The Yankees have aggressively moved toward a younger group of players over the past month, trading veterans Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller while also releasing Alex Rodriguez and announcing that the 2016 season will be the end of Mark Teixeira‘s excellent career. Looking back further, the Yankees targeted youth when dealing Martin Prado to the Marlins for Nathan Eovaldi — a move that ultimately came with mixed results — and selling high on one young asset (Shane Greene) to acquire an even younger asset at a more premium position in Didi Gregorius. While the 2016 season as a whole may be a disappointment for Yankees fans in terms of the team’s overall record, it’s also an undeniably exciting time as the future is right before them. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Tyler Austin and many other young players have forced their way into the Majors this year. Greg Bird will be back in 2017 after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury this past spring, as well.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner discussed that youth movement with reporters, including Ken Davidoff of the New York Post and David Lennon of Newsday, explaining his palpable excitement for the possibility of a new core’s emergence. “We’ve been following these guys for three years, all the ups and downs and the progressions,” said Steinbrenner. “My goodness, the hope that you have. Then when you come up and see [Gary] Sanchez, the last two weeks, what he’s doing. And then (Austin and Judge hitting back-to-back homers in their debuts)… it would be hard as managing general partner to not be emotional about something like that.”
As Davidoff writes, Steinbrenner was acutely aware of the short-term pains that would come from continuing to add potential core components, specifically discussing the difficulty of trading away Beltran when he had been the team’s best hitter in 2016. However, he approved the acquisition of Tyler Clippard to help the club remain competitive this season and next, and the addition of Adam Warren was similarly motivated.
The subtraction of Rodriguez, too, was about creating a chance for younger players like Judge and Austin in 2016 and beyond, and Steinbrenner also touched on rumors of A-Rod playing elsewhere, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes. While the announcement of his release suggested retirement — Rodriguez took a role as an advisor/instructor with the Yankees — there’s been talk of him playing elsewhere in 2017. Steinbrenner suggested that Rodriguez’s role as an instructor wouldn’t stand in the way of that happening. “It’s very flexible,” he explained, “and it was intended to be a very flexible situation. We talked to him about it as an option. And I just wanted to let him know about his option. When we talked about ’17, it was just that was when the contract was up. It was just logical to get everything done quickly.”
One veteran that’s still on the club, but doesn’t look to have a long-term spot, is catcher Brian McCann. Lennon writes that Steinbrenner seemed to suggest that the possibility of a McCann trade loomed a larger offseason likelihood than an August scenario, though McCann has indeed cleared trade waivers, making him available to all clubs. “It was always the case that Sanchez at some point was going to come up and hopefully come up to stay,” said Steinbrenner. “So we’ll cross that bridge in the offseason when we come to it, but McCann’s a great player, too.” The $34MM remaining on McCann’s contract and the full no-trade clause he obtained in the deal serve as roadblocks to an eventual deal, however, as Lennon notes. Even if the Yankees are willing to pay down some of the money he’s owed, McCann could still impede the situation by trying to get his $15MM option for the 2019 season exercised in advance, which would muddle matters considerably.
While that situation does figure to be a complicated matter, there’s little doubt as to who will be overseeing negotiations. Per Davidoff, Steinbrenner “made it clear” that he has total faith in both general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi. Each has a contract that is up after the 2017 season, but neither is any danger this coming offseason despite a lackluster showing in the American League East.
Hi:
Greg Bird had shoulder surgery.
Yes , season ending injury 99.9999% of the time is surgery. Now go pick nits in the basketball forum.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sanchez is the next posey. He’s been controlling the run so far and he killed good pitching this last series. I’m not to high on their farm, but he is a guy they should build around
The Yankees quite frankly, have the best short term future catcher in baseball. And that’s not only my opinion. Sanchez has been a consensus top 50 prospect for 3 years. He is showing exactly why. Raw power with the bombs he is hitting, blocking behind the plate and an iron arm throwing runners out. I know this is quite the statement, but he could soon become one of the most valuable assets in baseball, like Trout valuable. Of course, someone will find something to challenge with that, but sometimes, the facts are the facts and people are soon going to have to accept that the Yanks are building the super team with power and prospects. Judge, Austin, Sanchez, Frazier, Rutherford, Bird, and so many others…
Didn’t the Yankees and their hype-train say the EXACT same thing about Jesus Montero after his 18 game, .996 OPS debut???
