Earlier this morning on the blog we took a look at the
complete list of 161 MLB free agents for the 2018 season so now begins the
process for every team, especially the New York Yankees, to “get greedy” and sign
up some of these free agents. We have the list in hand so let’s take a look at
it and see if any of these players will and should fit into the Yankees plans
here in 2018.
We will start high here and then taper off I guess as there
are quite a few notable bullpen additions that the New York Yankees could
conceivably look at this winter. Greg Holland declined his 2018 option with the
Colorado Rockies, Wade Davis is a free agent with the Chicago Cubs, Brandon
Kintzler was an All-Star with the Minnesota Twins before being shipped away
prior to the deadline and is now hitting free agency and there are a couple
notable left-handed arms as well. The two arms I would like the Yankees to take
a long and hard look at, because let’s be real… none of the names I mentioned
above are coming to the Bronx with the plethora of former closers and arms the
Yankees pen already has, are left-handers Tony Watson and Oliver Perez. Perez
would obviously be a Plan B or even a Plan C, I may trust Chasen Shreve and
company more at this point than Perez although I do realize that Perez could be
a useful LOOGY, but Watson has been on my radar for a long, long time. Watson
is a tough left-handed arm that spent time recently with the Los Angeles
Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates and is an arm that would fill an area of
need for New York, the LOOGY position. I doubt Watson would command a terrible amount
in terms of years and dollars as well which only helps the Yankees case to sign
him.
New York went into last season with a full-time DH in Matt
Holliday and a part-time first baseman in Chris Carter and there is no reason
to believe that the team couldn’t do that with at least one of those positions
again here in 2018. Now the options on the free agent market aren’t all that
appealing to be honest with names like Jay Bruce, Pedro Alvarez and Carlos
Santana out there but I truly believe at least two of these options could be
better than either Holiday or Carter were in 2017. Although I will admit I am
leaning towards not filling the DH position and letting a rotation of
outfielders fill the slot all season long if New York can sign a big-time free agent,
but more on that later.
Finally, the Yankees may look at adding a starting pitcher
this winter. Obviously, it is highly unlikely that the team will do so after
Masahiro Tanaka decided to not opt-out of his contract, but I would be remiss
if I didn’t at least mention the fact that Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish are free
agents at the time of this writing. The Yankees have a lot of star power in
Japan already with Tanaka and their presumable pursuit of Shohei Otani will
only add to that, but could you imagine a rotation with both them and Darvish?
It would be insanity in Japan and everyone in the country would be wearing
Yankees apparel, oh and the Yankees would be good as well. Is it unlikely?
Sure, the Yankees may only add Otani and that’s it, but the team should at
least go through the motions and check in with both Darvish and Arrieta. That’s
a general manager’s job after all, now get greedy! Bring me somebody!
Great points. I am one to say let’s get greedy.
ReplyDeleteWon’t go in to detail here but have a nice post on the way.