It doesn’t sound as though the Yankees are giving much thought to carrying both Luke Voit and Greg Bird on the active roster this season, as manager Aaron Boone told reporters today that it’s “tough to envision” rostering multiple first basemen (Twitter link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Boone noted that DJ LeMahieu figures to serve as a backup at first base, among numerous other positions, so it seems one of Voit or Bird will be ticketed for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to open the season. Both players have enjoyed productive spring showings thus far, though it’s hard to imagine that Voit doesn’t have the inside track after last season’s Herculean .333/.405/.689 slash and 14 home runs in just 148 plate appearances with the Yankees.
Here’s more from the division…
- Right-hander Nate Karns is generally healthy but may not be stretched out in time to factor into the Orioles’ Opening Day rotation, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun. The Orioles’ lone free-agent rotation addition, Karns missed the 2018 season while recovering from 2017 thoracic outlet surgery. He’s made a pair of appearances this spring but only pitched one inning in his most recent outing, prompting new manager Brandon Hyde to cast doubt on Karns’ ability to start games early in the year. “We’re not going to put him in any position to get hurt, and we’re not going to try and push through any kind of injury or any kind of soreness right now,” said Hyde of Karns. Whether Karns will open the season in the ’pen remains to be seen, though it’s worth noting that he does have a minor league option remaining, so the O’s could potentially send him to Norfolk for a couple of outings to continue building arm strength.
- The Rays are planning to use a three-man rotation consisting of Opening Day starter and reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell, offseason signee Charlie Morton and 2018 trade acquisition Tyler Glasnow, Juan Toribio of MLB.com writes. From there, they’ll use a pair of openers in the would-be fourth and fifth slots of a traditional rotation; Ryne Stanek, Emilio Pagan, Colin Poche and Hunter Wood are among the candidates to function in that capacity. Candidates to follow the team’s openers include Ryan Yarbrough, Jalen Beeks, Jake Faria and Yonny Chirinos. As has been widely expected, it appears that the Rays will continue an aggressive means of pioneering what was a polarizing but increasingly accepted tactic throughout the league in 2018. Stanek was the team’s most frequent and successful opener in 2018, while Yarbrough was the most prolific followup arm (147 1/3 innings pitched despite making just six starts). Presumably, they’ll reprise those roles this year, with Tampa Bay shuffling the rest of the pitching mix based on matchups, workload and other factors.
Tampa Bay may very well have the worst starting rotation in the history of the game. This organization is one of the cheapest franchises I have ever seen in any sport. They construct their rotation like this because they just don’t want to pay to get elite talent in their rotation.
Well, they won 90 games last year in a pretty tough division. If they can get close to that number again, so what? Just because they’re cheap doesn’t mean they’re bad.
They won garbage time games against teams who already packed it in. They were around .500 when they were eliminated from playoff contention. They only started to win when it didn’t matter. That “90 games” is full of worthless stat padding.
Factually incorrect.
Wow that’s totally wrong.
One of the dumbest comments ever posted.
Not true at all. TB was 4 games out of WC when they played Oakland in mid Sept. If they would have swept Oakland in that series anything goes!!!! look it up!
The worst starting rotation in history? They have the smallest starting rotation in baseball.
Ty, what did you shoot today?
Oh, Judge, I don’t keep score.
Then how do you measure yourself with other golfers?
By height.
Let’s see:
3.68 ERA last year
Added Charlie Morton
Have a true ace in Snell
Will add Honeywell mid season
Full season of Glasnow
And still will be watching the playoffs from their couches. Losers gonna lose.
Troll
They don’t even have the worst rotation this year.
They have the reigning CY Young, & another starter who was 15-3 with a 3.5 WAR, who they paid 15 million per year. There top 2 are among the best 5-10 duos heading into 2019. Glasnow has been a bad major leaguer so far. We agree there.
I like this approach. Why send a multiple journeymen types out there, when you can try to win in smaller doses. It’s creative, and they won 90 games last year.
