The Yankees were supposed to be one of baseball’s premier teams this year, but they haven’t looked the part so far. The club is currently in a tailspin, having lost five in a row to fall to an American League-worst 5-10. Nevertheless, general manager Brian Cashman isn’t panicking. The longtime executive gave votes of confidence to the Yankees’ roster and manager Aaron Boone on Monday, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Cashman indicated the Yankees aren’t going to make any knee-jerk decisions with their roster or in their dugout as a result of their poor start. “That’s the message to our players: ‘We do believe in you,” he said. “We know what you’re capable of. This is a bad stretch, and we’re going to get through this together.” Cashman did admit that owner Hal Steinbrenner is “disappointed” with how the team has performed, but it doesn’t seem as if that will lead to any kind of drastic changes. “I’ve got a lot of trust in the people we have,” Cashman declared.
- Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon began baseball activities Monday, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. Rendon landed on the 10-day injured list April 12 (retroactive to April 11) with a left groin strain, though he won’t return when he’s first eligible on Wednesday. The Angels have used Jose Rojas, Jack Mayfield and Luis Rengifo at third over the past week, but all three have failed to produce. Rojas, who leads the Angels in playing time at the hot corner since Rendon went down, has gotten one hit in 19 plate appearances. Mayfield and Rengifo are a combined 1-for-8.
- Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi has already missed three weeks with a right oblique strain, and a return doesn’t appear imminent. Manager Mike Matheny said Monday that Mondesi is “doing limited control movement” and hasn’t begun taking swings since he went on the IL on March 30. The Royals have gotten off to a surprising 9-5 start without Mondesi, in part because fill-in Nicky Lopez has put up respectable production in his stead, but they surely want last year’s stolen base champ back sooner than later.
- The Rays placed left-hander Ryan Sherriff on the restricted list April 3 when he decided to take time off from the game, but he has returned to the organization, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Sherriff will head to minor league camp in order to get himself back into pitching shape. The 30-year-old has only thrown one-third of an inning for the Rays this season, but he held opposing offenses scoreless over 9 2/3 innings in 2020. Sherriff added another two scoreless frames against the Dodgers in a pair of World Series appearances.
I think when Voit comes back there will be a different feel to the locker room and lineup.
I am curious can a player on the IL 10 or 60 be in the dugout or do they HAVE to be away from the team.
I don’t know the specific answer to this question but injured players very often do exercises on the field before the game so I’d have to guess at the very least they hang out in the clubhouse.
Injured players can be in the dugout, I see it all the time. I think they might need to get permission though.
Thanks, I was almost certain they were allowed to be in the dugout but i couldnt remember when i saw one. I guess maybe with covid they probably restrict it a lot more to reduce chance of spreading.
Boone first.
Players on the IL can be in the dugout. The only time a player can’t be around the team is if they are suspended for any reason. Otherwise it’s OK for them to be there. Chris Sale has been around the team in Boston recently, and appeared on camera during games.
And Pedroia was often seen in the dugout prior to his retirement.
Chris Sale was in the dugout Sunday for Red Sox. I think it would be too tough to monitor otherwise. Suspended players aren’t however.
On opening day or the day after his surgery (I don’t remember which), Voit was in the dugout and on crutches
I don’t think saying the Yankees aren’t premier is correct. They are only 2 weeks into the season and this same thing is happening with other teams. I say wait a few months before making these VERY BOLD predictions.
What do you think?
Well… their pitching really isn’t that good and there are a lot of guys in the lineup with extensive injury histories… so it’s possible this is what they are? They’re probably a good bit better than this when healthy and I saw them as a wildcard favorite, but I thought they headed into the season a little overrated.
All of this Yankee bashing is so premature. Stanton is a notoriously slow starter, his career March/April numbers prove that out. Voit will be back which will be a huge addition to the lineup. Severino will be back which will be a huge boost to the starting rotation. And Britton will likely be back in a month or two. The hitters who are underperforming won’t be as bad for the entire season. So the Yanks will be in the thick of things throughout the season … and I’m obviously not a biased Yankee fan!!
But your Stanton argument falls apart just like his body will by June.
It’s not Yankee bashing it’s realizing the Yankees were overhyped entering the 2021 season. Everyone had the Yankees winning the AL East, TB had loss too much, Toronto was up and coming, my Red Sox were still rebuilding and had question marks at pitching and Baltimore was rebuilding and was afew years away from contending. What the eye test has told us after 2 weeks of baseball is the Yankees may or may n0t be the defacto division winners. We see the Yankees are vulnerable and are a liability defensively, we see the team is station to station, we see the team is dealing with early season injuries and a suspect starting rotation. We see teams are learning how to pitch to Sanchez, Judge, Stanton and see how all 3 continue to deal with nagging injuries. We see Fraizer and Hicks and realize they may have hit their ceiling. We see the rotation after Cole is suspect, even with a return of Severino. Yes, we all know the Yankees won’t be at the bottom of the division at the end of the season, we all know Severino, Britton and Voit will be back. We also know the Red Sox, Rays and Blue Jays are better than expected.
well thought out analysis.
thank you
Your comment about their pitching not being very good is inaccurate as you have to separate starting and relieving……their relief has been top 5, while their starters, other than Cole, have pretty much been 4 inning pitchers which taxes the bullpen and will create problems down the road. Many teams have pitching issues and time will tell if this continues causing changes, or somehow solves itself.
But SP is certainly more important than RP. Bad SP puts the entire pitching staff, as you say, in a situation of stress. And can also put the offense in a bad way.
