The Boston Red Sox pulled a George Steinbrenner’s New York
Yankees move when the team bought up the top hitting free agents on the market
in Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. Looking at the market now, especially for
the left side of the infield, New York may be almost forced to make a trade to
compete. If Chase Headley decides to sign somewhere other than New York then
the Yankees would truly be in trouble and may be forced to either gut the farm
or miss the postseason for a third straight season.
After Headley the most enticing third base options are Mark
Reynolds, Alberto Callaspo and Kelly Johnson. I would take a flyer on Reynolds
but for the others I would give a very emphatic “no thank you.” Shortstop is
not much better as the best available right now are Jed Lowrie, Stephen Drew
and Asdrubal Cabrera. Lowrie is going to take advantage of a weak market to get
way too much money for way too many years while Drew takes a pillow contract
for one season. Cabrera is basically a second baseman at this point in his
career although I’m sure Yankees fans wouldn’t notice his lack of range after
watching Derek Jeter run around at age 40 last season.
Enter the Chicago Cubs who have Starlin Castro, Addison
Russell, Javier Baez and others along with the Arizona Diamondbacks who have
Didi Gregorious, Jake Lamb, Brandon Drury, Chris Owings and others. You can
always throw in the Philadelphia Phillies willingness to trade Jimmy Rollins
and Chicago’s willingness to move Alexei Ramirez into the fold for the Yankees
as well. The problem for New York? Boston has a huge stable of major league
ready prospects and established major league players, Yoenis Cespedes for
example, that could be had without mortgaging the future prospects wise or
money wise. Boston can have any player that they want, and that is available
obviously, and could swoop in and steal any potential player in a trade that
the Yankees could be targeting. Could you imagine Troy Tulowitzki in Fenway
Park in 2015?
Boston has made things extremely difficult for the Yankees
and this is going to be the first offseason in a long time that Yankees GM
Brian Cashman is going to have to use his brain and not his checkbook to make
the team better. Stay tuned and damn you Boston!
Without gutting the farm, the Yankees have 2 options and 2 options only. First option, sign Yoan Moncado for whatever it takes. He's only 19, so he might have to start in the minors. Enter Stephen Drew on a pillow contract. If Moncado proves ready, release either Drew or Ryan. Second option, take a flyer on the Korean shortstop. Every other shortstop option is either worse than what we have, or will set our farm system back another five years minimum. Every GM knows how desperate our situation is. Even a second tier shortstop will cost us twice what it should in prospects. Forget about trades.
ReplyDeleteYou are one smart guy, and on the mark Jeff!
DeleteWe always have to pay more than other teams, for a player we want.
Agreed Jeff. Unless someone else pops up pretty quickly this will be the last notable IFA we can sign for two seasons, we almost NEED him. Even if we have to suffer through another mediocre season in 2015 at least we can see a light at the end of the tunnel with guys like Moncada just a year or two away.
DeleteAlso I will say we could, and should, stop gap with that Korean shortstop (Kang? Jang? can't remember). The free agent market for shortstops sucks, let's be honest here, and it sucks next season and probably the season after that too. The farm system sucks in the higher levels when it comes to SS prospects and probably will next season too.... can you say veteran stopgap?
ReplyDeleteIn steps Drew for a year or two! We have three or four SS a few years away, we can have Yoan a year or less away. Yoan is the best option for the future of the left side. He comes in and plays SS in 2015-1/2 and then for a year or two until the kids are ready, he then moves over to 3rd. This is a NO Brainer in my book.
DeleteDamn it Hal, let it be done and right now! After all, it is only money not players/draft picks in return!
Sorry Jeff, I just about said the same thing down a comment or two. Didn't remember that you had already written the same thing I just did. LOL
DeleteI agree we def. need both of the Yoan's.
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