See Baltimore Orioles
Speaking on behalf of the Orioles we would like to be left out of this…but can confirm.
I don’t know. I think Oakland might have the Orioles beat. The Orioles at least have Cobb and Bundy who have the talent and ability to be above average when healthy. Oakland’s opening day starter this year is probably going to be Fiers.
Tampa bay has a lot of arms on mend from tjs. Banda Honeywell De Leon why pay when guys are coming back?
It’s okay to be so clueless about baseball it’s funny. This is what allows people to laugh, no reason for anger just a “wow” to how oblivious some people can be
Snell, Morton, Glasnow and pray for snow.
Wouldn’t you think they’d break it up so they weren’t using openers back to back? Seems like they are setting themselves up for disaster if Snell was unable to get through more than a couple of innings right after that- would anyone be available?
I am sure they will have the AAA shuttle going at full speed.
Absolutely. The Rays are aware that every MLB team has packed dossiers on all MLB pitchers and hitters. Not so much the minors as yet! Do I have to paint you a picture? Duh???? But yes the owner is cheap and has the worst marketing team in history! Jeff Vinnik pleas buy the Rays!
They don’t even have the worst rotation in their division, because that honor belongs to Baltimore easily.
The Rays construct their rotation with numerous Opener- follower pitching because it works and hitters are very confused by it. Why spend? The Rays await a successful countermeasure.
U must be stupid look up stats
Yes they are cheap but they sell 14,000 tickets on a good night and let me know how many rays hats you see walking around. Starters are expensive and this is moneyball 2.0.
TB is a joke of a franchise.
TB’s fans are a total disgrace for not supporting their team. After the wasteful early years, they’ve managed to efficiently run their organization and develop talent, fielding competitive teams.
Stadium sucks and is hard to get to unless you actually live in St. Pete. Crossing the bridge around game-time on weekdays is a pain. Theyre also very corny. Its almost like their only market is children so that who they try to satisfy.
Idk, Rays are wack. They need a rebrand. I enjoy going to Tampa Tarpons games at Steinbrenner field 10x more for significantly less money.
They do make the Wilpon’s look like big spenders.
There front 3 pretty good crappy rotation check out miami…
“…tough to envision” a first base platoon???
Boone is a good dude. He’s also a really really bad liar. Let’s ask Cora to see how the Pierce/Moreland platoon did for him last season.
The real issue is that they’re carrying 57 pitchers on the roster.
They have LeMahieu. One has to go down.
You have an empty roster spot carrying two guys who only play 1st. Having too many pitchers is not an issue at all. However the Yankees don’t need 5 starters to start the season so I guess there is a way for them to have both on the roster to start out
Cash needs 57 pitchers as he prefers quantity over quality.
Best bullpen in baseball by miles…. but OK
I don’t know if there are 57 old pictures with knee problems?
Pierce and Moreland is also a better platoon then Bird and Voit.
By the end of the season, Bird will be the starting 1st baseman for the Yankees. Voit was exposed in the playoffs last year. Hell, Bird will be at 1st exclusively by mid-May.
Voit had hits in 3 out of 5 playoff games and walked a combined 4 times in the other 2 games. He wasn’t particularly amazing but “exposed” certainly isn’t the right word.
Voit K’d 6 times in 17 AB. He couldn’t hit a fastball over 95. If you watched the games, it was easy to see. Bird is the legit big leaguer, imo.
Greg, cut it out.
Bird is trash
Voit had a .381 OBP in the postseason. His first ever. What about him was exposed? The fact he never played in a postseason before last year?
The Yankees playoffs were what, 5 games? Baseball is a game of adjustments. Pitchers have maybe started to adjust to Voit. Let’s give him a chance to adjust back before declaring him a lost cause. Bird has done a whole lot less offensively while being given a much larger opportunity.