The Yankees have rarely had an elite or even very good pitching staff under Cashman in the last ten years, save maybe 2018, . The team has always been offense first. They are currently losing because the offense is struggling, specifically not hitting HRs. If the offense continues to struggle, the Yankees will be a bad team. Their pitching will not rescue them.
Rocky7, I think his comment is spot on about the pitching not being very good, Sure it’s the same top 5 bullpen we are accustomed to, but like you said the bullpen is being taxed and can create problems done the road. Besides Cole the rotation is a mess and there is no Tanaka, Paxton and Happ to help stabilize the rotation. Instead they are relying on 2 reclamation projects in Kluber and Tallion, Montgomery and whomever can be the 5th until Severino is back. I don’t suspect Kluber and Tallion to keep pitching this bad all season but until they right the ship the Yankees pitching isn’t very good.
I don’t blame Cashman for not paying on Bauer, but the SP is suspect, and banking on injury prone starters seemed suspect well before this 5-10 start to the season. The Yanks have a great offense that will pull it together sooner than later, but the current SP is not going to carry them very far into the postseason, if it gets them there at all.
I really think the order to stay below the luxury tax line hampered this off-season. That said, they have not received help from their prospects as they had hoped over the last few years. And now the prospects are suspects. What happened to the the team with Bird, Andujar, Florial of a few years ago. Judge and Sanchez remain, and i am glad Sanchez turned it around this year because people were trying to ship him out, me included to the Marlins for JT Realmuto when the Marlins shopped him. Bring up Deivi already.
the luxury tax argument I dislike. we get beat by teams far below out top 3 salaries. we are being out performed and that’s it. even if say yanks signed two SP at 25 mil avg. hitting and defense has been eneamic and the record would be the same +-1.
The Yanks are less than the Yankees of old, who would package prospects in trades for established players. I didn’t make my point well before, but the prospects they could trade ( overhyped certainly) are not viewed as prospects anymore.
@ EasternLeagueVeteran;
You’re on target. Sort of…..
The reason the Yankees could package prospects and get established players was because they – and the Red Sox – would routinely run up the salaries by what they paid free agents. That way other teams then had to pay more than they could afford in order to keep their own players from going FA. Typically those teams would do this because they thought they could contend for a year or two – so they gave the guy a 3-4 year contract at the Yankee-Red Sox rate. When the team fell out of contention, fans stopped coming, and said team was left with a salary they couldn’t pay. So they’re make a trade with the Yankees or Red Sox and take so-so prospects just to get out from under the contract.
Slowly mid and small market franchise owners got the rules changed. Now if the Sox, Yankees, and other large market teams want to run that crap down, they get stiffed both with financial penalties, and with poorer draft choices.
This is why I say it’s similar to when the Yankees fell apart a bit after the 1963 season. Drafting was put in and the playing field was leveled. Yankees FO couldn’t compete like that. Teams such as the Orioles and Tigers in the AL had great farm systems and contended for years. Yankees had no farm system to speak of. They languished until the mid-70’s at which time George owned the team and free agency came about. He immediately bought the best guy available – Catfish Hunter, and continued spending until finally they went something like 12 years without making the playoffs and his “baseball people” – starting with GM Gene Michael – convinced him to build a farm system. It was there that the core of Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and others came up and were augmented by FA spending.
Couldn’t agree more. The Yankees will always be my favorite even without old Yankee Stadium but there was way to many “if’s” associated with individual players. Yes Aaron Judge is a beast, yes Voit has massive power, yes Severino can be a TOR pitcher but when you say those things about most of the players and quickly follow them with a bunch of “if’s” you know the team isn’t well rounded. Aaron Boone needs to go. He has a horrible track record of keeping his players healthy and on the field. It doesn’t matter if he can “relate” to younger players better when those players are spending half the season on the shelf. The Yankees made a bad choice in picking Sanchez over Girardi. He was great at getting the best out of his players.
Nope. Gotta panic 2 weeks in. Not like baseball goes til November!
I know I’m a Red Sox fan so I may be biased, but I felt that the Yankees were always overrated going into the season. They’re relying on too many brittle pitchers who haven’t seen game action in years and an offense full of defensively challenged and frequently injured sluggers.
They have talent and can probably scrape back into the playoff hunt for stretches but I don’t expect to see them in the playoffs.
Let’s just say they don’t make the playoffs. You think Cash finally gets fired??
Never
Not fired, but take a step back and let someone else be GM as he takes the title of President of Baseball Ops.
No I don’t think Cashman gets fired, barring being involved in a scandal.
Cashman’s contract ends after 2022. He will then assume another position as you say after 25 years as GM.
It’s time for a fresh look anyway.
I’ve said this many times, but the Yanks’ pitching is the issue. They are on a budget, a big one, but still a budget. They should have let DJ walk and get an elite stem. As a Sox fan I was thrilled when they re signed him. Not as happy as I was with the Stanton trade though. That’s the gift that keeps on giving, for a decade or so.
@lucky. What’s a elite stem? I googled it and came up with a bicycle part.
Elite Starter, auto correct on my phone. Sorry about that. At least we all learned something about bicycles.
Lets just say that your comments coming from a Sox fan are a bit biased……overrated…by who….your talking about a team that has made the playoffs how many years in a row….their issue is going all the way and winning the WS.
Brittle pitchers…they took chances on 2….that’s 2 guys who haven’t pitched in over a year…and 1 was a perennial Cy Young candidate while the other was coveted even coming off TJ surgery by many teams as a top 3 rotation guy.