Calm down, give it 3 years before making such statements. This is why the rest of baseball hates you and all the other teams like the Mets and Red Sox who we have to hear about how their prospects are all future hall of famers when they simply aren’t.
Except for the fact that one was a DH and the other a catcher. For proof Yankees didn’t let Montero catch and Sanchez has already taken over the starting catching role. Yes any prospect could be a bust or not reach their perceived ceilings, but let’s not kid ourselves and say this is an apples to apples comparison.
very original
How are those Bosox position players and Mets SP’s looking right now?
To answer your question, no, they didn’t. Maybe with the bat most critics said Montero would be special, but he was completely doubted to stick at catcher, making it a completely different scenario.
Wow and they say Red Sox fans overrate their prospects bringing up Sanchez and Trout in the same value cmon lets be serious. To be fair I watched him in the Red Sox series and liked what I saw but let’s reign it in. I know it’s been awhile since the Yankees have had any solid prospects and I understand the enthusiasm but hold the farm on declaring Sanchez anywhere near as valuable as Trout. Let’s see how he adjusts when pitchers adjust to him very small sample size the power does look legit though if he can make enough contact.
Every team has what seems to be a super team worth of good prospects in their system. If you actually think all the Yankees prospects will pan out, you’re on some good stuff. Where are Banuelos and Montero right now?
Montero was traded in (at the time) a major deal and Banuelos never stopped getting hurt and has now lost his velocity.
I love how when the Yankees have a middling farm system, any prospect they have is “overhyped” but now that they have a unanimously elite farm system, all of their prospects are still “overhyped” because like every other team ever, the fact remains some of them won’t pan out.
No, not every team has a top three farm system’s worth of assets to have a higher percentage chance of assembling a super core like the Cubs did, so your statement isn’t accurate or based in modern reality.
Really, using the Cubs as an example? The Yankees don’t even have close to the depth of high-caliber prospects the Cubs had. The cubs had half-a-dozen top-15 prospects in their system. The Yankees might wring 2 or 3 if they’re lucky out of their current crop of top-100 prospects. Big difference between a 21-year-old top-10 guy and a guy like Aaron Judge, floating around the 40’s as a 24-year-old.
Lol that’s funny , posey can do it all , Sanchez still has trouble with receiving the ball low and framing , sits lazy in the crouch
Yes, that is funny there is only one Posey. He is a HOF catcher.
Was it funny to hear Swihart being called the next Yadier Molina?
Swihart was never called the next Yadier Molina it was Vasquez who got those comparisons which are silly.
The next… not the current. But still a wildly high praise comp. Hopeful thinking.
Kudos to the Yankees for no longer trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The best teams in baseball right now are built through the farm. High-paid vets, while a big part of any team’s success, can no longer make up the overwhelming talent level of a team.. I’ve no doubt the Yankees will be big time free agent players moving forward, but having so much young, inexpensive talent coming up to the majors will make this team dangerous with the addition of 1-2 big free agents… as opposed to the 4-5 free agents they’ve needed the past couple years.
I still don’t understand the McCann trade talk. I guess I am in the severe minority on this topic, but he fills an extremely valuable category: back-up catcher. Catcher is such a demanding position and half the teams in the league currently have a below average catcher or have used more than 3 this season thus far. That said, we can make an argument that McCann is being paid too much, but it’s maybe by about $4mm or $5mm per season. In the open market, McCann still gets 2 years and $20-$22mm in my opinion. Minimum. The Yanks still need someone to back up Sanchez, right? So they trade McCann (an above average catcher) pay down salary and turn around and sign a back-up guy for 2 years and $18mm? Makes no sense. Now, if a team wants him, and takes on his entire salary, and gives up a prospect, then sure, it’s a worthy discussion. Anything short of that, and this topic is closed, frankly. I don’t want to wind up like the Sox and the many other teams that rely on their top catching prospect for the first season only to cycle through 7 other catchers in the following months.
