Earlier today we learned that the Yankees intend to exercise Curtis Granderson's $15MM club option for 2013, and Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that the team is disinclined to explore a long-term extension for the slugger. Let's see what else is going on in the Big Apple…
- The Yankees are still planning on making a qualifying offer of about $13.5MM to free agent Nick Swisher, writes Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. However, the club will only do so in order to receive draft pick compensation and have no expectations of Swisher accepting the deal.
- Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman told Heyman that he has no plans to shop Alex Rodriguez this winter. Furthermore, the GM doesn't seem to think that there's much of a market for the third baseman. "He's got a full no-trade, and his contract is what it is,'' Cashman said.
- Yankees president Randy Levine confirmed to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com that both Cashman and manager Joe Girardi will return in 2013. Heyman adds (via Twitter) that the status of the team's coaches will be up to Cashman and Girardi. Cashman told Heyman that as far as he's concerned, all of the coaches are safe (Twitter link).
- Ken Davidoff of the New York Post believes that Rodriguez will return to the Yankees and refuse to waive his no-trade clause as he stated last night. The highly-paid third baseman has been linked to the Marlins in recent days following his disappointing performance in the playoffs.
Mike Axisa contributed to this post.
Soooooo, we’re basically just saying that there’s no problems with the team and everything is just fine?
Isn’t that the status quo?
Same stale team..
That won 95 games and made the ALCS for the 3rd time in 4 years.
I think it’s deceiving. Yes, they won 95 games, but they won because they were facing inferior pitching and playing half of their games in a ballpark built for lefty power-hitters. You’re not going to hit a lot of home runs off of good pitching and you face good pitching in the playoffs. It’s a team built for the long haul, not for a short series. That being said, the big problem is really that we just don’t have many guys who can hit in the clutch. We had a few in 09, but Damon and Matsui are old and gone. We need some good guys who can hit with RISP. You only have to look at the stats of the Yankees all year to realize how pathetic they were in that category. You cannot always count on your power hitters to hit home runs, sometimes you have to manufacture them. The ALCS showed us this. How many times were runners left on base while guys like Granderson and Swisher flailed away?
“they were facing inferior pitching”
Uhh, nope. They actually did quite well against the likes of Shields and Weaver in the regular season. And it wasn’t like Verlander or Price really shut them down either. ‘Yankees hit only inferior pitching’ has pretty much never been true, and continues to be a convenient scapegoat for those non-intellectuals who only like easy non-answers.
I was checking some of the splits and you are definitely right about that. However, that doesn’t mean my entire post was wrong. I still say that a team of all home run hitters is not the way to go in this era. They need to have guys who can hit with RISP, whether they’re facing Jered Weaver or Jeff Weaver. I’m tired of watching Granderson waving at pitches as though he has no concept of what to do at the plate and Mark Teixeira pulling
the ball into the waiting gloves of 5 out of the 7 fielders on the
right side of the field. Adding a consistent hitter who GASP may only hit 18 home runs in a season, will not hurt the team.
I agree that the yankees do need to add some more consistent and high-average hitters but they are fine without it as well.
I’m hoping the Red Sox make a run for Swisher. He’d certainly would be a better choice than Loney for first base and he’d have the kind of clubhouse presence the team needs.
He is a great clubhouse guy, but I think with those bonehead diving plays in the OF would cause a lot of triples at Fenway in RF.
Did you miss the part about him at 1st?
He’s not nearly as valuable at 1st.
I didn’t. But he’s a much better OFer than 1B
Buyer beware! Keep in mind that he has a .589 OPS during the post season in 154 ABs. He will eat up average pitching during the season but disappear in the October.
I hear John Farrell likes Adam Lind 😉
im becoming a big fan of cashman, he seems to have quite the chip on his shoulder and hardly holds back his opinions. i like that.
His job is hard too with the owners he has. They are always going out and signing these huge contracts.
How is Kevin Long’s job secure?
Blaming a hitting coach is just such a cop-out for hitters under performing. All these guys know how to hit, and each player’s swing is to their preference. The hitting coach can make a suggestion, but ultimately the player is going to go with what works for them. I would love to see a team go without a hitting coach, and when they start slumping blame can actually be put on the players instead of a scapegoat. I’m sorry but a hitting coach is not going to make a player a better batter or be the cause of a hitter slumping…
not to mention that the hitting coach is not the one batting with RISP. Long has been well regarded, and has helped several of the players adjust their swing.
I don’t know about that, he helped Granderson, that’s about it. Granderson, who now swings from his heels and strikes out a ton, sure he hits 40 home runs, but his batting average is just awful. Also, don’t forget how much he “helped” Derek Jeter last year.
