Slow news cycles during the Hot Stove League usually open the door to topics of discussion best filed under ‘wild speculation’, but some are indeed fun to banter about. The recent noise coming out of Seattle about our former second-baseman is one of them.
Anyone who seriously thinks Robinson Cano will ever wear pinstripes again (other than pajamas) needs a little perspective. You’ve heard rumors of New York trading Jacoby Ellsbury for Cano, along with the M’s swallowing a decent chunk of one of the dumbest contracts in MLB history — which would be Requirement Numero Uno for any club considering Cano.
If you think the Yankees would even consider Cano now, you have to ask yourself why they let him walk in the first place. The front office, like a handful of others around the league, have found themselves continually burned when giving out big money, long term deals to ‘star’ players who are usually facing the downside of production and career achievements.
Cano, now 33 years old and arguably already peaked, is no prize to any team unless Seattle eats major dollars of that stupid contract — and the last GM to sign a stupid contract like that was recently fired, in part for signing that stupid contract. Granted there are other things going on in the Emerald City with that organization, but the TEN year/$240M folly was supposed to turn the M’s into instant contenders and they’re going in the opposite direction. To the glee of every Yankee fan, I might add.
While the Yankees will always be unpredictable, this off-season approach seems to rest on shying away from the top-dollar free agents, pull off a ‘catching lightening in a bottle’ signing or trade, much like the 2014 in-season Brandon McCartney deal. Low-risk/high-reward. Which is not a bad thing, all options considered. But that could blow up in a minute.
A couple of big money contracts are coming off the books after the 2016 campaign (Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira), and they still have two monster ones through the 2017 — CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez. But throw into the mix the consideration that this year’s free agent class is far more attractive than the upcoming 2017 class — especially in the pitching department. Understood this isn’t 2005, but if was Zack Greinke would have been signed by now, good, bad or indifferent.
The only locks right now in the rotation are Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi, and Luis Severino. Ivan Nova and Sabathia are question marks for different reasons.
Nova drives you nuts — when he’s on, he has lights out stuff but has failed to put that extended stretch of solid starts together. You have to give him half a pass for his 2015 numbers, coming back from Tommy John surgery, and I’d hate to see the club give up on him. Nova has been mentioned in trade speculation now, but his value to other clubs is strictly on the aforementioned ‘trying to catch lightening in a bottle’ level. Hopefully we’ll see what he has in Spring Training, and the news will be good.
Photo Credit: Street Vendor via photopin (license)
For the latest on Yankee farmhands and off-season baseball, don’t miss ‘Winter ball notes: Long wraps up strong showing in Venezuela‘ by Chad Jennings (LoHud).
MEMORY LANE : On today’s date in 1970, Thurman Munson is named American League Rookie of The Year. In a meteoric rise through the minors even by today’s standards, Munson was drafted by the Yankees in 1968 (the 4th overall pick) and actually made his MLB debut in August of 1969 at the age of 22, but still qualified as a ‘rookie’ the following year. Munson’s numbers in his first full season with the big club were: .302 BA, 7 HRs and 57 RBI, with a WAR of 5.5. Behind the plate, he threw out base-stealers at a 52% clip.
On November 25th, 1980 Gene ‘Stick’ Michael was named the 25th manager in club history, replacing Dick Howser — who won only 103 games the year before. In his two seasons at the helm, Michael led the Bronx Bombers to American League pennants in 1981 and ’82. But Yankee fans of a certain age not only love Stick for his dependability at short through some lean years in our glorious history, but as importantly being a force behind how the organization itself changed — trusting instead of trading our top prospects. During his brief tenure as GM, Michael directed the amateur drafts that brought Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada into the fold, and facilitated the trade that brought Paul O’Neill to The Bronx in exchange for fan-favorite Roberto Kelly. Stick laid the foundation for the ‘run’ from the mid-90s and beyond, and we are forever grateful.
(Gene Michael photo credit: Arturo Pardavila III)
(h/t: Baseball-Reference.com, Today in Baseball History)