I agree, McCann as a backup C/part-time DH/1B is a fine piece for a contender. He saves wear and tear on his aging body, and his bat is still pretty good and probably be better if he wasn’t catching full time.
If they transition him into a part time catcher now, with DH mixed in, it would prevent his option from vesting.
Who would give anyone 2/18 to be a backup catcher? Your entire premise is flawed.
What kind of back-up catcher makes $9 million/year? Only six teams in baseball spend that much TOTAL on ALL their catchers. Dioner Navarro, David Ross and Nick Hundley are all suitable backups that can easily be signed for one year under $4 million this offseason. And what’s wrong with giving Kyle Higashioka a shot? He’s 26, and is slashing .287/.347/.525 with a 30% CS% in 93 games between AA and AAA this year. Or just using Romine. Even Wilson Ramos and Jason Castro, both free agents this offseason, will be a push for $9 million. So I agree with Stormie in that your entire premise is flawed.
Also, I think it’s a major push to say McCann is an $11 million catcher on the open market. Let’s look at the six catchers in baseball making that much and what they were averaging a season when they signed. Buster Posey is one – no need to include him. And I left off another, Wieters, because he had a completely different circumstance with a qualifying offer.
Miguel Montero – 28 years old, .284/.372/.454, 1.1 dWAR
Yadier Molina – 28 years old, .287/.348/.397, 1.7 dWAR
Russell Martin – 31 years old, .290/.402/.430, 1.8 dWAR
Brian McCann – 33 years old, .231/.310/.415, 0.6 dWAR
Add in the fact that he’s hitting .215 and slugging .352 outside of the Bronx as a Yankee, and it’s not even close. I’d say he’s two year, $18 million MAX, not 2 year, $22 million minimum.
And here’s why a McCann trade makes sense.
Sure, it’d be great to have a back-up catcher that would be starting for a lot of other MLB teams. But is it really that useful on a team that’s not contending? And let’s be honest here, Yankee fans. They probably aren’t going to contend next season, or the year after that. “Staying competitive” just means not tanking. They still have no pitching outside of Tanaka. Without Chapman and Miller, Betances and Clippard are the only guys in the bullpen that haven’t been awful. Fraizer is still at least a year or two away from being an impact player, and apart from the few that got called up, their other top prospects – Mateo, Torres, Andujar, Rutherford, Sheffield, Tate, Acevedo, Kap, etc. – are all at least a few years away. You’re not going to contend with one ace and four scrubs, a great closer, two good prospects you hope pan out, and the rest of the roster made up of a bunch of replacement level players. It’s just the truth.
Plus, keeping McCann on the roster is going to cost Sanchez at-bats behind the plate or Austin and Bird at-bats at first. Plus, they’ll want that DH spot free. In addition to the new call-ups (Judge, Sanchez, Austin), and other controllable or under contract players (Castro, Didi, Gardner, Ellsbury, Bird), the Yankees only have a few spots open, and they have plenty of young guys in the bigs and near major league ready minor leaguers they’d like to see get in a good amount of AB to show what they can do (Williams, Gamel, Torreyes, Refsnyder, Cave, Wade, Frazier, McKinney, Fowler, etc.)
So why wouldn’t you trade him? He’s owed $17 million a year in 2017 and 2018 (I highly doubt his 2019 will vest into a player option). You could eat $13 million a year, sign a solid veteran back-up this offseason (Navarro, Ross, Hundley) or use an internal option (Romine, Higashioka), and still be saving money. A legitimate contender would have great use for McCann at $4 million a year. So if the Yankees have no real use for him, and he can net them a solid prospect or two, why wouldn’t they trade him?
Should’ve called up Sanchez and Judge earlier. They’d be on their way to 40 and 50 home run seasons. Sanchez would easily be a top 5 defender with the best catcher’s arm in baseball. Each has a chance to win the MVP next year.