Defensively challenged….the pots calling the kettle black here…..Urshela can pick them with the best, Frazier certainly has proven his detractors wrong with steady defense (Gold Glove candidate last year), Hicks in center…while he isn’t playing with his glove the way he has in the past, there aren’t many centerfielders who do a better job, Judge in right…. DJL is Gold Glove when playing 1 position (2nd) …
Obviously, they’re shaky at short, and at catcher when Sanchez is back there and while they might not evoke “best in class” defensively, they just haven’t played up to their bubble gum cards as yet….this is why you play 162!
Lol talk about biased. Overrated, oft injured and underperforming.
@ rocky7;
Regarding your comments on their defense……
Did you watch the games this weekend? If not, did you listen to the radio broadcasts of them?
Have you been watching them play this year?
@samuel – have to agree. It has been so hard to watch them play with the defense. Missed routine grounders all the way around, dropping pop fly foul balls, misplaying out field walls. While their offense is not awake, at all – no hits and nearly 40 strikeouts in a 3 game series, they are not providing support behind their pitchers either.
It’s good for comic relief.
Rocky, if the Yankees were my Red Sox I would definitely say the team came in overrated and it shows. Sure, the Yankees are a team that can make the playoffs but I seriously doubt they can make the WS or even win it with this rotation.
Brittle Pitchers .. Yes, Kluber may have been a Cy Young candidate in the past and just like I did with my fantasy team, the Yankees took a chance on a guy two years removed from pitching. Tallion is trying to get back to form following TJ surgery and when Severino returns later in the season he to will be trying to return to form. All 3 players can’t replace the loss of Tanaka, Paxton or Happ.
Defensively Challenged…. Sorry man, have you not been watching the past few games or listened to any comments made by the announcers? And no one saying the Yankees are defensively challenged at every position.
Lucky: Overrated and underperforming in this specific context is an oxymoron. However, they are underperforming, I agree. Their defense has been deplorable.
Rocky 7 is correct in stating his case. This is virtually the same team in large part. They’ve all but solidified a walk to the ALCS (on paper). Hence the underperforming notation and certainly not the overrated part.
Also, I’d like to add that for the talk about these injured pitchers, they sure are staying pretty healthy comparatively, if you glance around at some other teams’ IL pitchers. I don’t see how those particular SP pickups and their injuries are at issue here. IF they are injured, okay, point proven, but until then it’s just pure conjecture.
Follow the Yankees closely.
The offense is still powerful and WILL score a lot of runs.
The SP, aside from Cole, is bad. See Kluber and Taillon.
The RP has been hit with Britton’s injury but has been OK.
A good, not great team. Think the White Sox at least are better.
Very good take, Kevins. Definitely going to score with the best of the AL. Just hard to see how they’re going to replace even the mediocre innings they got from Tanaka, Happ And Paxton last year.
It’s pretty obvious the only premier team is the Dodgers. The Padres have a shot. It’s not rocket science. Premier teams stand out in many areas. NY is standing out for all the wrong reasons. Everything is looking poor to average. So they win the division, as constructed, this is not a great team. Time won’t change that. Two trades for dependable starters and a healthy clicking offense are required. Healthy is a big obstacle for Yankees. Lots of big hard swinging guys who break down.
Yankees are a poorly constructed team – no leadership, substandard defense at most positions, one great starting pitcher along with one very good one (Montgomery), and a one-dimensional “swing from the heels” offense. Add to that an overrated farm system (when is the last time they developed 3 productive prospects), and a bullpen that will be out of gas by early August. There is a low Baseball IQ on the field, and apparently in the front office as well.
Not being sarcastic by saying that there is no simple solution here. The Rays are solid and deep. The Jays lack pitching but they can outhit the Yankees…no problem, The Orioles and Red Sox are building the right way, and the Red Sox may actually be for real this year. As for this year, very few Yankee players are attractive in trade as most are being wildly overpaid for what they produce.
I believe that Yankee fans and the national baseball media (oftentimes one and the same) truly realizes how truly bad the situation is. This is not coming from a “hater”, it’s coming from a fan that saw this same situation in the early 1960’s as that Yankees dynasty got old and bloated and there wasn’t much in the farm system to regenerate a contender.
Poorly constructed is a bit of an overreach. Holes yes, but outright bad, no. I agree on management for sure. All they need to do is change a few pieces and they’ll be fine.
Also, if Stanton, Judge, Torres, and _________. get back up to career averages then things will fall easier into place.
I won’t belabor this as I’ve written it before here. Yesterday the Yankee radio broadcasters figured it out…..
All teams know the other team is counting pitches. MLB has regressed to the point where everyone is demanding their batters work counts and hit foul balls to get the opposing starter out of the game ASAP. If you notice, the small market teams that keep winning have good and sometimes very good defenses. By converting plays to outs they keep their starters in the game longer. Even the Yankee broadcasters were commenting this weekend how Cole had to stay in and throw extra pitches because his defense wasn’t making plays that should be made at the ML level.
The Yankees have sub-standard defense at the 3 most important defensive positions – C, SS, and CF. LF is OK when one of the 2 vets is out there, but not if Stanton or Frazier is. I’m sorry, but at best Judge is now an average ML RF. Odor is a poor 2B (I couldn’t believe the errors he made this weekend). Add that Sanchez calls a bad game, and this is not something that can be tweaked – this is a systemic failure by the front office in understanding what it takes to win in MLB today.
They’ve figured out exactly nothing it sounds like.
