Sometimes, They Listen

We've all said it, at various times in our lives. "Listen to me!" "Nobody ever listens to me!" "Why won't anybody listen to me?"

Those of us who are sports fans -- and, if you're reading this, you are one -- have said this of the management of a team we root for at some point: "They're not listening to me! They're not listening to any of their fans!"

Being a fan of the New York Yankees, especially in their down periods, is not easy. We get all the drawbacks of rooting for a historically successful team, and all the drawbacks of rooting for a team that fails to win, and few of the perks of either.

Nobody sympathizes with the Yankees when they lose: They sing, like Velma Kelly in the musical Chicago, "They had it comin', they had it comin', they only had themselves to blame... " They consider it payback for all the things our team has done to theirs, and comeuppance for our "cheating." Such things have been done on an individual basis, not as a result of a team culture that overlooks, or even encourages, it, as has been the case with our historic rivals, the Boston Red Sox, and our most recent bêtes noires, the Houston Astros.

But Yankee team management has appeared to act as though the feelings of its fans don't matter. We can see what the team needs. The biggest needs appear to be an outfielder who can stay healthy and can hit, and a lefthanded power hitter. If those two players can be one player, so much the better.

This time, team owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman appear to have listened. They pulled off a blockbuster trade:

* The Yankees receive: Outfielders Juan Soto and Trent Grisham.

* The San Diego Padres receive: Catcher Kyle Higashioka, and pitchers Michael King, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe and Randy Vásquez.

This comes just 1 day after a this trade: They sent pitchers Greg Weissert, Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice to the Red Sox for outfielder Alex Verdugo.

Soto just turned 25. He's already made 3 All-Star Games. He's won a batting title. He's hit 160 home runs. He's led the National League in walks 3 times. He helped the Washington Nationals win the 2019 World Series. And he helped the Padres reach the Playoffs in 2022.

Soto is young. He plays left field, a position at which the Yankees have lagged the last few years. He has power. He's lefthanded. He's going to be hitting in Yankee Stadium, with the short porch in right field. And he'll be providing protection in the lineup to Aaron Judge, with Giancarlo Stanton providing protection to him.

Because this is what the Yankee lineup will probably look like for 2024, even before Jasson Domínguez returns from injury, with batting Judge 2nd finally looking like it might be a good idea:

1. 26 1B DJ LeMahieu

2. 99 RF Aaron Judge

3. 22 LF Juan Soto

4. 27 DH Giancarlo Stanton

5. 25 2B Gleyber Torres

6. ?? CF Alex Verdugo

7. 11 SS Anthony Volpe

8. 39 C Jose Trevino

9. 95 3B Oswaldo Cabrera

(Bader wore Number 22 for the Yankees in 2023. Something tells me that Soto, who has never worn any other number since he reached the majors, will lead to Bader switching numbers. Verdugo wore 99 in Boston, and 61 and 27 in Los Angeles, and Jake Bauers is more likely to give up 61 than Judge 99 and Stanton 27.)

(UPDATE: I was unaware at the time that Bader's contract had run out, and that he was a free agent. The Yankees made no effort to re-sign him, and he signed with the Mets. This made 22 available, and Soto got it. I was also unaware that the Yankees had already traded Bauers to the Milwaukee Brewers, for Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez, neither of whom had yet debuted in the majors. Verdugo got Number 24, which had been worn by Willie Calhoun, whose contract ran out. He signed with the Los Angeles Angels.)

When "The Martian" returns...

1. 26 1B DJ LeMahieu

2. 99 RF Aaron Judge

3. 22 LF Juan Soto

4. 27 DH Giancarlo Stanton

5. 25 2B Gleyber Torres

6. 89 CF Jasson Domínguez

7. 11 SS Anthony Volpe

8. 39 C Jose Trevino

9. 95 3B Oswaldo Cabrera

This presumes that Domínguez will not get a lower number. He might not, since Judge seems satisfied with 99.

So, in the words of Balki Bartokomous (played by Bronson Pinchot) on the 1980s ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers, "Now, we are so happy, we do the dance of joy!" Right?

In the words of ESPN college football pundit Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend!" We still have a hole in the lineup, at 3rd base. Cabrera is not yet a major-league quality player. Then again, he's 24, so he could still develop into one. And trading Higashioka, when Trevino is injury-prone, and Austin Wells is in much the same position as Cabrera, age-wise and experience-wise, means we may have a hole there as well. And we can't count on Cabrera and Wells becoming the kind of players we need.

All right, what about what we gave up? Higashioka, Thorpe and Vásquez didn't do much for the Yankees, and won't be missed much. But Brito, while inconsistent, showed suggestions of being capable of filling one of the holes in the rotation.