I also remember hearing him working with arod for awhile one winter. Hitting coach is not everything. He is not to blame all the time if a player has a down year. It is more helping them improve long term and figure out why they struggling.
That’s why Jeter had to go back to one of his coaches from 2001 to get back to form right? Kevin Long wanted him to change his stride and everything…. Kevin Long is the most overrated coach in the majors and it’s not close.
Long was a mediocre hitter in the minors and never made the big leagues. What can this guy teach guys like A-Rod, Cano, Jeter, Teixeira? I find it hard to believe that these guys take him serious.
It’s the reason why he worked with Teixeira during the winter to become more of a gap hitter, and Teixeira went back to his pull approach within weeks of the season starting…
Teixeira acknowledged that he needed to change his approach, but decided not to do it, and why should he? Joe Girardi’s orders are to try and hit a homerun.
Remember Girardi dismissing Long’s plans of changing the approach of hitters to try and connect more hits instead of just homeruns, with the Yanks manager saying “Long is wrong, we are the bronx BOMBERS not the bronx BUNTERS”.
Then why have one at all? with that same logic,managers should never get fired when their teams are not performing. Yankees always seem to get owned by mediocre pitchers, during the playoffs and regular season… I think some of it has to do with Long enable to prepare this hitters.
My point was the fact that a hitting coach really is a useless position. Did the Big Red Machine have a hitting coach? Did Murderers’ Row have a hitting coach?
The hitting coach is never praised when the team is hitting well, but is always the scapegoat when they are struggling. As the case with most sports, it’s easier to fire a coach than firing a whole lineup.
Pull a Vernon , A Rod.
The Blue Jays are tagged, but they aren’t mentioned.
Yeah, I’m confused as well
It’s the Yankees Aura. Anything that has to do with the Yankees concerns pretty much everyone.
Packers went 15-1 last season and played terribly to the Giants in the playoffs. Did they blow up that team? No and neither should the Yankees. Long season and they got cold at the worst time possible. Bad teams don’t win 95 games. Minor changes yes, not wholesale
Respectfully disagree. True they won 95 games, but if you strip out a run that started on May 26 and ended the day they left for their second series in Oakland, they were *exactly* .500 for the rest of the year — and a lot of that huge run was interleague. I’m a die-hard Yankee fan but the team has looked bad all year and smoke and mirrors will only get you so far against playoff caliber pitching. They need a new hitting coach, younger bats, fewer bloated contracts. Worst part is, not very much of that is really under their direct control.
Yanks clearly have issues but the season is 162 games and they won 95 of them. You can’t strip out good periods and highlight periods for convenience. Every team has ebbs and flows. You are what your record says you are and the record says the Yankees were a 95-win team.
In whats arguably the toughest divison at that.
Nope, once you analize how their season went, the second half was pretty bad, yes, they won 95 games, but what Dave says is true, their record was bloated mostly because of interleague play.
They barely made it to the playoffs, finishing 2 or 3 games above the Angels who were desqualified despite having a better record than, say, the Detroit Tigers.
They never were able to hit with men on base, much less with RISP.
“Analizyng” a season just based on “that’s their record and that’s who they are” is for people who know squat about statistics and metadata.
The team looked like it was second in runs second in obp first in Woba, first in Wrc plus, first in hrs. Thyey also scroed 5.6 runs per gm in the last month of the season with an injury to teix.
This is where you have to stop and look around the league. I would have a hard time choosing any other roster over the Yankees’ even if they did get swept. The Yankees limped into the AlCS in terms of hitting and they were extinguished by an impressive Tiger Rotation.
points very well take Dave, see what Cashman does to fix this!!
yes agree – very very short on mound – just need to added there – you don’t win 95 games with mirrors. Say good – bye to Swish –
Yes, you can. The Yankees smoke and mirrors where homeruns and good pitching.
They had an insane record when their pitchers allowed 3 runs or fewer.
They won more >90% of their games when they hit a homerun, and lost >90% when they didn’t. It is obvious and a well known fact that during the playoffs pitchers don’t get hammered with homeruns, so to begin with, you strip the yankees of their fortitude. Even mediocre groundball pitchers during the season looked like Nolan Ryan vs the NYY.
Just like my White Sox
disagree. Swisher needs to go. They should try hard to get A Rod to leave. He’d be better off somewhere else , preferably for him in the NL. He is owed 114 million for 5 years. Eat 74 million, save 40 million. Some team will take him if he only cost them 8 million a year for 5 years, Don’t ask for players or prospects. Anyone can be traded. If Crawford can get traded , so can A Rod. It Venon Wells , who also has a terrible contract can be traded to the Angels(and they took on the whole contract), anyone can.
Trade for a younger more atlethic right outfielder or send Nunez to the Fall winter league and make him play nothing but right field from now on. Let them see if he can be a decent corner outfielder.
