The Yanks have "made inquiries" on all three. I don't know what the hell that means. It's been two years since we bid on a big ticket bucket, and the crosstown Mets just shelled out Fred Wilpon's left testicle for Humanis Centepedes. By next week, we should know where Fallow Hal is going.

4. The out-of-nowhere, unpredictable, nothing-for-nothing Cashman deal. Whether it's trading Tyler Clippard for Jessica Alba - (wait, make that Jonathan Albaladejo) - or dealing Vincente Campos for Tyler Clippard, the Yankee GM always cuts a nobody-for-nothing transaction, just for the Calgon Bath Oil Beads instant pleasure of proving he's alive. Sometimes, they work. Sometimes, they don't. I'm thinking Rob Refsnyder. You heard it here first. 

15 comments:

Der Kaiser said...

What if we bundle all the to-be-plundered prospects together, along with say $100 million, could we use that to trade Ellsbury for a 36-year old middle reliever in his walk year? It would feel a lot better than trading Gardner.

JM said...

I like that, Kaiser. Although that would mean that other prospects would then be plundered, I guess.

No way out...no way out...no way out...

Just please, Gods of Baseball, not Beltran again.

Anonymous said...

HERE WE GO...... I AM WAITING FOR US TO MAKE OUR DISASTROUS BIG FREE AGENT PURGE....CARLOS BELTRAN, AND RICH HILL, SORRY TO SAY, IN MY OPINION, WILL BE BUSTS...AND THEY WILL BE BUSTS TO THE COMBINED FIGURE OF ABOUT $45 - $55 MILLION,(OR MORE IF WE ARE DUMB ENOUGH TO GIVE BELTRAN A 2ND YEAR)..... WE NEVER GET THE RIGHT PLAYERS ANYMORE...(CASHMAN'S FAULT).... PROBLEM IS, THE LAST BUNCH OF YEARS, WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE "BARGAIN"....(HAL'S FAULT)....THE FUNNY PART IS WE WASTE SO MANY MILLIONS GETTING THE WRONG GUYS FOR OUR NEEDS (ELLSBURY, STEPHEN DREW, CHRIS CAPUANO, AND CHASE HEADLEY TOTALED $215 MILLION)....INSTEAD OF BUYING AND KEEPING THE RIGHT GUYS (MAX SCHERZER AND MARTIN PRADO) WHO ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE MADE OUR TEAM MUCH BETTER, WHILE KEEPING THE TEAM PAYROLL ABOUT THE SAME!....PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH.... CASHMAN GETS BIG BLAME HERE....

KD said...

I think you guys are really more afraid of the deal Cash may offer for Beltran than you are of Beltran himself.

One year only at DH for a cost that will not hurt if he needs to be released for nonproduction (as Soriano). (NOT Youk money! that was so fucking stupid. I'll never get over seeing that redsockian reprobate lionized in a yuge poster on the side of The Stadium.)

If Cash gives more than one year, I'll also join the anti-Beltran movement.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Thoughts:

1) Jacoby Ellsbury is signed through 2020.

2) His contract was $153 million over 7 years.

3) At a shade under $22MM per year, that means the Yanks still owe him $88MM for 2017 through 2020.

4) No team in the world would presently give Ellsbury a 4-year contract that begins in 2017 for $88MM.

5) However, would a team give Ellsbury a 4-year $44MM contract, where he'll end the last season at 37? Maybe.

To me the path is this:

1) Have a kind of reverse auction where the Yanks keep lowering Ellsbury's acquisition price until someone buys. I.e., offer enough cash to induce someone to pick up the remainder of Ellsbury's years where they acquiring team pays whatever portion the Yanks don't pay.

2) No prospects would be given up.

3) No prospects would be given up.

4) The Yanks have cash and this would play to that strength.

5) Some payroll relief would be achieved.

6) A lesson about expensive long-term contracts might be learned.

Apart from hubris and egos, why wouldn't the Yanks just do this?


Local Bargain Jerk said...


Sorry, Number 3 above should be "No draft picks would be given up."

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Sorry again. I left out another: 7) Get some low-level prospects in exchange to help save some amount of corporate face.

el duque said...

Mr. Jerk,

I'm with you on this. Eat Ellsbury's money, trade him to Seattle (his home), put Brett in CF and find a LF from a) Mason Williams, b) Aaron Hicks, c) Rob Refsnyder, d) Clint Frazier, e) Yourn Amehere.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Not to finesse this too much, and assuming the new CBA allows it, also throw in the following:

8) If the acquiring team makes the WS in any year between 2017 and 2020 where Ellsbury plays in 135 games and hits some BA like .290+, Yanks are refunded $3MM (or some amount). The acquiring team shouldn't care about this, they'll be enjoying enhanced merchandise, TV and licensing fees as a result of their WS win.

9) If the low-level prospect(s) acquired in #7 above ever suit up for a MLB game, Yanks pay an additional $1MM.

Obviously #8 protects the Yanks against the rare chance that Ellsbury's career trajectory defies expectation, and #9 protects the other team in case they accidentally give up player of value. Think of these as a hedge against the unexpected on both sides.

Anonymous said...

is it me, or does reince priebus remind one an awful lot of cashmoney?

Anonymous said...

......I JUST READ THE LATEST FROM CASHMAN, AND IT IS MORE DOUBLE TALK, AND RIDDLES....... HE IS NOW SAYING THE YANKEE BRASS HAS TO "UNDERSTAND" THE NEW CBA BEFORE THEY CAN SIGN ANYONE....AND THE "DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS"........ I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS SHIT..... ARE WE GOING TO SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING AGAIN AFTER THAT SHIT SHOW OF A SEASON WE HAD LAST YEAR?....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?...... EVERYONE ELSE (INCLUDING THE METS), SEEMS TO BE DOING SOMETHING.......I AM CALLING YANKEE HEADQUARTERS....EVEN IF I TALK TO A FUCKING ANSWERING MACHINE..... MY ANGER IS PERHAPS AT IT'S APEX WITH THIS FUCKING SHIT.....WE STILL DON'T HAVE A CLEANUP HITTER, AND THERE WERE SOME GOOD ONES AVAILABLE......CASHMAN IS HUMPING BUILDINGS WHILE PUTTING BUSINESS ON THE BACK BURNER......WE YANKEE FANS HAVE TO REVOLT....

Sad 42-year old said...

I played LF in high school!

el duque said...

You must have been a slugging powerhouse.

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