Friday, June 24, 2016

Do You Realize?

In my continuing attempt to forget about how bad the New York Yankees are doing this season, I took a look at the team's payroll for next season. And one interesting thing led to another. But let's start with a few facts...

  1. Between Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman, Ivan Nova, and the money the team was paying towards Martin Prado's contract, the Yankees will free up $56.55 million. 
  2. If you take the $150.5 million the team will pay towards player contracts next season (that number includes Sabathia's vesting option), and add around $35 million in arbitration and pre-arbitration salaries, the Yankees will have a payroll of around $185.5 million for 2017.
  3. The current MLB salary cap, or the amount a team can spend towards payroll before having to pay the luxury tax, is $189 million. Even if the luxury tax remains in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, chances are that cap will rise, and I can easily see it reaching $200 million. That would mean the Yankees have about $14 million to spend next year, assuming they'll try to get under the tax threshold.

So where would that leave the Yankees for 2017?

"It doesn't look good down there."

With Teixeira out at first, the Yankees have a number of options... Greg Bird, Rob Refsnyder, Chris Parmelee, Austin Romine, and Brian McCann.

With Beltran out of right field, the Yankees have just as many options... Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Rob Refsnyder, Jake Cave, and Ben Gamel.

Every other position on the diamond, including the starting rotation and bullpen, are filled. Yeah, it may not seem right, seeing as how the team is losing two of it's regular batters, but it's true. Take a look for yourself...

Catcher: Brian McCann
First Base: Greg Bird/Rob Refsnyder/Chris Parmelee/Austin Romine
Second Base: Starlin Castro
Shortstop: Didi Gregorius
Third Base: Chase Headley
Left Field: Brett Gardner
Center Field: Jacoby Ellsbury
Right Field: Aaron Judge/Aaron Hicks/Rob Refsnyder/Jack Cave/Ben Gamel
Designated Hitter: Alex Rodriguez

Starters: Masahiro Tanaka, Nathan Eovaldi, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Chad Green, James Kaprielian

Bullpen: Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Bryan Mitchell, etc. (they can easily fill the four other spots with players within the organization)

Some people may be concerned about that list of starting pitchers, but let's be honest...

Masahiro Tanaka is a strong starter at the top of the rotation, I still believe Eovaldi can be a solid middle of the rotation option, CC Sabathia has finally learned how to pitch without the velocity he had earlier in his career, Luis Severino is doing quite well in AAA, Chad Green has been killing it in Scranton, and despite his injury James Kaprielian could still be a nice contributor at the big league level next year.

Now for the even crazier part...

Okay, it's not "Gary Busey" crazy.

That all means the Yankees could actually re-sign Aroldis Chapman, keep the three-headed bullpen monster together for at least two more years, and still get under the luxury tax threshold. Assuming, of course, Chapman would sign for somewhere around his current salary of $11.325 million a year.

Or how about trading Andrew Miller, who would fetch quite a bit in a trade (either before the deadline or during the offseason) thanks to his below-market salary and being under contract for two more years? Then the Yankees could re-sign Chapman. That would leave three very capable bullpen arms in Chapman, Betances, and Mitchell. Not to mention the team would be under the cap by around $7 million going into the 2017 season.

If you want to see the finished product that I'm speaking of, here you go...

Catcher: Brian McCann
First Base: Greg Bird/Rob Refsnyder/Chris Parmelee/Austin Romine
Second Base: Starlin Castro
Shortstop: Didi Gregorius
Third Base: Chase Headley
Left Field: Brett Gardner
Center Field: Jacoby Ellsbury
Right Field: Aaron Judge/Aaron Hicks/Rob Refsnyder/Jack Cave/Ben Gamel

Starters: Masahiro Tanaka, Nathan Eovaldi, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Chad Green, James Kaprielian

Bullpen: Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Bryan Mitchell, etc. (they can easily fill the four other spots with players within the organization)

The best part... that does not include the player or players the team gets by dealing away Andrew Miller.

14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks, Benny.

      And dare I say it?

      Brian Cashman and the Yankees front office has done a good job in setting this team up for the future. This would be thanks to having capable players at each position, and enough money being freed up in the next couple of years, to create a killer team soon.

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    2. Great thinking and well written Bryan, you are a true thinking Yankee baseball fan of the first order!

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  2. If thats the same team as this year good luck with that. The Yanks will finish just where they will this year 3rd or 4th

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps you should read a bit closer before getting all pessimistic.

      A new first baseman, a new right fielder, at least one new starter, and whatever the team gets for trading Andrew Miller.

      Not to mention that with Beltran gone, that allows the team to give McCann more DH at bats, and perhaps Gary Sanchez some MLB playing time.

      But I shouldn't get in the way of you bashing the team. Besides, you haven't called Brian Cashman "elf" yet.

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    2. Nice Bryan. Nothing wrong with optimism. But one big caveat- we have yet to see a promotion from Scranton to the Bronx outside of a laundry list of injuries, 2 slaughtered lambs, and 3 acts of God. It hasn't been their M.O.of course, it can change and I would love for you to be right. the MO has been to fetch reclamation projects that have big league experience, and we are batting the mendoza line with such a process.

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    3. You're right, Daryl. Counting on the Yankees to do what we feel is the right is really hard when you see their track record. But the organization we're watching now is not the same one from even a few years ago.

      When it comes to prospects, keep in mind that Hal and Co. clearly care about how much money they're spending, and playing "kids" is WAY cheaper than any reclamation project.

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    4. You're on a roll Bryan, keep it going!
      The twins will come around after they see the team playing well in 2017/18.
      As it is now, where would any of the players some fans want to bring up play? Sanchez, Judge perhaps the most ready players, have nowhere to play...yet!

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    5. Bryan you think being optimistic makes you a real fan, you're quite wrong. Some of us see the big picture that you fail to see. Like Levin said we are the only ones that voice our displeasure with the elf. You apparently accept mediocrity. I on the other accept putting your best effort forward and doing it right and this mansgement team doesn't understand the right way. I would hope you do your job better than they do theirs? I'm cut from a different cloth then you are. I will not accept failure or mediocrity. You and others on here obviously deem mediocrity acceptable.

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    6. That's your problem...

      You think you know what's best and trash anyone that disagrees. You can't accept that you may be wrong.

      Furthermore, you'd rather bash the team and its management, including the use of childish name calling, than root for any of them.

      Are there things that need to, or should, be fixed? Absolutely! That's true of pretty much everything. But that doesn't mean you have to be a hateful person.

      Lastly, people can protest what they love without being so damn hateful when doing so.

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    7. I believe other individual that use to frequent this site feels the same way about you as I do. You think you know everything. I state facts. I forgot more about baseball then you will ever know. I'm curious to see what level you played the game at. Did you get past little league or Jr High ball or HS or college or just a pencil pusher?

      Trust me kid you want to go there I'll be more than happy to go there. Your statements lack credence and facts. You blow it out your ass.

      If someone doesn't agree with your slander and insults then we're are out of line. Keep it up I'm always ready for a good laugh from your posts

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  3. I think it is about time for you, Ken Hans, to tell the blog how much experience you have playing the game.
    You are always acting as though you have played the game very well and we (the humble commenters) have never played the game nor do we know anything about the game.
    One need not play the game at a high level or even played at all to know a lot about the game.
    Myself, I played the game in high school and college (full ride), in the Army and Sand lot for many, many years and was very good at it! I also learned (in person) from some of the best Yankee players of the 50s/60s.
    I honestly don't think a person that knows a lot about the game would call a damn good major league short stop "Dumb" just because he makes a mistake...mistakes are called errors in baseball and everyone makes them.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)