Over five years, Oswaldo - a rare Yankee bencher to achieve first-name status - played every defensive position but catcher. In his career, he batted .232 with 20 HRs, but his beacon smile long ago won over MLB's toughest crowd.
To the Yankee scouting machinery, he never recovered from last year's gruesome broken ankle, the result of a hard slide at home in the 9th inning of a tie-game. While teammates winced, Oswaldo asked if was called safe? (He was, and he beamed, while being carted off.)
And now he's gone, like so many others whose time with the Yankees began with unlimited hope and ended with empty questions of what could have been. We all know their names. Clint Frazier. Estevan Florial. Slade Heathcott... The list goes on, and it's painful.
They arrived with the gleeful promise of youth. They left, still in their 20s, desperately seeking to salvage their dreams. Even now, seeing their names, I wish for them the best. Is Clint still doing the podcast? Is Estevan in Japan. Is Slade flying planes? There was a time when, in need of something - anything - hopeful, I foresaw them hitting 30 HRs or winning a batting title. Their grand futures would lift me from the pit.
But Oswaldo was special. No matter what happened, he never seemed to lose hope. Before the broken ankle, he seemed on course to take over 3B. After the injury, they traded for Ryan McMahon, ending Oswaldo's path. But his smile never wilted, even when the Yankees sent him to Scranton for what would become nearly the entire 2026 season. (He played three games with Yankees this year, going 0-9.)
I don't think Oswaldo is done. He's had a good year in Scranton - 19 HRs, .288. Hopefully, he will hook up with a team that is not Boston, Tampa, Toronto or the Mets. Others have salvaged their careers. Oswald Peraza. Thairo Estrada. Miguel Andujar. It ain't over 'till it's over.
Considering the wave of prospects who came and went, it's worth asking why Oswaldo became so popular. He even teamed with J.C. Escarra for a hokey car insurance commercial. Why would such a company invest in such minor players? I think it's simple. It was the honest smile. Oswaldo was the kid who wakes up Christmas morning, finds shit under the tree and yells, "There must be a pony."
This week, the Mets suffered an iconic embarrassment, when their home crowd wildly cheered a home run by Pete Alonso, their former slugger.
I can imagine Yankee fans doing the same with Oswaldo, maybe next year. If he comes up, if he smiles to the crowd - well - who would root against him?
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22 comments:
Well, this surely won't come back to bite the Yankees in their nethers!
It's probably the best thing that could possibly happen to Oswaldo's career. Getting released from the Scranton limbo, that is. Biting the Yankees' nethers sounds unpleasant for all concerned.
I liked that guy, even as much as the Pharaoh. Gonna miss him if only for the vibes.
Fucking Cashman.
Cashman has no soul. Boone has no brain. Hal has no heart. We need a Dorothy.
Well-stated, Duque. I was a big Oswaldo fan. Really sorry to see him go.
A nice young man, and I do wish him well.
in truth he was a 26th man type and his absence is meaningless.
The new player agreement could increase the roster sizes.
And hey, expansion is coming, it will no doubt be dangled in front of the players as a negotiation point. If he can hang on a few years he can be playing 3b for the Nashville Cats or whatever the fuck they will be called.
Mr. Positivity!
So we got McMahon instead of Oswaldo. Has McMahon been any better than Oswaldo? Even if Oswaldo played like crap, he'd have been hard pressed to make as many errors as McMahon.
I never got it with the Swiss Army Knife theory of development. Why does everyone have to play everywhere? How much does that negatively affect the player's offense? It's got to be a huge negative. Playing defense everywhere, practicing defense for all those positions constantly, how can that not reduce your offensive output? They should've put Oswaldo at one or two positions. 3B probably, and just left him there. Maybe, at most, the corners, 3B and 1B.
If Oswaldo had been playing first base instead of Rizzo in that fateful 5th inning of the last World Series game of 2024, things might've been different. Oswaldo makes that play easily, runs to the bag himself, and that's that.
Speaking of the Artful Dodgers, I heard that they just clinched their 13th division title in 14 years. During that span, they've won three World Series titles, right?
Management there is doing things right, unlike here with the Yankees, who are mired in mediocrity and bullshit. The Yankees have only one World Series win during the last quarter century. Think about that.
