In case it wasn't already clear, the Yankees don't plan to pursue Max Scherzer this offseason.
Team President Randy Levine made sure reporters knew it during a press conference Thursday at NYY Steak, restating the same rhetoric GM Brian Cashman has been for weeks. He said the Yankees are looking to improve themselves before spring training starts, but don't want to do so by spending big bucks.
“The chances of us bringing in a guy for six [years] and $25 million [per year] or over in my opinion is virtually none," Levine told The New York Post's George King. "At the end of the day, you have to be realistic in any organization.’’
The Yankees spent $503 million last winter, so their caution to dish out longterm contracts here is certainly understandable. Their 2013 signings of Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran and Jacoby Ellsbury haven't really worked out so far, and the $275 million they committed to Alex Rodriguez in December of 2007 hasn't proved worthwhile either.
Still, with their current rotation not looking too promising, many are convinced they need a guy like Scherzer in order to contend next year, a notion Levine isn't buying.
“We are out there looking, but it has to be tempered by the reality of the organization," he said. "Looking at our pitching staff, for example, we have two guys (referring to Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia) with a lot of money and we have to build around that."
Tanaka and Sabathia are indeed set to get paid a lot from now through 2016, $44 and $48 million to be exact, respectively. That includes $45 million in 2015 alone, 19 percent of the Yankees' approximately $236 million payroll.
Yet it's tough to think a group comprised of Chris Capuano, David Phelps/Adam Warren and other question marks could lead New York back to the playoffs, necessary as its inexpensiveness may be.
If Cashman says it then maybe, if Levine says it then it must be true unfortunately.
ReplyDelete