Small market teams run out good defenses because defensive WAR is relatively less expensive on the open market and good defenders who can’t hit simply aren’t valued as highly as prospects as guys who have their bat as their carrying tool. Defense is also less important than ever in today’s game because fewer balls are in play than ever before.
Starters generally are throwing fewer pitches/innings than ever because it’s been proven that the bullpen is more effective than a starter who stays in the game the third time through. The working the count logic was in vogue in the 2000s and up through the early 2010s. It was a Moneyball outcome because walks suddenly had value and getting starters out of the game meant getting to the bullpen which weren’t constructed with the same kind of talent that exists there today. However that trend fell out of favor as teams started to realize pitchers prefer to be ahead in the count meaning a first pitch strike is likely coming so it makes sense to be more aggressive early in the count when you know what’s coming. There’s a good mix of both approaches in the league now.
I do think the Yankees are shooting themselves in the foot defensively and it’s costing them. And I don’t think they value catcher defense to quite the extent other teams do but it’s also a function of having a guy like Gary who ‘could’ be a difference making bat that can also catch.
I think Cashman had his hands tied a bit by ownership this year as they did not want to go over the tax so the funds just weren’t available to fill out the roster as optimally as he would have liked.
There’s a reason Cashman has had the job as long he has, he’s always listening to new voices and hiring top talent in the front office and looking to grab value when and where he can. For every bad recent move Cashman has made there’s a Voit and Urshela.
This is coming from a Sox fan who just respects the hell out of a guy who’s lasted over 20 years in a job with very little job security historically.
There’s a reason those guys are broadcasters and not working in the front office it sounds like.
Sanchez should have been ejected from the team a couple years ago. A disaster behind the plate.
You are correct. Cashman makes the “small” moves-Didi, Hicks, Urshela, Voit-but then counteracts them with damaging ones like Ellsbury and Stanton. He never understood avoiding big mistakes is key. If he was going big in recent years, Harper or Machado were always safer bets based on playing history. The Stanton contract will hamstring the lineup for years to come.
@ averagejoe15;
You are amazing.
So you think the game is W, K or HR.
I think you need to look at the teams that are winning.
You are right about one thing – defense is not valued, and that’s exactly the edge that the small market teams have taken advantage of. I doubt you understand what all baseball people ultimately realize – the Catcher is the most important position player on the roster……and if a good one hits – “It’s a bonus” (a standard baseball cliché for over 100 years).
You think the Dodgers and Rays got to the WS last year by poo-pooing defense?
If you are a Red Sox fan, just look at how Bloom and company are putting that team together. It’s not W, K or HR.
Judge’s avg peaked at .284 and has steadily gone down. Stanton is a .265 hitter when hitting well and thats if healthy. Which of course is a big big IF with him.
I am a Sox fan and don’t think they are for real, Unless they all stay healthy, as they don’t have the pitching depth needed. Sale can’t come back soon enough. It’s fun needling Yankee fans though.
@luckyh
As a Sox fan I do think they are for real and the roster and their play thus far shows it. Are they going to win the division probably not, but they could make a run for a wild card spot.
You and the rest of your Yankee haters are out in full force…that “low baseball IQ team and front office have made the playoffs more times than any other team over the last 20 years…anything else you want to pin on this team and organization…how about he crisis at the border…..just pile on.
@ rocky7;
The Yankees were last in a WS in 2009.
Since then the small market Royals (twice), Indians, and Rays have gotten there.
You think those teams simply “got hot”? Face it, their FO’s, Managers, Coaching Staffs and players had high Baseball IQ’s that manifested itself on the field. They made big plays on D, ran the bases smartly, and moved runners along. They weren’t one-dimensional teams that won by W, K or HR.
But hey – I’m dumb, you’re smart and you just continue to beat your head against the wall.
Yes, rocky they do just enough to string you along. George would not be as satisfied as you are with that result. Enjoy!
A little harsh, but well said. I do have to disagree about the front office having a low IQ. The problem with the Yankees is the their prospects overachieved and now have hit a window and that isn’t the fault of the front office we see too many times these guys look great in the minors and come up and overachieve and only to come back down and become average to good players at best.
@ Lamar Smith;
What prospects of the Yankees have “overachieved”? Overpublicized might be a better word. I can go back and list at least a dozen guys from the past 5 years that were going to be big stars….all of whom names I long forgot.
When is the last time the Yankees developed 3 solid prospects that came up to their team in a year? This is the core challenge regarding team building in MLB no matter what the financial structure has been over the past 100+ years. When a team can’t get a stream of productive, cheap young players then they have to take on salary in trade……and at some point they run out of money (or are straddled with the luxury penalties which exacerbates their problem of not developing cheap young players).
You’re a Red Sox fan? Does it occur to you that Henry saw the writing on the wall as to where MLB is going and brought in Bloom to restructure the Red Sox organization; while Hal still thinks they can trade a so-so major leaguer and 2 overrated prospects for a star or two whose large contracts they take on?
The guy above that wrote that W, K and HR is the true lesson of sabermetrics could not be more wrong…..but he is correct in showing us the thinking of the Yankee FO.
@Samuel
Outside of the Marlins can you name any team that had 3 solid prospects that came up in the same year? Marlins get excluded because usually half their 40 man roster are prospects. Prospects that are drafted and brought up to the big league team.
@ Flyby;
Are you serious?
Dozens of teams the last 2-3 years if I look it up. Which I won’t bother doing.
