We're about to be subjected to weeks—maybe even months—of talk about how what they really planned to do all along was to "super-charge" the bullpen, or go after Blake Snell, or old friend Monty.
Don't believe the hype.
Look, there is a perfectly reasonable argument to be made that Yoshinobu Yamamoto was too untested a commodity to be given such an enormous contract, and that the Yankees would have been better off using that sort of money—or a fraction thereof—to invest in two or three or four pitchers, or maybe trade Vertigo on and sign Clay Bellinger.
Think Josh Hader's or Snell's or Monty's agents would have sneered at, say, a really good offer for 3-5 years? I don't. But they will now. Everything the Yankees allegedly want or need will cost much, much more—if they can get it at all.
The truth is that the Yankees didn't put their "real" plan into effect because there was no real plan. There never is. Only a plan to pretend to chase the top names, so that a fan base they think of as unsatisfiable and irrational will stop hocking their chinik for two minutes.
There is no great scheme in place to develop more players from the minors, or pluck off the best, underrated free agents. Everything is seat-of-the-pants, everything is just hoping for the best like a little child, then trying to figure out the next, dog-ate-my-homework excuse.
This is why Aaron Judge ended up taking them for so much money, because HAL and Bri would not or could not think seriously a year or two in advance about whether they wanted to keep him or not. It's why, if our noodnik down at second, Gleyber Torres, has any kind of passable performance this season, he, too, will hold them up for much more than he's worth.
Someday, I suppose, we'll find out what Yoshinobu Yamamoto wanted when he set up a second appointment with the Yankees. For now, the mystery galls and grates. Was it yet another case of a star offering the Yanks a discount, as we now know that Carlos Beltran, Manny Machado, and Bryce Harper all did? Could they have been so stupid as to pass—again?
It won't really matter by that time, of course. If we're not long dead, the Yankees will be.
Just remember: there is no plan, there never was a plan. There is only a grubby little man chasing after Prince Hal of the Shipwreck Steinbrenners, trying always to save him as much as possible of the money that Hal believes in his bones that he earned, but that in fact came entirely from all of us.
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15 comments:
Frankie Montas?
only silver lining with all this...from Yanksgoyard.com..Yamaoto's last 3 postseason starts:
2022 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 4K
2023 7.o IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 9K
2023 5.0 IP, 7H, 4 ER, 6 K
who am I kidding though, wish we signed him
Lol, Kershaw seems like a Cashole move to me, another past his prime little to no gas left in the tank kinda guy.
Amen, Horace....100% true. Or as the Talking Heads would say: "Same as it ever was".
"You may find yourself rooting for a fourth-place team that is barely over .500
You may find yourself sitting in a constantly shrinking stadium with a huge black cube in centerfield.
You may say to yourself
This is not my beautiful house
This is not my beautiful team!
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground..."
Given that the Yankees break ballplayers like breadsticks, putting all the remaining money in the hands of one guy who will play every 5 days is like throwing a hail Mary pass with your eyes closed. Yankees have Cole and Schmitt. Rodon will spend the next 5 years going from the medical room to the IL list to the training room and back again.
Better to bring in 3-4 more quality pitchers like Monty. Durable. Guys that win with craft, baseball smarts, a fine selection of pitches and guile to mix them well. Preferably guys with a personal trainer and the wisdom to stay away from the Yankee training and conditioning staff.
Montas? Please don't. Whoever recommended trading for him should have been fired 3 weeks after the trade, along with whoever read his medical report. He'll join Rodon in the medical room and never be heard from again.
Happy holidays everyone.
I prefer Plan C....sell the team!
But that's not what they'll do either, Doctor T.
Well played!
Hoss, you're nailin' it, as always!
And this is why the Soto pickup was a bad move. Hey, I have to admit that I too was kind of glad that we finally have a good hitter to pair with Judge. But all those pitchers that we gave up for Soto? It'll be all for nothin' when he walks away after 2024. Three guys who could've, would've, should've started for us in 2024 are now gone. Plus a good prospect (who doesn't throw hard, and Yankee management thinks anyone who don't throw hard is no good, which is pretty stupid).
We coulda, woulda, shoulda just kept those pitchers here and then signed Soto as a free agent in 2025. And of course there's no guarantee that he would've signed here in 2025, but I'm tellin' ya'll, after the horror show here in 2024, Soto will be moto-ing outta here.
2024 is lookin' to be another lost year. So what was the Soto trade for? Stupid, real stoopid.
Just like Hoss tells it. There is no fucking plan whatsoever in the Yankee front office. They do whatever the hell they feel like doing, whenever the hell they feel like doing it.
"Someday, I suppose, we'll find out what Yoshinobu Yamamoto wanted when he set up a second appointment with the Yankees. For now, the mystery galls and grates."
Well, that, I don't think there's much mystery. He must've gotten an offer from the Dodgers, say, 225 Mil. Then he came to NYC to see Steve Cohen, who must've offered 100 mil more than the Dodgers, like he said he would, raising it to 325 Mil. Then he rang HAL's doorbell, or met at the graveyard like we talked about, and HAL did NOT top the offers. At most, he only matched. Then Yamamoto went back to the Dodgers and got them to match the 325 Mil. In the end, it don't matter. He was going to the Dodgers, must've been his first (and only) choice from the start.
"The truth is that the Yankees didn't put their "real" plan into effect because there was no real plan. There never is. Only a plan to pretend to chase the top names, so that a fan base they think of as unsatisfiable and irrational will stop hocking their chinik for two minutes.There is no great scheme in place to develop more players from the minors, or pluck off the best, underrated free agents. Everything is seat-of-the-pants, everything is just hoping for the best like a little child, then trying to figure out the next, dog-ate-my-homework excuse."
WOW, Hoss, that part is worth repeating over and over. And we should, for our part, educate the Yankee fans out there that this is the Yankee front office's grand design, figuring out the next dog-ate-my homework excuse. All of this whilst raking in money & avoiding taxes. Winning is not on HAL's priority list, that's for sure.
Thanks, Hammer! And yeah, I was all for acquiring Soto, too, because I figure there HAD to be a second shoe, right? Surely they know they can quickly sign the guy for years to come AND fill up the hole they ripped in the pitching. Right?
Wrong. And I probably shouldn't call it a con. It was much more witless than a con. It was more like a panicked impulse buy, with zero thought as to how to follow up on it. It was as if Old George had said, "All right, I'll sign Reggie, but only if I can trade Guidry and Figueroa for him!"
It makes no sense, and it will make even less sense as the Yanks stand by over the next few weeks and let Hader, Snell, Monty, and every other decent, free-agent pitcher sign elsewhere.
This year's blunders were truly monumental, another sign that HAL and The Brain don't really think anything exists outside of their tangled little folie a deux. We're all best off backing quietly away while they go on to implode.
"a grubby little man chasing after Prince Hal of the Shipwreck Steinbrenners, trying always to save him as much as possible of the money that Hal believes in his bones that he earned, but that in fact came entirely from all of us"
Amen.
I agree, Carl. Plan C is the only plan worth talking about. Sell.
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