It was on this day in 1919 that probably the single most influential trade in baseball history was settled, as Red Sox owner Harry Frazee agreed to sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees for a price of $100K (plus a $350K loan from Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert that included Fenway Park’s mortgage put up as collateral). The trade was officially announced a week later once Ruth had agreed to a new contract. The rest, as they say, was history. Ruth’s presence began the Yankees’ historic dominance and “cursed” the Red Sox to a World Series drought that lasted until 2004.
Here’s more from around baseball…
- The latest subscription-only column from ESPN’s Buster Olney lists the top roster holes left on contending teams, with the Dodgers’ rotation leading the way followed by the Orioles’ need for a power hitter. Since the O’s pulled their $150MM offer to Chris Davis, some within the organization are asking if that offer should be put back onto the table if Davis revisits talks, given that no other teams are seemingly jumping in to pay Davis $150MM or more.
- Also from Olney’s column, he wonders if signing Daniel Murphy could make the Nationals more likely to sign another qualifying offer free agent. The Nats surrendered their first-rounder to sign Murphy, so they’d only be giving up a second-rounder for another QO player. I’d add that the Nats’ decision could be made even easier by the fact that they at least one and probably two bonus sandwich round picks from their own QO free agents (Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Desmond). Olney suggests that Dexter Fowler could be the best fit for Washington among the remaining qualifying offer free agents, with Wei-Yin Chen and Ian Kennedy also possibilities as Scott Boras clients.
- The Phillies serve as a cautionary tale to the Yankees, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes, as a team that fell apart due to a thin farm system and little production from veterans on big contracts. With New York already committing millions to aging veterans, the club is trying to manage the tricky task of getting younger while still remaining a contender, even if that means eschewing adding another big contract in free agency this winter.
Yankees have done a great job with getting younger and still in the process of winning. Haven’t seen it in a while.
If no other team is willing to pay Davis 150 million or more, than that should be a sign that you should NOT put the offer of 150 back on the table, spend your money wisely Orioles.
If the Nats were to sign another player who received a qualifying offer, they would not give up their second-round pick. They would give up one of their compensation-round picks.
I hope the Nationals signs Chen.
I wish the Yankees leadership had the balls the red sox do , wow they sign Price and were sitting on nothing but injured pitchers Wow!!
Has nothing to do with balls and everything to do with not wanting to have a $250 mil payroll. As a Yankee fan myself, I can’t sit around and ever accuse them as being “cheap” or lacking the desire to sign a big ticket free agent. When you have 6 players earning $15 mil or more this year then you aren’t lacking of desire or will to spend money.
I have been hoping that the Orioles would sign someone else so they become out on Davis. If I were an owner or GM, my interest in Davis would top out at 5/$18 million per.
Give davis a big contract, jhst have an opt out evry 2 years
Cashman has done a great job of the transition. He knows what he’s doing. Fangraphs has the Yanks rated 6th in baseball WAR right now. One thing a GM can’t be evaluated on is the health of his players. That is what will determine their ability to make the playoffs next year.
Yankees are quite a bit different from the Phillies. They can overcome a weak farm system by virtue of their market cap alone. It is important to build a strong farm system, but more important for smaller market teams than the big boys imho.
As for Davis…we might actually be seeing a situation where a Boras client gets far less than the initial offer(s) and speculation. What happens if Davis ends up signing for 5 yrs at $15 million a year? It might actually happen too.
I also disagree with the idea that the Yankees farm system hasn’t been productive for them.
Brett Gardner (2005 draft, 3rd rnd)- His first 6 years of control provided about 20 WAR.
Robinson Cano (2001 intl draft)- His first 6 of control provided about 23 WAR
Ivan Nova (2004 intl free agent has given the Yanks a 46-33 record in his 5 years thus far,
They developed some great late inning bullpen pitchers in David Robertson (2006 draft 19th rnd) and Dellen Betances (2006 draft 8th rnd).
They flipped Francisco Cervelli (2003 intl free agent) into Justin Wilson who was one of their top arms out the pen last year
Austin Jackson (2005 draft 8th rnd) was flipped to get Curtis Granderson who was worth 15 WAR in his 4 years with the Yanks.
They turned Jesus Montero (2006 intl free agent) into Michael Pineda.
Peter O’brien (2012 draft 2nd rnd) got the Yanks Martin Prado and Martin Prado and David Phelps got the Yanks Nathan Eovaldi.
Shane Greene (2009 draft 15th rnd) was flipped for Didi Gregorius..
Adam Warren (2009 draft 4th rnd) got them Starlin Castro.
Yangervis Solarte (minor lge free agent) originally got them Chase Headley who they then extended for an additional 4 years.
J.R. Murphy (2009 draft, 2nd rnd) was used to get them Aaron Hicks
Ramon Flores (2008 intl free agent) and Jose Ramires (2007 intl free agent) got the Yanks Dustin A
Even Alex Rodriguez was originally acquired using products of our farm system back in 2004 as we flipped Alfonso Soriano (2004 intl free agent) and Joaquin Arias (20001 intl free agent).
So while the Yanks absolutely do spend hundreds of millions on free agents (Tex, McCann, Ellsbury, Beltran, Sabathia, Tanaka and Miller) it can also be said that they have used their farm (.for in-house purpose or trade bait) to net them 5 out of 9 of their everyday players (Didi, Starlin, Brett, Headley and Gardner) and 4 out of our 6 pitchers as in Eovaldi, Severino, Pinedall and Nova.
I also think the Yanks are grooming replacements for a few of our position players Texeira (Byrd),), Betran (Judge)’, McCann/Rodriguez (Gary Sanchez) and Headley (Eric Jagilio).
Yanks just need to focus on developing those late round picks
The Orioles probably have more hitters capable of 20+ home runs than any other team in baseball, so how in the world is power hitting their need?
They are an excellent team outside of starting pitching and as usual did nothing to change that. If they sign Gallardo or Kazmir it will help, but probably won’t win the crown if Toronto and Boston are healthy.