Good joke.
BTW Betts, Benintendi and Bogaerts are all still younger than Austin, Sanchez and Judge – and Betts and Bogaerts are actual, real all-stars as opposed to beginners luck possible flops like Sanchez, Judge and Austin!
And Betts is the next Trout. Ha!
More like Betts is the next Middlebrooks
Betts’ successful sample size is already MUCH larger than any early success Middlebrooks had…
If that doesn’t ring of serious jealousy..
Betts is an MVP candidate. Sanchez and Judge have done nothing but had good starts to their careers. Acting like you can extrapolate their numbers over a whole year is a cosmic joke. We’ll see how many HR’s they hit next year in a full year; I guarantee you neither of them even sniffs 40.
I’m a Yankee fan and I’ll say Betts is a stud. With that being said I’m very excited about Yankees future. Sanchez and Judge are off to nice starts but like all young players will go through bumps and bruises. Regardless I’m happy to watch them grow this season and beyond.
Agree ny1996
Not even close Betts is already a star what silly comment
Younger then Sanchez? You may want to look that up silly sucks fan. Lol
Benintendi is younger Betts and Bogaerts are same age as Sanchez but Betts is already a Star player Bogaerts maybe a notch below Betts but still same age as Sanchez and already well established in the Bigs. Sanchez and Judge are just getting their feet wet and big league pitchers will adjust. I put them more in the Benintendi then Bogaerts and especially Betts.
What do the Bosox players have to do with NYY prospects or this guys projection. I see your’e quite butthurt in regards to the NYY.
Once Bird comes back it will be a 3 man race between Bird, Sanchez, and Judge. Each has 30+ hr potential.
Ichiro would have had 30 HR potential in his prime if he played in the AL east HR totals in small AL east stadiums dont impress any one.
No he would not have. Could not even hit 5 when he was in NYY stadium. Not to mention 2/3 guys he mentioned are righties. Death valley ring a bell?
Rule of thumb subtract 8 hr’s from a NYY lefty to make it league average.
Judge and Sanchez are RHH and Yankee Stadium is not a hitters friendly park for RHH (down the line is the exception, not the rule)
He said “in his prime.” Ichiro was in his late 30’s/early 40’s with the Yankees. Jeter only had 5 HR’s in his last 700 ABs at that age, and he was a RHH who had multiple 20+ HR seasons.
That said, I think the myth that Ichiro could’ve been a perennial 30 HR hitter “if he wanted to be” is just that; a myth.
Really funny how the Yankees won 4 titles from 1991-2000 by building up a farm, then won 1 title from 2001-2016 after ruining MLB by introducing the concept of hyper-spending on the decline years of former all-stars.
If only they did things the right way we wouldn’t have these insane contracts and the concept of “small market vs big market” teams and salary structures right now, thanks Steinbrenner, SMH.
Would’ve been 2-3 more World Series if Rivera didn’t blow those saves.
You are seriously going to blame Rivera the single best reliever ever. If they didn’t have him they probably wouldn’t have won as many as they did.
The big reason the Yanks won back then was their signing of pithcers like Key, Cone Wells, and Clemens along with El Dukey. The also picked up Teno, Nelson, and O’Neil. This team had 3 aces on their staff the best relief pitching and a top five position player at every position. Nobody has that today.
Sure thing, the core 4 had nothing to do with their titles. SMH
As a Yankee follower since 1956, the current direction of the team is a lot of fun to see. Nothing against George but his methods of buying big contract players never seemed a good approach. And as the most success achieved under his watch was accomplished by his getting out of the way for Gene Michael, etc. to build a team from the ground up, well. Under Hal, Cashman, and Girardi, this one fan is enjoying things. Who ever wanted to root for Wade Boggs
Out of all the players signed during George’s reign, you pick Wade Boggs?? Leave the Chicken Man out of this.,
A very successful season in the Bronx, though they won’t make the playoffs. They did what was necessary to build a team that can sustain success into the future. I had my doubts as I personally believed Steinbrenner would invoke his fathers “never sell” mantra. Pleasantly surprised that he didn’t, and extremely happy they were able to flip the players they did in perhaps the greatest sellers market we’ve ever seen at the deadline. A season for the Yanks front office (minus Randy Levine).