The real problem is giving up King: He may have been the team's best relief pitcher last season, until they experimented with making him a starter, and that seemed to work, too. You can't trade for a player like Soto without giving up something of substance. And there aren't many players like him, especially at such a young age.

This leads me to ask a question: Will the acquisition of Soto improve the Yankees' offense to the point where the pitchers won't have to win every game 1-0, 2-1 or 3-2? If so, that, alone, will make things better. The old saying, attributed to Connie Mack, is that pitching is 75 percent of baseball. But if getting a great hitter means the pitchers don't have to be as good as they were needed to be last year (and usually weren't), then, hooray for indirect effects.

The pitching? Luis Severino's contract was up, and he's signed with the Mets. He had 2 1/2 really good seasons with the Yankees, but too many injuries for us to count on him any further. And Domingo Germán, with all his talent and all his baggage, has also become a free agent. As of this writing, he has not signed with anyone. Theoretically, the Yankees could bring him back, but this is unlikely. (UPDATE: As of March 5, 2024, he was still unsigned.)

Between Severino, Germán, Brito, King and Vásquez, the Yankees no longer have the men who ranked 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th in most starts made for them last season. So, in descending order by number of starts made, the rotation now consists of Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortés and... the man who ranked 10th in most starts made last season, and that was a tie, Ian Hamilton and Luke Weaver, with 3 each.

Between inconsistency and injuries, Cole was the only one who could really be counted on. If healthy, Cortés is a good 3rd starter, Rodón a good 4th, and Schmidt a serviceable 5th. And those are big ifs. And we don't have a reliable 2nd starter. That's one area where Hal and Cashman still aren't listening -- or, if they are, they haven't yet shown their hand, which could be for the best.

It seems unlikely that the Yankees will go for Shohei Ohtani: They now have the lefty power bat they need, Ohtani's not a catcher, he's not a 3rd baseman, and he's been shut down from pitching for 2024 due to his injury. Most likely, he was going to stay on the West Coast, anyway, which Japanese players tend to prefer, so, either he stays with the Los Angeles Angels, goes up Interstate 5 to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers, or goes way up I-5 to play with the Seattle Mariners. 

But with the Soto deal done and dusted, it now seems like the Yankees' big target is a big Japanese pitcher other than Ohtani: Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He's 25, righthanded, and has put together 3 straight spectacular seasons for the Orix Buffaloes, the Osaka-based team formerly known as the Orix BlueWave and the Hankyu Braves. (All Japanese teams are named for their owning corporations, not their cities. I have never liked that.) Cashman, not always the best judge of talent, has called him "really special."

The upside, as far as being able to get him? Previous Japanese pitchers have done well for the Yankees. The downside? Steve Cohen is putting his massive bankroll behind the Mets pursuing him, and they badly need pitching, too. If they get him, they will win the public relations battle -- at least, for 24 hours. But they need more than just one more really good pitcher: To borrow a word from Met history, they need a miracle. (UPDATE: Ohtani and Yamamoto both signed with the Dodgers.)

The Yankees don't need miracles. They need brains and guts. All too often, these last few years, I've been calling the players "gutless wonders." But Hal and Cashman have been the true gutless wonders, not caring about winning Pennants and World Series, only winning enough to make a profit.

They don't understand what Hal's father, George Steinbrenner, understood: If you win the World Series, you'll make more money than you'll do if you don't. George had some big flaws, and did some rotten things, but he always tried to win. Yankee Fans want their team to win titles. George listened. He didn't always correctly interpret what he heard. But he tried, and it worked this well: 11 Pennants, 7 World Series wins, and the growth of the Yankees into a worldwide brand. Thanks to international tours and movies, the Yankees were internationally known, but that's not the same thing as becoming a worldwide brand. George made them that, and Hal has expanded that.

But he hasn't expanded the winning. He's sold the winning, but he hasn't expanded it. We, the fans, have told him to do what it takes to expand the winning. Maybe, now, he's finally listening.

But I'm reminded of "Vincent," Don McLean's song about Vincent van Gogh: "They did not listen, they did not know how. Perhaps they'll listen now." van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, and it's not one of the paintings he's known for now. People see his paintings in museums, and marvel at their beauty, but most don't think about "what you tried to say to me, and how you suffered for your sanity." McLean concluded: "They did not listen, they're not listening still. Perhaps they never will."

Baseball and art are occasionally linked. Maybe the Yankees are doing what they did in 1923, in 1936, in 1949, in 1977, in 1996, in 2009: Making a masterpiece.