Yanks Offseason, Pt. 1
Right now, they will most likely they will perform their due diligence, both on the team, the system, and the market. As of now, they hold the 22nd pick in next year's draft -- which could go higher if teams in front of them sign arb eligible free agents. They should hold onto that pick like grim death, for a few reasons. First, they still need to add talent to their farm, second, first round picks pump ups bonus pools, and third, since this will be the second and last year of their IFA austerity punishment, they might want to go big in the June draft, so they should go in with all the ammo they can. That way, they can go back to topping off the IFA market the following year, while they deal with minor draft penalties. We'll see.
Two years ago at their organizational meetings, they decided to sign 3 over 30 free agents and the cost of their 3 first round draft picks, and that has been an unmitigated disaster so far and will be an financial fiasco by the time those players come off the books.
Beyond that, they do have prospects who'll be sought after in trades, but the Yanks should be trying to sell as many of their over 30's as they can. So we'll see what happens there.
They also have to either have a strong talk with their manager about his propensity to play every game like it's the 7th game of the world series and thus destroy his bullpen every year, and also about segmenting the season into areas where they can start breaking in more of the farm ready talent. And if he doesn't want to change, they need to move on, to someone they can trust with pitchers and prospects.
Down on the farm, they will probably continue their rolling rebuild, as they already have to find a new manager for at least Scranton, and who knows where else.
Should be interesting.
posted by Kalel9 @ 3:41 PM
16 Comments:
A conflicting strategy tends to lead to sub optimal results. As long as that's what the goal is this will never be a very well-run franchise almost no matter who is in charge.
It is kind of strange that Levine was able to annunciate plan that Cashman was unwilling or unable to put forth
Cashman is pretty cagey at this time of year. Remember "Bubba Crosby is my Centerfielder?" "Erique Wilson is my third baseman?"
Phil, your paragraph about Girardi is spot-on. He has to change, period.
I'll post more thoughts when I'm not at work.
Cashman has a completely different public persona since the Crosby days, and he has much more of a track record, and most of it is underwhelming.
But I am not referring to caginess, I'm talking about defending a vision.
Levine talked about the necessity of getting younger while praising Severino, Bird, Eovaldi, and Refsndyer, while Cashman is still all too willing to point out Refsnyer's shortcomings in his attempt to defend continuing to play Drew.
The odd thing is that the Drew part was irrelevant to the question because it was about using Refsndyer earlier in the season in a platoon, and that part was occupied by Ryan, who is actually worse than Drew. Yet he never mentioned Ryan.
Cashman also defended his horrendous manager when Kay asked him the same thing you did, why did he treat every game in September as a 7th game.
So really, I think Cashman has lost a lot of his former candor, while surprisingly Levine was kind of forthright given who he is.
Girardi treats every game of the season like the 7th game. Torre used to do it, too. Kills pens.
Also, Cash has turned down trades for Refsnyder, and one of the biggest questions Girardi must answer, along with why did he fuck with Warren, is why did he fuck with Refsnyder. The Yanks would have been a better team in the second half with Warren in the rotation and Refs at second and it's not close.
This comment has been removed by the author.
The above post got messed up so I'm deleting it and reposting
He also made it pretty clear he wanted to trade for Zobrist, but they were just asking too much He called Refsnyder and Ackley a floor at second base, unless he could upgrade the position So it's hardly a rave
On a positive note, Kay asked him whether there was any truth to the smear, my word, about Refsnyder!s attitude. He categorically denied it.
Wouldn't expect anything else out of Cashman's mouth about Refsnyder.
Do people really think he would confirm the rumors? Of course not....
Have you ever heard of a non-denial denial?
To the contrary, he was emphatic.
Your comment points to the real danger of a smear. Even if it is refuted, some will always find a reason to think it's true.
Interesting that they used Kay to get that out, given the history between Francesca and YES. It remains possible that they were also trying to boost his trade value, but I hope they were just playing this straight.
I agree with you
I have read all these defenses of Girardi, from Cashman, or the media, or some fans. From my perspective, what did he do that any person off the baseball street couldn't do? I want a manager who thinks outside the box; whose primary baseball mission isn't to be popular with the veterans.
Ii has been pretty obvious for over a month that a lot of guys had nothing left, particularly Gardner, Ellsbury, McCann, and A-Rod
Slade showed a live bat and was good earlier in the season. For the last couple of months Murphy brought more to the table than McCann. We have all talked about how long they buried Refs, even using September 1 as the start point. Ackley could have been a good DH.
What did we keep hearing from Girardi with regard to his precious veterans: I have to get these guys going.
Cashman says he wishes he could've gone into the playoffs with the team they had a couple of months ago, but that's kind of a ridiculous statement because part of success in baseball is being able to endure the marathon for six months, and he knows that.
So the next best thing would have been to utilize every young option that could have possibly re-energized the team and both failed, because they didn't have the guts to sit declining veterans when there was still time to right the ship.
Will we have to watch the same movie over again next year? I sincerely hope not.
And as an aside, why do people who killed Torre's bullpen management, and rightly so, defend this manager who destroyed two relievers?
This cant be good news.
To give up a draft pick as well for him as CWS will certainly extend the qualifying offer to him.
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/25332728/yankees-likely-to-pursue-free-agent-jeff-samardzija-this-winter
Given his crappy season, would he be pegged as a free agent that would cost a pick in the first place? I agree there's no way they should if he is going to cost them their first-rounder.
I don't believe that Cashman is dumb enough to give up a 1 for a guy with a almost a 5 ERA, even though he has admitted being willing to give up top prospects for him when he was on the Cubs.
On a one year deal, no compensation, ok, maybe he can be "fixed."
If not, it would be beyond stupid.
I just checked, Boras isn't his agent, so it isn't the usual Heyman pimping.
My biggest fear, beyond a trade of prospects, is a multi-year contract for Zobrist, who will be 35 next year. My next fear is a trade for Prado, who would then likely block Refs.
Rather than double down on age, they should put all of it on the bench.
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