“By the end of the season, Bird will be the starting 1st baseman for the Yankees. Voit was exposed in the playoffs last year. Hell, Bird will be at 1st exclusively by mid-May.”
then he will hit the DL by early June.
Time to get rid of The Kevin Maas/Carl Pavano hybrid (too injured to play regularly for the Yankees).
The difference is that Pearce can play multiple other positions. Where as Voit and Bird are first base only. And even if they could play the OF, the Yankees don’t need another body in the OF. If Voit or Bird could play Third or another positions in the IF I’m sure they’d think about keeping both.
Bird can play the harmonica, does that count?
Cora had the DH to play with Pearce and Moreland, too. DH is a filled-certain spot on the Yankees.
Meh, I forgot about JD being basically full time DH. I had him in OF in my thinking, but that’s not correct.
Idk then. I think the answer is Pearce and Moreland are used to not playing everyday. Shouldn’t do that with Bird/Voit.
Many fans believe the Rays are some brilliant franchise for implementing this opener strategy. Uhh, you still need to get 27 outs to win a ballgame, it matters not who gets them, or when. Rays are simply doing this due to a lack of MLB starters, period. Don’t see them getting anywhere near 90 wins this season.
your assertion that getting 27 outs matters more than who gets them is the exact logic the Rays are channeling when using the opener. if you can get 27 outs easier with the strategy (which they very much so did last year, nearly leading the league in ERA after they started deploying openers) then who cares if people don’t like it. they’ll laugh all the way to the playoffs.
Not making the playoffs in that division. Let’s be real
Cash *looked* smart in a move of desperation, that is true. However, with a gkkd2 enough bullpen this method would work. its all about the reserve of arms available. A team like the Rays has good reason to tru this strategy, and may be able to get it to work, (though the loss of Venters and Romo does not help) however their BP by the numbers in general last year was not too great, and they needed a lot of luck to grind out those wins. Their strategy might be sustainable with a BP like NYY, for example, but the strategy is risky regardless. They would probably be able to reproduce 90 wins if they did not play in the AL East, but might be bucked in the playoffs.
I’m just not sure how anyone can argue them not coming close to 90 wins when this team is much much better than last year when they did get 90 wins while embarrassing the Yankees and Red Sox down the stretch… names on jerseys don’t mean a team doesn’t “look” like a 90 win team.
Down the stretch neither team was playing meaningful games. No team in the AL was catching the Red Sox, and no team behind the Yankees were going to beat them for the WC. Tampa went 4-2 vs Boston over the last 6, and 3-4 vs NY over the last 7. Overall Tampa still went 8-11 vs Boston and 9-10 vs NYY. They played the “Big Boys” of the AL East very well, but they didn’t embarrass them.
I also believe they could very well be a 90 win team, it will be interesting to watch.
The Yankees finished 3 games ahead of Oakland for the top wildcard spot. They almost blew home field advantage in that WC game. They were definitely trying to win down the stretch
Embarrassing the Red Sox? You clearly don’t watch baseball. The Red Sox embarrassed mlb by being light years better then every other team in the league. They had the toughest road to the World Series, played the top 3 teams besides themselves in the playoffs and lost 3 games in 3 series. One of those games took 17 innings lol your a joke
seema silly for Tampa Bay to use Glasnow as a dedicated SP over Faria. Faria has a much better track record as a starter.
Faria was hurt last year and not that good when he wasnt.
he’s also pitched much better in ST so far
Faria did well in about 4 months of work in 2017. And did horrible in about 4 months of work last season. Faria barely even has a track record, let alone a good one.
Boone has to keep Voit up, right? This isn’t even a choice. Voit OPSed over 1.000 last year over a couple months. Maybe that was mostly smoke and mirrors, but there’s no way they don’t give him a chance to prove he’s for real, especially when the alternative is Greg Bird and his 81 OPS+.
Not Boone’s call.
Right, its all up to the analytics team. So far the analytics team really likes Bird. I dont know how they feel about Voit though. There will be a lot of fan pressure to start Voit over Bird though.
