Hey, before I go any further, I should make it clear that this was not something the pixieish Harper volunteered. SNY asked if Harper had to name three, "Black Friday," BARGAIN pick-ups for the Mets and Yankees, who would he choose.
Stuck with those parameters—and I don't know about you, but I HATE it when my parameters get stuck, particularly going up a hill—Harper's picks seem quite reasonable.
The problem here isn't the puckish Harper or SNY. It's that Brian Cashman probably has had something like this in mind all along, ever since the last pitch of the 2023 season. For all we know, he may have been watching this broadcast from the comfortable slumber of his leather couch and jumped up, spilling his turkey leftover sandwich everywhere.
"That was gonna be my big surprise!" he cried. "That's EXACTLY what we need!"
Lord help us...no.
All three of these guys are classic Cashman pick-ups.
Both are also in their thirties—Pham will be 36 next March—and both are slowly, inevitably declining, as players will. Pham has a reputation of being a hard-nosed hustler—mostly because he blasted the Mets' work habits last year—but it's also worth noting that he's been on 7 different teams in the last 8 seasons, indicating that just maybe he's the problem?
The third recommendation from the leprechaunish Harper, Alex Reyes, is from Elizabeth, NJ, which is nice. And Reyes has long been a classic Cashman dumpster dive: a one-time, top prospect,
who has shown flashes of brilliance in his brief major-league career, but has been sidelined already, at 29, by TJ surgery and another, serious shoulder injury. Harper thinks he could be had for a mere bag-a-shells, as that great thespian, Ralph Kramden, would say, and might be back by August to contribute.
Whoop-de-do!
Hey, look, I get the thought experiment. And if the Yanks were otherwise all set, any one—or all three—of these guys might make three easy pieces to complete the championship puzzle.
But that's not the case—and what I worry about instead is that Brian the Brain looks upon a trifecta like this as just the ticket to take our minds off what promises to be yet another, epic off-season fail.
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9 comments:
We are caught between a rock and a hard place, Horace.
If the Yankees pick their way through the usual outlet stores and Goodwill bargain bins, we get another year of same old, same old.
If, on the other hand, The Intern stands pat, citing miraculous turnarounds by several of the more inept candy-stripers (you know who I'm talking about - the list is endless), then we get more of the same old, same old. Only OLDER.
I sat in front of my TV yesterday watching the championship-caliber New York Jets, laughing at the absurdity of it all. Over the last 50 years, nobody has invented more ways to lose than the Jets. What a team. What a year.
Only 80 more days til pitchers and catchers. Give or take. Then the real fun begins.
@ DickAllen, Indeed, only the Jets could miss an extra point after an interception return for touchdown and then throw up a terrible Hail Mary that doesn't even make it into the endzone for an interception 99 yard return for touchdown. Thank God I only watch the highlights (lowlights) now. They showed a Jet receiver doing the postgame interview and he basically said he was at a loss for words. Enough said.
I think the best thing for the Yankees to just sign Yamamoto and bolster the starting staff.
2024 will be a lost year, so they should shoot for 2025 and 2026. Forget all these free agent bats. They should've got Joc Pederson after he won the World Series with the Dodgers. That time has loooooonnnnngggggg passed. Forget Pederson, Bellinger, Kiermeyer, all of these guys.
I would just throw Florial out there in CF. Play the kids, see what happens in 2024.
There's too much damage been done by Jackass Cashman to try to fix in one winter.
I kinda sorta agree with you, Hammer. A big F/A name or 2 won’t really change anything. Playing the kids probably won’t either, but who knows? But the business model of the team is to sign “stars” to put asses in the seats, so I suppose they will sign somebody, but be assured Steinmucker already has a budget in mind and cashman and co know all about it.
At some point the whole thing will blow up and cashman, boone, and some other execs will be gone, but that doesn’t mean things will get better. Wait until the back end of the Cole, Rodon, Judge contracts come back to bite us…
I think you're right, DickAllen, and more's the pity.
Of course my prediction that this would, somehow, be the Jets' year has proven comically wrongheaded—as do most of my predictions—but weirdly enough, their sheer awfulness might still win them the back pages title.
If so, someone should take it to the press—a sure sign of how interest in the Yankees has shrunk. Even a bad team falling apart outdoes them.
Hammer, 999, I dunno. I think they should sign everybody they can get, and go all out to see if they can win at least one ring before those back ends of Judge's and Cole's contracts you mention come due. I would go after not only Yamamoto, but also Bellinger, Soto, and that Japanese reliever someone was mentioning. But I'm not holding my breath.
I wish the business model of the team WAS to sign stars—too often, it's not. And i don't expect it to change this year.
I have no idea what is best for this off-season the thought of wasting another prime year of Judge and Cole fills me with dread but I can't see how you improve this team with the bloated contracts we already have on the books.
I guess my not knowing what to do puts me in line for getting a job in the Yankees front office as the wallopers there also do not seem to know what to do either
I predict a couple of players (injury-prone prone of course) in the age 34-36 year-old variety being signed and being told by the lickspittles in the press what a genius *stealth* move it is by Cashaman
Maybe this Stanton guy has an "accident" of some sort, or is determined to have a debilitating "injury" that keeps him off the roster. And injury like, I dunno, his eye-hand coordination is shot.
Not that somebody should shoot him. That would be, you know, illegal-like.
Pederson is perfect for the imperfect Yankees' lineup. Homerun or striekout! Another .230 hitter in the Yankees' batting order. Mike Fishman: hey Cash, the analytics tell me that Pederman, no that was the guy on Seinfeld, Pederson will work out just fine.
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