Great season, they would be in a much better spot if they also had Moncada breathing down Headley
Probably the only glaring mistake by Yankee ownership, not to allow Cashman to get Moncada. Sox won that one. But in fairness, it makes up for Rusney Castillo, which was $77mm entirely down the drain. So with my terrible logic, Moncada cost the Red Sox about $140mm 😉 Hit or miss, so for them, it’s even.
Can’t call it even until Moncada steps foot in the majors and is productive (and I’m sure both will happen soon)
A *
Won’t let me use the plus sign. A PLUS season*** lol
Yanks and Cashman are doing a good job of rebuilding on they fly while still being more competitive than the Cubs, Red Sox and Royals were when they were rebuilding. It will take a good three years for a complete rebuild, 2019. Unlike the Mets the other teams have rebuilt with position players first and then pitching since pitching is oulier. But like Casey always said, you can never have enough pitching .
For as immature as the bickering in this thread may seem, it’s definitely a lot of fun to see this heated debate in a historic and still healthy rivalry.
I love the youth movement. A future outfield of Judge and Frazier looks like fun to watch. The position prospects for both the Yanks and the Sox r fun to watch. Both need pitching in the worst way to make this a legitimate old school 2 horse race like it used to be. Life long Yanks fans, but that Sox outfield is real nice. Only way the Yanks rival that is by getting a left handed stick from a trade in the offseason or Rutherford growing up faster than anticipated (highly unlikely). Once Papi leaves it’s a rivalry of a bunch of 26 and unders with poor pitching staffs. Should b fun to talk trash to a couple “friends” that r Red Sox fans
2018 the pitching free agents are great, Kershaw, Sale, Harvey and Fernandez to name a few, I would think the Yanks will get one of them along with a super star position player or two to go along with the baby bombers. A line-up of Mateo, Torres, Donaldson, Harper, Judge, Frazier, Sanchez, Bird/Austin, and Didi or Rutherford would be a pretty good team in theory.
I don’t see them looking at a Donaldson. Definitely Harper. But he’s already what 31? Think they have finally learned there lesson. (Hopefully)
Harper is 23….he will get 500 million!!! Hopefully for the Yanks!!
I meant Donaldson is like 31 not Harper. Terribly worded on my part
Yankees need to bring Joba Chamberlain back to join these over-hyped youngsters.
Yes because only Yankees top prospects fail
No, see Brandon Wood.
Who’s over hyped? Honestly the most hyped is Judge. Austin wasn’t a top 30 in the organization. Bird was like 8 at best. Sanchez is ranked high because of tools.
It appears the Yankees are building smart. This could he scary.
Just Another Fan has that good anti-Evil Empire chip on his shoulder that us Yankee fans love to see. It bothers him that the Yankees’ transition to the next generation has so much promise. Gotta love it.
You Gotta Deceive!
Bird has a shoulder injury, not a knee injury.
I don’t understand why people make such a big deal about the Yankees’ farm system. It is slightly below average at best, in fact the MLB ranks it as the 19th best.
Prior to the trades yes. But it’s top 5-7 if I’m not mistaken now.
I think I read it’s #2 after the mid season updates on MLB.com (not saying that’s the most reliable one). Prior to the season starting they were ranked 14th which is also better than 19th.
I’m pretty sure you’re reading lists prior to the season starting. The Yankees after the deadline had 7 Top 100 prospects. If you find mid season rankings somewhere, they are likely top 2-5 everywhere
Pre-trade deadline, you’re correct. Post trade deadline, you couldn’t be more wrong. I haven’t checked the exact farm rank, lately. But I believe they were #3 in the MLB.
The system is somewhere in the 2-4 range depending on what list you prefer. Saying they are 19th and you don’t get the hype makes me fear for your personal life because it’s not healthy to sleep for three weeks straight.