The What If Winter
There is a good segment of Yankee fans that will look back on this offseason rather unfondly once Spring Training starts. This segment will not be entirely incorrect in subscribing to this line of thinking. Missing out on Cliff Lee was huge and the signing of Rafael Soriano is far from great. Though it would, however, be hard to classify the Soriano signing with the Lee non-signing. There are a few “what ifs” that are worth asking.
1. If the Yankees sign Lee, do they sign Soriano? I’d like to say no, but that’s just because I’m not a fan of the Soriano signing. Not signing Lee made (at least a certain segment of) the Yankees’ front office feel that the bullpen needed to be beefed up due to the rather lacing starting rotation. I don’t subscribe to this theory–as you well know–and losing out on Lee hurt the team in two ways. It left the rotation with a hole and it forced the team to divert a larger portion of resources than the team likely anticipated to the bullpen. Silver lining: the Yankee bullpen is fantastic. If/when they get to it, they’ll be in very, very good hands. Other silver lining: Not signing Lee leaves the Yankees with money to add during the middle of the season if a deal can be made.
2. If Jorge Posada wasn’t either signed through 2011 or relegated to catching, could the Yankees have gotten a better DH? That’s a big possibility. There were some great DH candidates out there this Hot Stove season, headlined by Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, and most of them (especially those two) would’ve been good fits for the middle of the Yankee order. Silver lining: Jorge’s got a great bat and it’s likely to improve without the rigor of catching each and every day. The Yankees are definitely likely to have an above average DH.
What I’m about to write is going to make some people call me a Brian Cashman/Yankee apologist, but I don’t care…
This offseason has not been the nightmare that many are making it out to be. As it’s been said many times, losing out on Cliff Lee sucked. But it did not, and will not, cripple this team. The Soriano signing isn’t great, but it makes the 2011 team at least a little bit better, and the Yankees still have time and resources enough to improve the starting rotation. The Yankees added depth in the bullpen with Soriano and lefty Pedro Feliciano (signing Feliciano definitely accomplishes the ‘sign an LHP’ goal) and added some insurance for Jesus Montero by bringing in veteran Russell Martin. They still need to sign a righty hitting outfielder for the bench, but that appears to be nearing completion . Compared to other offseasons, the Yankees’ splashes have been smaller than usual, but that doesn’t mean they were all bad. The Bombers are still in good shape moving forward and I have every confidence that the team will be improved again in some way by the time Spring Training starts.
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You’re right, what you said about Cashman is delushional. He got schooled by Theo and Amaro and did not have a Plan B or fall back plan. The Soriano move is a good move because he now can close out games that Mo can’t on days he needs rest, and if it wasn’t for the Hal we would still be waiting for something to happen. Cashman has worn out his welcome and I would like to see the real architect of the front office (Gene Micahel) come back
How did he get schooled by Amaro? Cash offered the most money and the most years and Lee chose the shorter, less lucrative deal. How is that on Cashman at all? His back up plan is taking place right now; it’s called patience. There aren’t any other great SPs on the free agent market and for all we know, the trade market is now dead. What would you like him to do? Throw money at Carl Pavano?
Cashman should have mailed in his $5 to get the Mind Control kit. I also blame him for the weather.
Two things make the offseason seem worse than it is: one is reality and the other is perception. The latter centers around the moves made by Boston, but they needed to make a splash. The former centers around Pettitte. If he comes back and the Yankees do sign Jones, they’d have upgraded their second catcher, bullpen and 4th outfielder, while subtracting a minor weakness in Vazquez. Also, the Yankees can reasonably expect solid, if not better contributions from guys like Nova and Montero. Unfortunately, losing Pettitte hurts, so until that situation is resolved, the offseason will seem much worse than it probably really is.
Matt, losing out on Lee may yet be a blessing in disguise. Lee has every chance of breaking down, his game requires that he is perfectly healthy. Remember, when it looked like an almost inevitable signing pundits were already screaming that the Yanks would be over-paying for an old pitcher, who would only get older. When Lee signed elsewhere, then Cashman became “clue-less” and had no plan “B”. Fact is that there where no other FA pitchers that were difference makers. The same for the position players. Crawford would have been nice but he’s somewhat over-rated. BTW, a lot of your readers need to stop watching ESPN and their web gems, they’ll never learn baseball from that mob drivel. Barring serious regression across the diamond the Yanks will be very formidable, and still have a lot of money and prospects. And over the decades of watching baseball that is the combo that I have learned to fear.
It’s like people forget you can trade for a starting pitcher during the season if you have prospects and money…
Usually the Yankees fix their bullpen and bench in the middle of every season but with the addition of Soriano to the pen, Martin at C (whether he starts or ends up backing up Montero) and the immenent signing of Jones (I’m also hoping for the long shit signing of Jerry Hariston Jr) we have taken care of the issues we normally address during the middle of the season so this time around we simply have to make a Dan Haren like trade (impact starter on bad team) in the middle of the year to strengthen the team for the final stretch.
As is I don’t see us being worse than the WC team when you consider our bullpen is upgraded, our bench is probably going to be upgraded, we are returning the best offense in baseball last year and I don’t exactly qualify Sabathia, Hughes and Burnett as scrubs. I’m actually somewhat glad Andy isn’t coming back because I don’t believe his body can hold up an entire year again and if he is going to spend a major amount of time on the DL I would rather try and give youg guys experience early and try and replace his production from last year in a trade during the season.