With so few position players on the Yanks, let’s hope Aroldis can turn two at shortstop.
Few position players? Gleyber, Andujar, Tulo, DJ, Bird, Voit, Didi, Wade
Didi is out til August.
Wade can’t hit so he’s not making the roster unless five others go down by injury.
Bird and Voit are battling one roster spot.
Tulo is a walking WebMD billboard.
I don’t know how Clint Frazier gets a roster spot after missing so many games to injury. Maybe try someone who can play a little infield/outfield instead.
If it takes 5 injuries to get Wade to play, sounds like there is enough position players to me.
Its funny, I only mentioned the infield (minus the catcher) and I still proved my point. Dont make me have to list the OF (and maybe include the catchers!).
Point is, I wouldnt say the Yankees are thin on position players.
If anything there is overlap know one separate them selves Torres they want at second dj should play second tulo is fine but didi moves him to bench maybe off roster bc dj and Wade if he can hit are there there’s pieces just don’t fit neatly
I think Tigers and Baltimore Maybe up there for worst rotations.
Miami got them both unless urena step up big straily is there ace…wein Chung or something lol another kid alcantran… And another kid Trevor or something no one anybody heard of??
The Rays have too many regression candidates (Snell, Wendle, Pham, Morton) to be considered seriously. Exactly how many games they’ll win depends on who goes during the inevitable July 31 sell-off; Pham, Duffy, Roe (if he shows anything), KK (if some team is desperate enough to pay 10M a year for a Billy Hamilton without speed) are as good as gone. Then they can start another youth movement; they’re more comfortable doing things that way anyway.
For this year anyway, the Sox are just the best team in MLB; it’s not even close. And the Yanks are pretty good. The Sox know it; the Yanks know it; the Rays know it. They signed Morton just to keep the union off their back. Their opening day projected payroll is actually forecast to be LOWER than last year’s; no Span, no Colome, no Archer, no Eovoldi.
The Mallex trade will haunt them more than the Marquez one did. Bad, bad move. A move that cusp teams like the Rays can’t afford to make.
You always have the most illogical comments on this site
You wanna sit here and talk about regression candidates but then grill them for selling high on the biggest regression candidate for a top 5 defensive catcher in baseball which was a huge hole for them. Pham played like he played 2 years ago before injuries, wendle never had a big league opportunity to prove himself but once was an above average prospect, snell will regress but still more of an ace than Archer ever was, and Morton just put up 2 solid seasons back to back with no reason to believe he’ll regress. Payroll doesn’t define wins lol as the only one the Rays May have taken back is Colome but the other ones have been replaced very easily with the major league minimum and also saving money for mid season acquisitions after many many reports that they made genuine runs at Cruz and Goldy but just got beat at the end. Red Sox are better I’ll line the rays up against the Yankees anyday though. Pitching beats hitting and the Yankees rotation is vastly overrated
Nelson Cruz got 12 MM bucks. How hard did they go for him?
Any FO can say they “went after” a player all day long; why would a player deny it, since it shortens the market.
Look, the Rays are fun to watch, Cash is top-notch, so is the pitching coach Kyle Snyder. The “opener’ worked because they had a bunch of AAAA pitchers that they used brilliantly; one (Yarborough) even excelled. There’s little track record that backs the claim that they’ll repeat those efforts.
Bottom line is that (a) it’s tough to see any of their position players who starts on the Yanks and (b) the minute things start to go wrong, they’ll bail on any contract that’s not minimum. THAT there’s ample historical data for. The rotation is short, the bullpen a bunch of maybe-s, the offense highly questionable.
Ya, the baseball gods could smile on them again, and lots of things could go right like it did last year. But they used up a whole lot of that manna from the gods last year, and if everything goes right for the Sox (e.g.), they’ll win 120 games; the Yanks 110.
The division is tough, but the league is weak. They can win 80.
