Thursday, November 10, 2022

Close your eyes, and it's easy to imagine next year's Yankees as a carbon copy of 2022. That is not necessarily a hopeful image.

Denizens of the Yankiverse are still processing the bleak shards of strategy troweled out to reporters this week by Brian Cashman, our GM-for-Life. 

For example, this chestnut:

"We don't have a right fielder. We don't have a left fielder. I'd always like to improve the pitching. We have some kids pushing in on the infield, so there'll be, I would think, probably a lot of exciting opportunities that could play out next spring in the middle infield."

Basically, everything hinges on Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo. If they stay - tying up about $60 million - next year could look like this: 

DJ LeMahieu 3B
Aaron Judge RF
Anthony Rizzo 1B
Giancarlo Stanton DH
Gleyber Torres 2B
Oswaldo Cabrera LF
Jose Trevino C
Oswald Peraza SS
Harrison Bader CF 

If Judge and Rizzo stay, Food Stamps Hal Steinbrenner will likely call the cards on further free agent spending. Gleyber Torres might be Cashman's best trade chip, as Josh Donaldson will be nearly impossible to move. 

Last year's team won 99 games, mostly before July 1. Sadly, what Yank fans remember is another postseason where nobody produced. 

So we wait on Judge and Rizzo, both of whom probably peaked last season. Even if the fates break our way, it's hard to ignore a sense of disillusionment. We've seen this movie before. It's going to be a long dark winter.

22 comments:

JM said...

It dawned on me yesterday that Cashman's comment, "Nobody in this organization gets fired for results. If the process is good..."

It's not a leap for a shrewd agent to use that against Cashman. "True, my guy didn't have a very good year last year, but his process was good. In fact, the team coaches he worked with remarked on how well he followed the process that was supposed to improve his game. The fact that it didn't work is not my player's fault, so we're asking for $10 more this year. He's an exceptional process follower."

Funny how the guys in charge aren't judged by results but that's exactly how they judge the players. Makes you hate management even more.

Mildred Lopez said...


@JM...

You can bet the whiz-bangers will somehow work "process" into analytics. We'll be seeing pPAR (projected Process Above Replacement) and probably rPAR (results Process Above Replacement) or some such on Baseball Reference within a season or two.

JM said...

We had the best swing angle and some other bullshit stat in baseball. It means nothing, of course.

Doug K. said...

Mildred,

"pPAR (projected Process Above Replacement) and probably rPAR (results Process Above Replacement)"

That is truly great!

Parson Tom said...

hey, so what if the Mets poach Judge? do the Yanks swoop in and snare de Grom?

of course, if they do that de Grom's arm will probably fall off and break into a million little pieces by July ... but it would be briefly satisfying in terms of winter transactions.

Platoni said...

The Yankee long dark winter
That turns into a Higgy spring
That turns into a hopeful summer of overpriced hot dogs and beer
That turns into an oft-repeated Yankee fall

The Turn of the Seasons in Yankeeland. You can bet your savings, your car keys, your house deed on it.

edb said...

Plus, imagine all the stiffs Genius Cashman will bring in.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I know. It's like the obsession with stats such as "BABIP" (Batting Average on Balls In Play). Whenever a player has a high BABIP but a low BA, people write about how "unlucky" he was.

Horse hockey. It's like how people look back on players such as the great Mel Ott, and say his home run total was only so high because he played in the Polo Grounds.

It's true, Ott hit 135 more homers at home than on the road. But his BA was 14 points HIGHER on the road.

In other words, he adjusted to the circumstances he played in. When he played in a park with incredibly short foul lines and an overhanging grandstand, he went for home runs. When he was elsewhere, he hit the ball anyplace he could.

Players today who keep hitting the same way into shifts are not "unlucky." They're not good.

Carl J. Weitz said...

@JM...Already, I couldn't hate management more. Except, of course, if they had nude pictures of my mother.

There's a new metric being employed by MLB next season that involves managers because they, too, have an impact on wins and losses. It's called LDI and the Yankees are certain to lead all of baseball in this measurement. It's an acronym for " Losses Due to Incompetence."

ranger_lp said...

@JimmyEats...Ca$hman said yesterday that Josh is the Yanks 3rd Baseman next year.

He lauded his defense and is offense is better than what he showed last year.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFS

HoraceClarke66 said...

Love LDI, Carl Weitz!

Celerino Sanchez said...

Just remember if the teams tries had, the results don't matter. And it's not a lie if you believe it!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Carl,

You are the cyber-sabr-genius. Unfortunately, the Yankees lead in LDI since the Stick left.

And I promise I'll never release the pictures.

The military has a term for preferring "the process" over results. It's called malicious compliance.

Publius said...

Donaldson will be the Opening Day 3d baseman. DJ will be at first. The Yankees will (probably) sign Judge and Benetendi. And that's it.

Publius said...

Rizzo will be gone. They might sign Carpenter as a lefty power bat.

Publius said...

That's the most optimistic off season scenario. Plenty other worse ones.

ranger_lp said...

Today's roster moves...

11/10/22 LF Tim Locastro elected free agency.
11/10/22 New York Yankees selected the contract of LHP Matt Krook from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
11/10/22 New York Yankees selected the contract of RHP Jhony Brito from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

13bit said...

It’s Groundhog Day every year for Yankee fans.

Hazel Motes said...

Yankees keep brushing aside Florial--in this case, in favor of another meh white guy from another team who is four years older. Quick related question: have the Yankees ever had a manager who is a person of color? It's naive to assume that these kinds of quotas do not enter into personnel decisions.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I hear Krook can cook.

Publius said...

No, Hoss. A scribe asked him. He answered, most convincingly, "I am not a cook."

ranger_lp said...

There was more moves...here's the complete list:

11/10/22 New York Yankees activated RHP Michael King from the 60-day injured list.
11/10/22 LF Tim Locastro elected free agency.
11/10/22 New York Yankees activated RHP Stephen Ridings from the 60-day injured list.
11/10/22 New York Yankees activated RHP Luis Gil from the 60-day injured list.
11/10/22 New York Yankees selected the contract of LHP Matt Krook from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
11/10/22 New York Yankees selected the contract of RHP Jhony Brito from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
11/10/22 New York Yankees selected the contract of RHP Jimmy Cordero from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.