The White Sox. Royals. Rays. Dodgers. Padres. Cardinals. Red Sox. Indians. Braves. Astros. A’s. My goodness, at least half the teams in MLB. Just about all of the contenders….not sure there’s a contender that hasn’t brought up at least 3 solid, productive players in one year of the past 2-3.
How many weeks have you been following MLB?
I think Boone has to go. This is my team and I’ve gotten the impression over the past two or three seasons that the team doesn’t play hard for him. I also feel that he’s more of a PR guy than a manager. Who, in their right mind, would still bat Hicks and Stanton third and cleanup with this streak. Move your better hitters up until the others figure it out.
Also Cashman and Stinibrenner deserve a bit of the blame here as well. Getting cheap to stay under the LT is understandable but when you lose 3/5 of your rotation and fill it with cheaper guys who haven’t pitched in over a year is not an effective route. Moreover, they need more lefthanded bats.
They need to make a trade for someone to shake up the team such as Rizzo from the Cubs. I doubt the Cubs really care at this point so why not. Also, they need to release some subpar players to send a message. However, replacing Boone with someone competent such as Buck would be a start.
@ Darth Nihilus;
I watched them a lot this year. In Spring Training .they strutted around as if “We are the Yankees!”. Look art their body language now. The players on the field KNOW they’re overmatched against the good teams. They don’t play hungry. That look at one another hoping someone does something. Their 3 best players are a good fielding/decent hit 3B, and 2 reserve OF’s..
And you are right about Boone.
If someone needs to go it’s Cash! Especially if they don’t make the playoffs or get knocked out early!
Agreed….not a Boone fan….I think the players think of him as a player/broadcaster rather than a Manager and the know he will not ever criticize them for poor play.
A shake up trade needs to happen to let everyone on that team know that nobody is safe when playing poorly for too long.
Rizzo would be a perfect fit for them and it wouldn’t be difficult to expand that trade to include others in it. The Yankees would have to bleed a bit to make that happen, but good trades do that…both sides give to get.
Boone is a bit of a puppet. They need a leader.
@DN – really? Not sure that is the answer. He became coach in 2028. 2018 and 2019 Yankees had two 100 win seasons and last year made it to the ALCS. Confused as to why you would give up on him so quick? This may be more then the skipper here, you should read through the other posts about defense and the players he is given to work with.
“Also Cashman and Stinibrenner deserve a bit of the blame here as well.” A bit? That’s the understatement of the month! Cashman always comes out w/the same bs speech, we’ll get thru this we just have to weather the storm, etc, etc. He’s a clown that should’ve been fired long ago, the Yankees suck & unless they do something to seriously shake things up & quickly…turn out the lights, the party’s over.
Cashman should be fired! You cannot have an offseason as bad as the one he just had.
No
@Very
Fire Cashman? Ok, I will ask you as a GM what would you have done definitely knowing you had cash restraints because of the Luxury tax?
@ Lamar Smith;
I’d have talked to the owner. Tell him that a WS appearance with an aging, oft-injured roster of one-dimensional, overpaid and unmovable players would not be a reality in the next few years. It was time to take a few steps back and totally revamp the organization from top to bottom. Specifically, learn to draft and develop pitchers.
@Samuel
That’s fine, but that does nothing for this team this year? Again, with you being the GM and forced to stay under the Luxury Tax. How would you fix the team?
I told you guys all this stuff about the Yankee’s BEFORE the season started. I was greeted with pitchforks and torches from Yankee fans. Jay Bruce?? Really?? Kluber for $11 million. Really??? Gary Sanchez still catching. Really??? Brett Gardner??? Why??? What since does that make??? Domingo German??? Just Wow!! Once the bullpen guys started getting hurt …… All Is Lost!!! Yankee’s are done in 2021!! Yanks need to think long and hard about a rebuild. The farm system is now below average. The payroll is out of control with a bunch of overpriced and underproductive players. In other words …. Not a lot of trade value on the roster. Crazy to think about when you think of how much they are paying dudes. I think we have seen the last of the Yanks for a while.
Crazy about sums it up when you’re this obsessed.
But he’s mostly right. And maybe cares more than you do, that’s all.
You’re right about everything but Gardner.
He’s the only player that exhibits leadership and hustles every time he’s on the field (Tauchman also hustles). His salary is miniscule compared to so many of the station to station guys that swing from the heels and jake it on D.
@Very dude your so right! Should of been fired years ago!! It’s so mind boggling deals he has done!
Yes, @berry.
You & Samuel got it.
Smart & savvy fans write off teams after 15 games all the time. Those other 147? Why play ’em, right? Yanks should probably just head into the off-season now.
Lord.
Hey. I’m sure you fellas have been predicting the Yanks demise for years (*still* hasn’t happened yet) & will – eventually – be right. Doubt it’ll be this year. But one of these years you guys are finally going to be “right”. Bound to happen sometimes as quarter century long successful runs – like the Yanks are currently in the midst of – can’t last forever.
Meanwhile, I a non panic inclined fella – will let much more of the season play out as that’s a pretty big deal in a 162 game season. Perhaps you fellas got used to a shorter one.
@Very Barry, As a Red Sox fan, I have to say you’re tripping about Gardner. He is a true Yankees of old, a guy that is a clubhouse leader and gives his all. Sure, his better days are behind him. but he is a low cost 4th OF that can come off the bench.
The Yankees start is no shock at all. They spent all money on D.J. and not pitching, something that they’ve shoestringed for years. The lineup is full of DH sluggers, made of glass, all or nothing swingers (D.J. & Ursh the exceptions)… what do you expect? It’s finally caught up with them. Shout out to Milwaukee… your day is coming too. The Cubs is already here. Sluggers win divisions. Pitchers win pennants.