The Yanks don’t impress me at all . They are missing the guts G Steinbrenner had is apparent. Big mistake not getting Bryce! Though judge is the real deal, not impressed with Stanton at all. Pitching is 3/4 of the game and Tanaka, servino, Paxton, Sebathia, Loasiago don’t scare anyone…least the Rays! Relief is a crapsoot every year as well. maybe the Yanks would do better with the opener-follower? Pitching, Pitching pitching and the Rays have it in spades with Snell, Morton, Honeywell, Yarborough, Libatore, Beeks, Deleon, and many more in minors. But their ownership is cheap and shortchanges it’s fanbase all the time. Jeff Vinnik please?
Little deprg and injury prone but if they hold together Yankees staff is good now injury hits and it goes to crap
Greg bird is nick johnson 2.0 the guy has the talent but gets hurt to much.
I compared those two in the past, and of course Yankee fans came unglued. Thing is Nick Johnson was way better defensively.
and offensively
With all respect. the Rays have been very successful and you’ve been wrong on Rays trades -n-,players upside almost every time Tillman! Remember they won 90 games (when you predicted 60) and they have many options in Center to replace Mallex. In matter of fact they have so many options everywhere with the 2nd rated minors! The track record for Eric and Chaim Bloom is extremely high!. As for pitching, they had the 3rd lowest era last year utilizing the Opener-follower and baseball teams frown on it? 75% of the league are practicing it in Spring training! while teams like the Giants and Yanks complain and quietly train to use it. if it works use it!!!. I won’t argue they (ownership) are cheap though you shouldn’t argue their tremendous player personnel insight and success.
Stay healthy and have a nice year, Nate the Great!
I prefer Ruthian to Herculean. This is baseball.
Voit deserves to be starting first base until he shows he can’t play the position and hit.Bird has had multiple chances, is injury prone and should be at triple A until he proved he is major league ready.Cash isn’t going to sign anyone else unless another starter goes down .
They are putting the pressure on to see who performs. Voit proved it last year and unless he lentos down, will start. Bird could be an opener at first base
Severino is heading for rotator cuff surgery. Why do you think he so willingly signed that contract extension?
Inflammation isn’t a major deal, just give a cortisone shot and a few weeks rest, of this was near the postseason they would be more aggressive with the rehab. This is good timing if an injury is to happen, he’ll be in great shape to close the season instead of burning out like last year. Paxton and Tanaka are a solid 1-2 punch as is and the pen should hold them over. Tanaka is one of the best Postseason pitcher in Yankees recent history 1.50era in 30 postseason innings. Paxton looks amazing in Spring training and seems to be a steal.
And Happ for full year too CC lil scary but he’s a 5 so maybe loa step up or Monty come back cc just there to pad stats that why I wish they’d sign gio or hell even shields
Rays are plain cheap and should be shut down. They could add another starter and closer and would be extremely competitive. Such a low payroll makes no sense. If they can add Kimbrel and Keuchel they are instant wildcard contenders. The Twins did more than them in a similar small market. They are wasting the act Young career of Snell.
You have to understand they don’t WANT to win. If they become competitive, they’ll probably grow revenue; but the growth will be washed by lesser Revenue Sharing payments. In other words, in “real” money, a net gain of zero.
Meanwhile, to be competitive they have to increase payroll. That just costs more “real” money. A net loss.
Never mind Keuchel and Kimbrel. If they had kept Dickerson/Span/Colome last year (all of whom they got nothing for), they might have slipped into the playoffs last year. I say “might”; the AL East was just playing exhibition games in September, and it’s hard to guess at what the win total would have been if the games meant anything.
No one was more surprised by the 90 wins than Stuie and company; I think it probably scared them to death.
The situation will change, so the shelf life of that type of manipulation probably only lasts until the next CBA, where I expect they’ll be DRASTIC changes in the Revenue Sharing formula. But until then, they get 3 or 4 years of high profit.
