Here we stand on the final day of January and on the final
day before we kick off Prospects Month and I don’t quite know how to feel. The
Yankees have had a successful winter in some minds, they did acquire Aroldis
Chapman for essentially very little and they did acquire Starlin Castro is a
bit of a buy-low situation, but to some the winter has been a failure. The
Yankees have not done much to address their starting pitching rotation and the
team, surprisingly to some even though Brian Cashman revealed his plan early
on, has not signed a single free agent this winter. New York is in fact the
only team to not sign a major league free agent this winter.
Times be a changin’, no? In years past the Yankees would
have not only signed the top free agent pitcher David Price and positional
player Jason Heyward but they would have likely also signed Zack Greinke as
well as Ben Zobrist. That’s a lot to feel nostalgic about but at the same time
the Yankees would have likely traded Luis Severino by now as well as Robert
Refsnyder, Aaron Judge, Jorge Mateo and Gary Sanchez as well.
The Yankees made additions to the ball club without breaking
the bank or really adding much payroll whatsoever. They did it via trade and
they traded other not-so-useful contracts like Brendan Ryan in those deals to
offset a bit of the salary. It’s a new strategy we haven’t seen used in New
York, at least not in my lifetime, and I think I kind of like it. Sure I love
sitting by my computer constantly refreshing MLB Trade Rumors like the next guy
but I also hate mortgaging the future and giving a guy an extra year or a few
million dollars too much just because the team is bidding against themselves.
It’s a new era in New York and it’s a new era in Major
League Baseball. I wonder what the league will do to counteract this in their
next collective bargaining agreement. Maybe a fine for not signing free agents
now? Seems like something Bud Selig would do so thank goodness for Rob Manfred.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)