Pitchers don’t win constantly without a defense behind them.
That’s true too. Fair enough. Their D is garbage.
They did spend more than 300 million on a pitcher the year before. Plus they have pitchers with track history of winning. DJLM was the right move – figuring out what do fo with Gleyber is the next.
@Luclusciano, Besides $300 million Cole and Kluber, which starters have a history of winning?
I’m a Yankee fan but I’m not an idiot, this FO has made some suspect moves over the past handful of seasons. The Stanton trade was and will always be horrendous. That contract is a ball and chain and they’re saddled with that for another 125 seasons it seems. They probably should have traded Torres to the Reds for Castillo and signed Didi to play short. We all know they’re gonna give Judge a huge contract knowing full well he’s made of straw and will someone please tell Clint Frazier to take the bat off his shoulder. You can’t make contact unless you swing I’m fairly sure of that.
Rays fan here. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s doom and gloom posts on the Yankees.. While I don’t want to pile on, I can’t help myself with the above comment that the Yankees should have traded Torres for Castillo. As someone who tracks trade values fairly closely, as most Rays’ fans do, I can promise all of you that Torres for Castillo was never a possibility. At best, Torres gets you a little more than halfway to Castillo. It would take a helluva lot more than Torres to get Castillo.
Agree, SPs are extremely valuable. I like Castillo, but he’s only top 20 or so. Still it would have taken someone like Judge to get Castillo. The Cubs get for Darvish was pathetic.
“the Cubs get for Darvish was pathetic”…..just goes to show, with all of us “experts” at value and what should be….that we don’t know crap about what a team really thinks, does, wants, or will actually do, in some of these deals….especially think the comment above about Castillo is especially pertinent here given all the “value” placed on his head compared to what it is presumed to take to actually acquire him….
I could very well see a Judge for Castillo trade just as you do but that doesn’t matter…its what the Yankees and Reds see and newsflash we don’t have any idea what that really is……all this value computation is just bull these days….just another metric to sell subscriptions and get you to read endless “guesses” as to what might happen according to the value equations!
Actually, Judge isn’t worth much more than Torres since he has 2 fewer years of control.
I generally believe that the FMV is determined by the masses, not by one specific team, and in that sense, the Cubs gave away Darvish. Just like the Rays gave away R.Hernandez earlier this year. These things happen, but they don’t diminish the underlying value of Darvish or Hernandez to the world at large.
@ Ducky Buckin Fent;
The object is to get to the playoffs. And once a team does, they’re playing against the best teams that year.
Once a team get to the league championship series, all those teams have above average pitching. Those games might have one or two blowouts. It’s the close games that decide the series. Teams need to play solid fundamental baseball – strong D, good baserunning, timely hitting. Mistakes happen, but they have to be held to a minimum. Teams that are constructed around HR, W and K never get to the WS.
The ridiculous depth of the Dodgers in this age is truly remarkable. They draft well, develop well, and pull guys off scrap heaps and develop them – all of which are low cost. So they can afford to pay the stars and superstars. But if you look at them play, they don’t bumble around on D, or wait for a HR. They play as a team.
I don’t see the Yankees manufacture runs. I don’t see them play solid D. I don’t see the manager exhibit strong strategic skills – he basically makes out the line-up and that’s that. I don’t see any leadership on the field. Any sense of urgency by the players. I see a station-to-station team that wants to swing from the heels and throw fastballs. No savvy. No way of winning a game if they’re not having a good day pitching and hitting. Sorry, that is what separates the winners from the also-rans’.
If you think teams like the Yankees and White Sox are going to HR, K, and W their way to a championship, well – tell me the past team that got into a WS like that.
@Samuel
Well said, I just don’t see the White Sox as a team that’s gonna HR, K and W their way to a championship. They do play fundamental baseball, can run the bases and play D.
@ Lamar Smith;
I respect you.
But I can’t say enough bad things about the White Sox defense during the entire Kenny Williams era. Their (injured) 4th OF is a exceptional defender. That’s it. I watched some of their games this year. The players change, but balls are still thrown to the wrong base, mishandled, and misplayed.
I was listening to an Indians radio feed of a game I was watching on MLB.TV maybe 3-4 days ago. Grandal had a pitch go through his legs to the backstop and a run scored. They commented that Roberto Perez and Austin Hedges routinely block pitches like that. From what I’ve seen, Grandal might well be their best defensive player other than the 4th OF.
Of course not.
Which is why the Yanks signed Gerrit Cole last off-season (because a true ace can have a huge impact on a short series) & this winter put together a high quality ‘pen that should run at least 6(!) deep.
Sevi coming back in July. Montgomery performed well in the playoffs last year & looks to be a guy you could hand the ball to in future playoff series, as well. & *If* any one of the following happens: Kluber or Taillon find their groove, Deivi or Schmidt take the next step, or the Yanks trade for a starter at the deadline (not an uncommon occurrence) that will be enough pitching.
Huh.
Figured you would have “muted” me right away…
Their overvaluing of their young guys has brought them to this. Frazier and Torres included.
When will you guys quit the Gleyber to the Reds for Castillo trade talk?
Gleyber is a 2B. India, Moustakas, Suarez, and Senzel can play 2B just as good or better than he can.
