We didn't know it, but he was the incarnate fulfillment of Cooperstown Cashman's lifelong dream. He was Cashman's self-described "Great White Whale," a search that has consumed the GM's career, from Kei Igawa to Sonny Gray, from Javier Vasquez to Michael Pineda, from Jeff Weaver to - gulp - Carlos Rodon? In this millennium, the Yankees have gone through a generation of would-be Cy Youngs, searching for an Eovaldi, for a lockdown October ace, after letting Eovaldi slide through their fingers, so they could keep Ivan Nova.
Eovaldi is the one that got away.
He pitched for the Yankees in 2025-26, going 14-3 in his first year, leading the AL in winning percentage. He was a workhorse, throwing 154 innings. The next season, he tweaked an elbow into his 125th inning, leading to Tommy John surgery, and the Yankees cut bait.
They have regretted it ever since.
Eovaldi has two World Series rings - with Texas and, grr, Boston - a 9-1 postseason record, two All-Star games, and 105 wins - with a big game reputation and a warhorse mentality, while treating the Yankees like a pair of reusable Depends. It led to yesterday's shutout, which was as predictable as David Wells' gout.
All who have lived through the Great Yankee Drought - now into its 17th year without a ring - knew that Eovaldi yesterday would shut us down. But we didn't anticipate that he would plunk the Martian, maybe fracture his elbow, and sink the good vibes of Jasson Dominguez's return from Scranton, only hours after the team released OF Randal Grichuk.
Listen: These things don't happen randomly. They slow-cook on a cosmic burner, quietly bubbling through the efforts of hateful, minimum-wage juju gods, who are cringey, obese chain smokers with bad acne and sciatica, and who are not allowed, by law, to live near elementary schools. They have mistreated the Yankees for 16 also-ran seasons. You might have thought that, at age 36, Eovaldi's cursed arm would run out of gas. But you cannot throw away the Babadook. It just keeps returning.
Somewhere out there, in Albert Einstein's vast infundibulum of space and time, there is a wondrous Yankee paradise where the team kept Nathan Eovaldi, and has now won multiple world championships. In this place, the Dodgers are no longer the apex predator. But that's not here. This is the world of Chance Adams and Justice Sheffield. This is the era of Domingo German and J.A. Happ. This is the time of the Babadook, and - damn - apparently, he's not done.
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18 comments:
I wasn't in favor of the Yanks jettisoning Eovaldi, but like all of us, I had no say in the decision. And of course, the one that was made was a bad one. I still can't figure it out. TJ surgery wasn't some new or dodgy procedure back then, and pichers came back from it. Many regained their form, some didn't. But they always came back.
The Yankee brainstrust has no brains.
And I have no trust in whatever they are using in place of brains
Remember that popular slogan:
There is an A but no I in Cashman
A profound observation.
Reuters:
The New York Yankees, armed with archaic breechloading flintlock muskets and bayonets, under the command of Commander Aaron Ba-Boone were soundly defeated, nay, routed by the Texas Rangers, who were armed with modern M-4 carbines and a grenade hurler known as Nathan Eovaldi. The most interesting part of the battle consisted of the Yankees performing an odd dance as they attempted to douse the flames on their burning tail feathers, which were lit up by Texas Rangers tracer fire. Yes, the New York Yankees once again lived up to their nickname the Battlin' Bronx Bastards!
I once had a bruised elbow. Took 6 months for it to get near 100%. Took a full year to get to 100%. Bone bruises can be almost as bad as fractures.
We fantasize about what Eovaldi might've been if we'd kept him after the surgery. (And I thought back then that we might as well keep him.) But let's remember that he didn't become really great until he went to Boston, where he learned how to pitch. Their coaching turned him into an ace (and a champion). He never would've been an ace (or a champion) for the Yankees. They don't teach guys how to pitch here. That's the difference.
15-love, Hammer.
This all comes down to Cashman.
End stop.
Period.
This is Brian’s team.
I love Brian Piccolo.
I love pickled garlic and jalapeños
X-rays taken at Globe Life Field were “inconclusive,” according to the outfielder, who said he will undergo a CT scan on Thursday in New York .A trip to the IL is assured. Is it too late to cancel Grichuk’s Uber?
I believe that they have a week wrt Grichuck to change mind...
The Yankees still cannot touch Eovaldi. A Baseball thing. Why is Spent Grishom and his .150 batting average leading off?????
Keefe on Grisham:
“ His on-base percentage is down to .298, and yet, there’s no end in sight of him batting leadoff ahead of Rice and Judge. Why not just move Rice and Judge each up one place in the lineup? That makes too much sense for someone as dense, stubborn and clueless as Aaron Boone. The idea that the Yankees are giving the most possible plate appearances to Grisham and his .610 OPS is rather ridiculous”
He certainly is our Babadook. And it was certainly wrong for Cashman—yet again!—to get rid of a player like this with nothing in return.
Buuuut...
Eovaldi has also been sort of the pitching equivalent of Giancarlo Stanton. Missed all of 2017 with injury. And for all of his big game heroics, there were always years like his 2019 in Boston: 12 starts, 2-1 record, 5.99 ERA.
It was six years without double digits in wins for him, between those 14 for us in 2015, and 11 for Boston in 2021. The guys is annoying as hell to face—but he's also not particularly reliable.
Dominguez was moving his arm forward to start his swing, and the 89 mph cutter caught his elbow flush. He was not moving his arm out of the way; he moved into the pitch. Since his arm was moving forward, the collision was probably the equivalent of a 100 mph fastball. Dominguez says his elbow started swelling afterward, which is obviously a very bad sign. I'd be surprised if it's not fractured.
When the x-rays were "inconclusive", that too is a bad sign. Usually, if there's no fracture, the x-rays will come out clean, definitely negative. Inconclusive means there might be something there that will show on more definitive CT scans.
If you look at Eovaldi's career path, he seemed to be getting better with the Yankees, but blew out his elbow, had surgery. Then he showed up in Boston and developed, was great, won a championship, if I recall correctly. Then he went to the Texas Rangers, where he became even better, and won another championship. He's probably getting close to being washed up now, certainly on the way down, so that means Cashman might entertain obnoxious ideas about bringing him back. You know Cashman loves to bring guys back for seconds and thirds.
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