Beside the enormous stories generated by the Angels and Marlins, one of the recurring storylines coming from the baseball winter meetings was the amazing (according to the pundits) lack of activity on the part of the Yankees. No free agent signings, no trades, only a couple of Rule 5 deals on the last day.
To which I say, bravo, Brian Cashman.
There was a time (say, before George Steinbrenner died) when the Yankees HAD to make a statement every winter. What happened in the past four days--or more to the point, didn't happen--would have been unthinkable.
But the thing was, a lot of those moves were counterproductive. They brought in stars past their prime, sent away players who would be productive elsewhere, and worst of all, led to no championships. Yes, there was the occasional Roberto-Kelly-for-Paul-O'Neill deal, and I'm not saying that all trades or free agent signings are bad, by any stretch. I was hoping for a shock wave out of Dallas, too, but the reasons it didn't come make perfect sense.
Yes, the Yankees could use another starting pitcher, but there wasn't a good one available reasonably. I can hear the anti-Yankee crowd shouting, "Reasonably? Since when does that enter into the Yankees' vocabulary?" Since Brian Cashman has had serious control over baseball operations.
The Yankees could have probably trumped Miami's offer to Mark Buehrle and gotten themselves a reliable starting pitcher would would immediately have become the #2 man in their rotation. But the money would have been exorbitant. That's not really a problem, but the number of years he wanted would have been. You'd have been dealing with a pitcher on his downside for two, maybe three years at the end. Does the name A.J. Burnett ring a bell?
Speaking of Burnett, there were actual news reports that the Yankees were trying to get someone interested in him in a trade. No kidding. Shockingly, there were no takers. $33-million left on a guy who can't get out of his own way and is stuck with two years left on his contract? With a 5 ERA? Astonishing that there were no takers. No, Yankee fans, A.J. will be ours for another two years, and we can logically expect that his best pitches will be with cream pies.
So what about a hitter? Surely we can use one of those! Okay--where would you like said monster to play? The two best hitters on the free agent market BY FAR were first basemen. We already have a pretty good one that everyone jumped up and down about when he was signed only two years ago. Yes, Teixiera has been a little sluggish in the postseason. But what he does to get the Yankees to those October games is really, really valuable. There was never any suggestion the Yankees would be even vaguely interested in the two big offensive players at first.
The other guy was a shortstop. We have one of those, too.
Let's look at the projected starting lineup for the Yankees in 2012, one which bears a striking resemblance to the one that took the field on the first day of the 2011 season:
Jeter SS
Granderson CF
Teixiera 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Montero DH
Swisher RF
Martin C
Gardner LF
Okay, which one of those guys would you like to replace, and with whom, exactly?
The bullpen? The Yankees will have David Robertson, Luis Ayala, Boone Logan, Cory Wade, Rafael Soriano and eventually Joba Chamberlain out there. Oh yeah, and the closer is pretty good, too.
Where's the desperate need?
Again, another starter would be fine. But the willingness to trust some of the younger people on the roster is encouraging. Let's see whether Hector Noesi can be this year's Ivan Nova. Let's see if IVAN NOVA can be this year's Ivan Nova. It's not going to be long before Dellin Betances and/or Manny Banuelos is pitching for the major league club. So the starting pitching can be at least as good as it was last year for a team that won 97 games, and lost almost the entire first half of the season every time they played the Red Sox.
I say, kudos, Brian Cashman. You succeeded in getting CC Sabathia back. You brought back Freddy Garcia,who isn't sexy but eats up innings. And you managed, at the winter meetings this year, not to do anything that would make the Yankees worse.
Job well done.
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