1. They don’t need Gleyber.
2. Why would they trade their #1 pitcher for him?
Stop the hate… it’s the Yanks, they don’t start playing baseball till June. They’ll finish second to the Jays ( their lineup is sick !!! of course if healthy) especially since baseball is becoming like hockey where almost everyone makes the playoffs. Most importantly Yankees post season baseball is big money, so MLB will most likely keep the expanded playoff format.
I’ll admit I did enjoy watching it last year.
“The Yanks don’t start playing baseball ’til June”. Very rarely do teams that get off to poor starts reverse suddenly after two months. Rare exceptions — the 2005 Astros immediately come to mind. And they got swept by the White Sox in the series.
The Nationals as WS champs…
Like how your acting like a team that made it to the World Series isn’t good because they were swept.
Cashman’s decision to go with 2 question mark starting pitchers this off-season may be his undoing.
I agree with this especially when 3 of your starting pitchers would not have pitched in a year. I would have tried to keep Tanaka if possible to reduce the risk. as we are seeing more the worst case scenario right now for the yanks. I think there is a lot of rust on the starting pitching and around the time that voit comes back hopefully that rust will shake off. Voit will be back at first dj at 2nd and help hide some of Torres deficiency at SS.
unfortunately I didn’t have my popcorn ready for this comment section. ill go put some on now.
I wonder if Cashman would still have a job if George was around. No pennants, let alone World Series rings, in 11 straight seasons would’ve been unacceptable to The Boss. Cashman is one of the best executives in baseball, but the standard was championship or you’re gone back in the day.
i would probably say yes because I think George would have not cared about the money. He probably would have already cut Stanton and signed Bauer, Realmuto and Springer in the offseason luxury tax be damned. Hard to compare this ownership vs prior since two completely different goals in ownership and with the luxury tax being there now. Would George have been restrained or would he still be WS win money be damned.
@brandons one of the best executives? One ring in nearly 2 decades. He’s made some beyond mind boggling decisions in last couple of years. I think they are in much worse shape than they think they are! They have several massive contracts that nobody will even think about taking let alone a pretty weak farm system!
Brandon, if George was still around, Cashman may still be in the Bronx, but I bet his manager would be Billy Martin about now.
That would be interesting, to say the least, this season. I wonder if they’d insist that Billy be vaccinated?
IMO I think injury’s have changed all of the teams for good and for bad, And in around a month teams will be back to normal and teams will start playing as predicted
For those clamoring for Rengifo over Mayfield, just look at tonight. At least Mayfield is a plus defender. Rengifo has done nothing well for a while now. I don’t know if the failed trade with the Dodgers has messed with him or not but it’s obvious he shouldn’t be in the majors right now.
I’m a big Rengifo supporter, but he is struggling and has done so for awhile now. I always hoped he would take that next step, but it just doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
He has potential and has shown flashes. By no means am I suggesting to give up on him. I just think he probably needs some time in the minors.
Hal should be most disappointed in himself. His self-imposed spending limits have given zero flexibility to fix this roster. The Yankees had more than enough money to address their many needs and to overhaul this roster. He’s just too cheap to do it. George would be rolling over in his grave.
Then Cash next! To many bone decisions!
The lineup was always over rated and constructed poorly. Stanton is a huge albatross and a lineup full of all or nothing swing from the heel batters do not move runners over, cannot hit good pitching consistently, and go into prolonged slumps other than compiling runs off of bad pitching.
The defense has always been weak and Torres has proved he is not a viable ss even for a short time.
Hicks maybe one of the worst defensive cfers I’ve seen roam Yankee stadium in a very long time other than his once huge throwing arm.
Sanchez is Sanchez!
The starting pitching I believe will come around but will never be a top rotation and the bullpen maybe our only plus area.
The first two things that can be fixed is the defense. DJ needs to stay over at first for now and Torres moved to second with Odor as a bench player until Voit returns. Call up Kyle Holder and automatically he becomes the teams best defensive ss. He may not hit a ton but he’s also a lefty bat
Trade Hicks to St Louis who are in need of outfield help for anything we can get to dump that contract and call up Florial who is another defensive stud or plug Tauchman in at Cf for the time being.
As far as the offense you cannot have too many bats that just do not have the ability to play small ball and hit the other way. That maybe something we cannot fix this season and for some time with the Stantons and Judge and Voit and Sanchez of the world. But they need to put Frazier in at left and roll with him or trade him.
Lastly when Voit returns consider dealing him as well to leave DJ at first or just dump Odor and make DJ the super utility player once again.
This lineup was so overhyped snd over rated and many just saw the potential for the big long ball rather than the boring mundane station to station lineup that was clearly what it is. Teams only need to throw mostly off speed with occasional fastball mixed in and keep the ball in the yard and they know they have a solid chance to beat this Yankee overhyped team.
I hate to break this to everyone, but the Yankees are gonna be fine. The season, she be young
Everyone has figured out the Yankees. When you mindlessly follow what the computer model says in every situation as they do, a smart team like Tampa is going to know exactly what you are going to do in every situation. Other teams have those computer models too, Cashman.
Also, their starting pitching is a huge problem. 4 guys who basically didn’t pitch last year. Since the computer also commands that the Yankees cannot pitch someone like that more than 150 innings or so even if they are good, what do you think will happen to the bullpen down the road?
I expect them to turn it around, start hitting and make the playoffs because this is still a good regular season roster. Then as usual go out with a whimper against better playoff pitching when shockingly all of these all or nothing HR/K guys don’t hit in the playoffs for the umpteenth time and a decimated bullpen can’t hold any leads.
Nothing bring the haters, whiners and I-told-you-so’s together like a struggling yankees team. This is a truly entertaining thread.