Oswaldo getting released is bullshit. There are a dozen release candidates who should've been canned/tanked ahead of him. One Giancarlo Stanton for one. There's a bullpen lugnut on the roster right now who shouldn't even be here, he sucks so bad (I forget his name).
Lots of guys go to play in Japan now. So maybe Oswaldo will go to the Land of the Rising Sun and have himself a stellar career.
Courtesy Deep Purple:
Fly into the rising sun
Faces smiling, every one
Yeah, she is a whole new tradition
Ow! I feel it in my heart
My woman from To-K-Yo
She makes me see
My woman from To-K-Yo
She's so good to me ...
But I'm at home and I, I just don't belong
So far away from the garden we love
She is what moves in the soul of a dove
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Soon I shall see just how black was my night
When we're alone in her city of light
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Umm, I still have 500 of those Pharaoh headdresses in a warehouse in the Bronx, JM. Just in case you're interested.
Right on the money, Bitty. And I'd settle for some flying monkeys to cart off those three.
Or...yes, I'm going to bring it up again...TJ Rumfield at first. The man who, last I looked, is over. 300 in Colorado. If he had been at first, we might possibly have won that World Series.
As for multiple positions...I dunno, Hammer. A lot of Yanks did that in the 1950s, under Stengel, and it seemed to work. Gil McDougald made all-star teams as a second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman. Elston Howard often played left before he was able to budge Berra from behind the plate. I would think it often keeps guys involved and interested.
Right you are, Hammer. And the Bums probably would have won more Series, save that they kept insisting on overworking Clay Kershaw during the regular season.
Well said, Duque! And the list of useful, discarded Yankees here doesn't even include Ezequiel Duran, Caleb Durbin, or Brigadoon Refsnyder. As many have noted here, we would have been better off keeping Oswaldo and getting rid of McMahon.
But of course, that speaks to the hear of the Yankees' dysfunction. McMahon starts because he makes more money. It's the stupidest business practice in history: if you've overpaid some bum, double down on your mistake and keep him in his important position.
No wonder the Steinbrenner shipbuilding company went belly-up.
Off topic, but about minor league baseball. Another reason why baseball is getting destroyed....
Minor League Baseball has always been built around local owners, quirky promotions and ballparks that each have their own personality.
That’s changing fast.
Diamond Baseball Holdings, backed by investment giant Silver Lake, now owns 49 of the 120 affiliated Minor League Baseball teams, or roughly 41% of the entire system. The company has gone from nine announced purchases in late 2021 to owning teams from Albuquerque to Brooklyn, including Triple-A clubs like the Charlotte Knights.
And apparently, they aren’t done shopping. 👀
CEO Peter Freund recently told Front Office Sports that DBH is interested in “any or all” of the remaining teams. There’s just one small problem: MLB currently allows an ownership group to control a maximum of 50 affiliated teams, meaning DBH has room for exactly one more.
But the bigger plan goes well beyond baseball.
DBH is using its size to centralize sponsorships, merchandise, ticketing and other operations, while also looking at the real estate surrounding its ballparks. The goal is to turn stadiums that host baseball for roughly 70 days a year into properties generating revenue 365 days a year.
What started as a wild Minor League Baseball buying spree has turned into one of the strangest ownership roll-ups in American sports. And DBH now owns nearly half the league.
Hoss, you and I are in lockstep regarding Rumfield. He was a long term answer at 1B that conflicted with some of the team’s core beliefs, i.e. that defense at 1b is secondary to power, and wasn’t a “name” player.
McMahon was an awful deal. He is under contract for another 16M (11.66 ATC) next season. Statistically, he is the worst everyday player in MLB.
Of course what next season will be is impossible to predict,
Interesting Ranger, I wonder what they will do with that influence?
I think I saw something that says Oswaldo Cabrera was picked up by the Cinci Reds. Good for him!
And I just saw some real bad news: Judge is on the 10 day DL with the leg issue. Ten days. That pretty much does it for his year, eh? I mean he could come back, but how is he going to get ready for the playoffs?
Rumfield is over 300 in Colorade and Meredith is pushing 300 in New York.
I will miss that happy face, the contagion he created playing the game like a kid. That energy is the juice sorely needed in NY.
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