The Baseball lockout is over. The New York City vaccine mandate, which threatened to prevent unvaccinated Yankees and Mets from playing home games (as it was doing to Kyrie Irving of the Nets) has been lifted, so everyone can play. The Yankees are playing Spring Training games.
And Opening Day is next Thursday, April 7. As an old song goes, It's the most wonderful time of the year.
But all is not well in Yankeedom. Far from it.
The Yankees sent catcher Gary Sánchez and 3rd baseman Gio Urshela to the Minnesota Twins. Sánchez consistently put up good power numbers, but while he was productive in 2016, '17 and '19, his overall hitting was terrible in 2018, '20 and '21. He was mercilessly booed by the Bronx faithful, and he'll be glad to get out of that. For those of us who still want him to do well, perhaps a change of scenery will do him some good.
Giving up Urshela is a problem. He gave the Yankees 3 good seasons. He may well be missed. But giving up Sanchez may actually be a bigger problem. I'll get to that in a moment.
In return, the Yankees got 3rd baseman Josh Donaldson, shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and catcher Ben Rortvedt. With Oakland, Toronto, Atlanta and Minnesota, Donaldson has been one of the best hitters in baseball since 2013. He had a 127 OPS+ last season. But he's 36 years old. He was an American League Most Valuable Player, but that was in 2015.
This looks like a classic Brian Cashman acquisition: A guy who would have been good to have a few years back, but not so much now. And before you tell me he was great last year, let me remind you of Chris Carter, who tied for the National League home run title with 41 in 2016, but had only 94 RBIs, and batted just .222, got signed by Cashman, played all of 62 games with the Yankees, batted .201, got released on July 10, 2017, and never played another major league game. He was just 30 years old.
And he was 6 years younger than Donaldson.
Also, Donaldson is a righthanded hitter, coming to Yankee Stadium. Cashman still hasn't figured out that Yankee Stadium is harder on righthanded hitters than it is on lefthanded ones.
Also, Donaldson was the player who blew the whistle on Gerrit Cole's use of "sticky substances." But Cole and Donaldson have met, and Cole says, "I'll be fine." Donaldson says, "I'm happy to be on the same team, and not have to strike out anymore." Manager Aaron Boone says, "It's buried, and a non-issue."
As for IKF -- I mean, let's get serious here, Yankee Fans aren't going to want to say that entire name -- he's from Honolulu, he turns 27 this month, and will play shortstop, as Cashman finally admits that Gleyber Torres belongs at 2nd base.
IKF never played for the Twins: They traded him to the Yankees just 1 day after acquiring him in a trade with the Texas Rangers. He won a Gold Glove in 2020, and stole 20 bases last season. But he is not a good hitter, having never topped 93 in OPS+ in his 4 major league season. And, given that 2020 was a COVID-shortened season, 2021 was his 1st-ever full season.
Rortvedt is not going to be the starting catcher. He has played a grand total of 39 games in the majors, all last season, and batted .169. For the moment, the starting catcher is Kyle Higashioka. Higgy, a good defensive catcher, with a 71 OPS+ last season. If he's your backup catcher, you're okay; if he's your starter, you're in deep trouble. By giving up Sánchez, as much trouble as he was having, the Yankees actually downgraded at the position.
And now, we find out that Rortvedt is injured. So, instead of not hitting for us because he can't freakin' hit, he'll be not hitting for us because he can't freakin' play. At all.
Gary Sheffield Jr. tweeted it out for all of us: "All I have to say this morning is that Brian Cashman shouldn't be GM of the New York Yankees."
After the 2021 season, Cashman said, "We're not as athletic as we'd like to be." Which was true. How does he handle this? He throws $50 million at 36-year-old Donaldson.
And the Yankees could still use one more good starting pitcher, and Aroldis Chapman is still a shaky closer.
Opening Day is exactly one week away.
1 comment:
Plus regardless of how one thinks of the Astros cheating, the fact that Cashman want to put all the blame on them isn't help his case either. While I personally believe 2018 was the year where they could have won if it weren't for the possible double whammy being had but the fact is they underperformed offensively in 2019 after Game 1 which I doubt the Astros sign stealing had anything to do with and there's how inconsistent the team have gotten the past 2 years.
Cashman should be focusing on improving the team rather than blaming the Astros and getting someone who is 36 to play third base is a concern even if trading Sanchez is understandable considering how the guy have been playing the last few seasons where the trade may do him a favor.
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