The rays go with a rolling 5 year budget. Keeping high contract players last year on a non contending club simply made no sense. They know younger players with arb years and possible extensions coming up it’ll be better that save that money last year and partially this year and be more successful going forward. They’ve made this team much better this year and the more game time the kids play the better they are. Please look up the stats of Dickerson/span/ colome last year and try and convince me they were worth their contracts. Those were useless players blocking young kid with potential to what??…. waste money and convince you they’re trying to win because you recognize the name more? They were worthless which is why nobody gave up anything for them… you’re proving your own point. You honestly think an owner isn’t trying to win with a number 2 farm system and the talent in the majors becoming for real…. and you think he’s gonna blow that up. L. O. L.
Ok lets try to work with the facts and not make everything a conspiricy theory. I agree Stu is cheap and wants to save and acquire money any way possible (besides robbing a bank)., However he wants to win with the lowest payroll possible that seems to be his true goal. With some of the most talented Executives, he just might do it!. Besides his 80 mill p/Y TV contract and some 70 mill from tix and another 60 mill in mdse and other streams of income, he gains a profit every year while the baseball team value goes up! not the yankees, but he makes money .All the trades have been GREAT for the team, I have to say it’s remarkable!!! We didn’t need SPAN,, Colome not even Dickerson (Trsitin Grey is not nothing) and they decided on contact hitters with speed over power (Souza,Longoria)… Longo was an imperative move you also conveniently overlooked. If the marketing dept of the Rays was competent more fans would come. Simply The Rays will compete every night with less and may be buyers in July. This year all their marbles are on Yandy Diaz and A Garcia-lets see if they are right again. Play ball!
Well, let’s see…..what are the facts?
1. No, they don’t get 70M from ticket revenue. Per Forbes, they see about $20/head in attendance revenue, and drew a million. That’s 20M.
2. As of today, no TV deal exists. No doubt Disney (or whoever winds up with FSN-Sun) isn’t going to make any commitment to a franchise that’s likely to move. The “80M” was always fiction, anyway. It was a graduated payment scale that would have eventually (in 20 years) gotten to that figure. For the coming year, it was about 50M, about a 10M increase in what they got for this year. Stu has done nothing but lie and lie some more about this revenue; even his rump-swab Topkin called him out on it.
3. They don’t get 60M in merchandise; the YANKEES don’t get 60M from merchandise. They get about that figure from the Central Fund, monies that are appropriated to every team by MLB, generated by national TV/Radio rights, merchandise, etc.
4. So that’s about 130M. In 2017, their total revenue was 220M (per Forbes), which means they got about 90M in Revenue Sharing.
Per the formula developed by noted economist Andrew Zimmerman, the picture looks like this:
Revenue=220M
LESS Basic Operating Cost (75M) = 145M
LESS Bonuses (Draft/International) (15M) = 130M
LESS Payroll Fringe (20M) = 110M
The difference between that 110M and payroll is profit. So they make about 20M a year owning the Rays. This year (since the payroll now stands at about 75M), they’ll make 35M.
If they spend on payroll, and win more games, and draw more fans, they ADD Costs with no change in Revenue, since RS money shrinks in proportion to individual revenues.
They really don’t want to win. As long as the current system stays in place, that’s just the way it is. That’s why there’ll be drastic changes in the RS formula during the next CBA.
It’s also why I expect them to move. As franchise value growth slows, the richer teams just aren’t going to continue to pay to keep them in business.
I was talking in generalities about Rays team income because “NOT one Team” will open it’s books now or ever has! So no-one knows. As for the 60 million (streams of income) they (all teams) received 50 mill last year from 1 stream of internet income alone! so your figures are off. With all due respect you brushed over the player portions of my blog and in there contradicts your inference that the Rays will have regression and I don’t believe that cause the modern ballplayer can’t beat the shift or Relief Pitching changes the Rays implement. can anyone in baseball consistently hit against a shift?