If you can move A Rod, trade for a younger third baseman,. Call the Nats about Anthony Rendon who is blocked by Zimmerman and has no position.
Don’t bring back Chavez, Ibanez or Jones. Bring back Kuroda on a one year deal. Martin on a 2 year deal and Ichrio on a 1-2 year deal
Should Cashman call the Nats inquiring about Rendon, he’ll get an earfull of laughter from Rizzo.
But… can Rendon post a 0.360 OBP, 20-25 HR, 70-80 RBI and good defense at 3B? Because they would be “paying” 14-15 mill. a year by eating 74 millions in ARod’s contract.
If the answer is no, then the Yankees need to find a 3B that can post those numbers, which ARod is still capable of, despite being injuried, and the cost of his replacement has to be cheap, because you need to take into account the money owed to Alex.
It doesn’t help if the NYY get a 3B who can do it and is owed 10-12 millions a year, because then they would be paying 10-12 mill + 14-15 mill of ARod, anywhere from 24-27 Mill per year.
i’m not a fan of completely blowing up the team. our team played well during the regular season despite many injuries to key players. i’d rather see us get rid of a couple bench players (jones, chavez, stewart) and bring in some youthful guys like cervelli, nunez and dickerson.
Wouldn’t mind Chavez and stewart coming back. A backup catcher is a minor part of the team. If they are decent defensively that is fine, cervelli isn’t a good hitter anyways. Chavez is a very good backup. Look at the season he had and try and find a backup like that on any other team. Chavez only wants to be a part time player at this point in his career, and he helped the team when arod went down.
no reason to trade Arod. Lets say the Yanks have to eat 80% contract if they’re lucky. That saves them what, 22 mill in 5 years? Please find me a 3B who is better than Arod for less than 5 mill a year, because that all the money the Yanks will be saving. Just doesn’t make sense.
Regarding Granderson I hope someone is stupid enough to trade for him. Those 43 homers were mostly due to high fly balls squeaking past the short porch for a solo home run. I’m tired of him swinging at balls in the dirt.
I wonder if the Yankees will make a run at Melky Cabrera this off season. They do not need another power hitter, they need to diversify their offense and there is a small ball element to Melky’s game. I wouldn’t expect a 800 OPS but a decent switching hitting, makes contact, corner outfielder with some speed. He wouldn’t be the first Yankee to be implicated with PEDs.
Grady Sizemore on a one year deal might be a low risk high return option. He is only 30 years old. Hey if the Orioles can get that type of return from Nate McClouth, I think Sizemore if worth the chance.
I’d love Melky again in NY, he always was good and could hit in the late innings, BUT… they won’t sign him because he was a cancer to Canó, they were always in clubs late at night. The Yankees organization even reprimanded both for doing that, and resorted to trading Melky when they kept doing it.
There were even reports of Melky and Canó partying together during the playoffs, but it has not been confirmed.
If you are a team who plans on the Post Season like the Yankees, Rangers, Orioles etc. You do not want Swisher. He does not hit after game 162.
orioles lol
Wouldn’t be so quick to put the Orioles in there as there are a lot of players who could have put of fluke seasons last year. Not saying they did but I would like to see them do it for more than one year. In fact, I would prefer a Healthy Blue Jays roster alongside some additional pitching over the Orioles roster.
Showalter usually has good competing teams. The yanks he managed back in the day were not the best bunch of players but he developed them into the group that would win world series under Joe Torre, the same development that ended once Torre and Cashman began their tenures in NY. Well, the teams that were 50% or more put together by Cashman/Torre have only won 1 world series. Before that, the 2000 world series was still a team created by Showalter and Gene Michaels.
A qualifying offer to Swisher represents a $3.5 million raise… I think he accepts it if offered. He knows that no team would give up their 1st round pick to sign him.
yeah, I saw this and the first thought I had was “why wouldn’t he take that??”
I saw your post and the first thought I had was “because it’s for one year..”
For those comments saying you don’t have to blow up this team, the reality is that the team has already started to do just that. The team is old, old, old. You can take those 95 wins and file them as a parting memory. If you don’t make large changes, this same team will not come near 95 wins in 2013. Add another year to this aging ball club and it will fall off the cliff.
They will be near 95 again, they will play a bunch of games Vs the Astros, and chances are, the Yanks will win almost every game. BUT, that will be deceiving, same as with the AL West, there will be at least one team with 100 wins next year, maybe two in the Rangers and Angels, with the A’s not far behind at 90 wins.
Playing 19 games vs the Astros will give the impression that the AL West top teams were destroying the league.
Nice…..bring all the old guys back next year…..good job Cashman……good news for AL East!!!
Swisher expects to make more than $13.5M? In this market? After those playoff numbers?