Zero chance a team with so many hitters that strike out WAY to much is a serious WS contender! ZERO! If healthy this team could set a new strikeout record every year!
This group looks like it peaked with the three year ADS/ALCS run.
There was never enough pitching and Judge/Stanton are seemingly lucky to combine for one players worth of games played.
Taillon is now less deceptive with a safer but less effective delivery. Kluber looks toast. He has enough movement to sneak in some gems here and there, but sitting at 89 and nibbling doesnt seem like a no. 2 SP to me.
Torres is getting fatter and worse at hitting each year. Frazier improved his defense, but his bat is MIA. This is a 100 win team on paper 3 years ago, but seems to be worth closer to 90 now.
That being said, the club is hitting below the Mendoza line so overreaction is present and Severino’s return will give the Yanks Cole/Sevy/Montgomery for a playoff series.
The ceiling has always been lower than Cash and fans care to admit with this clunky group, but let’s wait 80 games or so before saying they arent the boring, but solid wild card team I think they are.
I’m definitely not in panic mode – I know they’re better than this, but I think right now, more than a “We believe in you”, they need a kick in the ass. I’d like to someone (other than Gardner) show some emotion. Joe Garagiola commented on Paul O’Neill that every at bat was the bottom of the ninth in the World Series. While O’Neill was a bit volatile – and the fans loved him for it – I’d like to see a cooler punched, or an argument on a called strike, someone slamming a helmet, or at least some anger on someone’s face. They cannot even execute the fundamentals right now. They are throwing to the wrong base, getting picked off, fielding and throwing badly and failing to move runners up. Maybe they should play some small ball until they get untracked.
Hey look, something Hal & I have in common; we are both “disappointed”. Well, Hal you could have spent a bit more on the starting staff, uh? As of now, it certainly appears we could use more/better staters.
Before 2017 (which – turns out – was a really stupid time to do it) the Yanks paid the “luxury tax” every single year it existed. But – apparently – we now need to avoid it every few years as it is – again apparently – super important in ’21 to not pay it once again.
Obligatory yacht joke: man, my entire fleet of watercraft could fit on Hal’s poop deck. Gotta be expensive maintaining boats like that. Probably why he didn’t ok going past the first CBT threshold.
Boone needs to go. One of the worst managers in the game
George would have brought in Billy Martin about now.
Lol. These guys have been building teams the exact same way for decades and they never win. Buying the most expensive free agents and a roster full of terrible defensive players that K a ton but hit HR’s worked in the 90’s. Too funny
The Red Sox won on Patriots Day but there was no marathon. I have no idea what that means. It’s a nice start but you can’t tell in the first 5K who is going to win the marathon.
“…they never win.”
Haven’t had a losing season in a quarter century.
Won a World Series in the “olden days” of 2009.
Four consecutive playoff seasons in which: they always went on some type of run, recorded 2 LCS appearances, 2 100 (or more!) win seasons. Which is a stretch that – let’s face it – almost every fan base would covet.
But – yeah sure – they never win.
A 5 game losing streak in April means the Yanks should be written off, right?
Well…except for the fellas who’ve watched a few seasons of MLB baseball & realize every team will go through a funk.
But; it’s a good HOTTAKE!, so there’s always that.
“…never win.”
It’s a 162 game season, a marathon not a sprint. Gonna write off the Yanks after a couple of weeks. Kinda silly IMO. Plenty of time to “right” the ship. Besides, it’s more about who finishes, not start the season strong, ie, 2019 Nationals. It’s easy to pile on the Yankees for some, but I imagine they will be at or near the top of the AL when it’s all said and done. Very few teams that I can remember went post to post at the top like the 84 Tigers. Too much talent not to be competitive at the end.
Didn’t Cashman use this speech last year?
Dare I say there’s a ‘new’ Sherriff in town?
Cashman wins 1 title in 22 years and keeps his job. How does that happen in NY? He won the others with Bob Watson’ developed teams. Wow talk about a guy getting by.
Bob Watson didn’t develop those teams! Watson inherited those teams.
I thought Yankees were a given going into this season and then I looked at their rotation. No one is reliable outside of Cole. And I don’t think their bullpen is as good as it was a couple years ago… they must be missing Tanaka right now.
That being said, you can never count out the Yankees. They just don’t seem to be the same team as last year and prior.
Consider me shocked that the Yankees dont do as good when LeMahieu isnt hitting .370
Cashman has run the Yankees for a long time. Maybe it is time to clean house in the Front Office?! The pieces Cashman has put together for the Yankees team have not been the right combination for over 10 years.. Maybe, they recover and play much better?! But, the writing is on the wall. A team with that much talent should never be kicked around by just about every other team in baseball. If the Yankees are not playing in the 2021 World Series, then Hal Steinbrenner may think that Cashman’s time running the Yankees is up….
@Samuel
Well said, I just don’t see the White Sox as a team that’s gonna HR, K and W their way to a championship. They do play fundamental baseball, can run the bases and play D.
Mondesi is good for about 100-110 games a season. Since he was 18, he’s averaged 50 games a year on the IL.. Par for the course with him. With all the shortstops in the upper levels of Royals system – Fox, Witt, Loftin – and Lopez playing great ball – yet another injury could spell the end of Mondesi’s death grip on the SS spot. This follows his horrid start to 2020 in which he gave up 5 errors and couldn’t hit for the first month. There’s no question he’s electric when everything clicks – and he’s on the field – but with only 2 years of control left – and another season plagued by an injury – it might be time the Royals consider their options around him.