Giancarlo Stanton Archives - Page 12 of 14

Where does each 2018 Yankee hit the ball the hardest?

January 25, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

Exit velocity is inescapable these days. Statcast puts the data at our fingertips and now you see it everywhere. On Twitter, on broadcasts, even on the scoreboard. The Yankee Stadium scoreboard showed exit velocity after balls in play this season. I’m not joking. It was right next to pitch velocity.

The Yankees have made it no secret they use exit velocity as an evaluation tool. I remember Brian Cashman saying a factor in the Chase Headley trade was an uptick in his exit velocity after he came back from an injury. We heard Aaron Judge had elite velocity while he was still in the minors. Here is the 2017 exit velocity leaderboard (min. 300 balls in play):

Aaron Judge: 94.9 mph
Nelson Cruz: 93.2 mph
Khris Davis: 92.2 mph
Giancarlo Stanton: 91.9 mph
Paul Goldschmidt: 91.4 mph
League Average: 86.6 mph

We’ve known hitting the ball hard is a good thing basically since the dawn of baseball. Now we can measure it and that’s cool. Exit velocity is just one tool in the shed though. Launch angle and direction is important too. After all, the hardest hit baseball during the Statcast era is a 123.9 mph grounder that went for a 4-6-3 double play. True story. Stanton hit it two years ago.

The best contact is hard contact in the air. Yes, a hard-hit grounder has a better chance to go for a base hit than a weakly hit grounder, but hit the ball hard in the air and good things will happen. On average, fly balls and line drives had a higher average exit velocity (92.1 vs. 82.5), batting average (.468 vs. .249), and isolated power (.454 vs. 022) than ground balls last season. Last season and every season.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at where each current member of the 2018 Yankees hit the ball the hardest last season. I don’t mean where he hits it on the field. I mean within the strike zone. Some guys can only put a charge into the ball when it’s middle-middle. Some guys are low ball hitters. Others can do damage on pitches pretty much anywhere. Those guys are the very best hitters in the game, the ones who can make great contact anywhere in the zone.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to consider a hard hit ball a fly ball or line drive with an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. Hitting the ball in the air is good, and 100 mph is a nice round number, so let’s go with that as our cutoff. Here’s where each 40-man roster member — not including Jake Cave, Thairo Estrada, Billy McKinney, and Gleyber Torres because they didn’t play in the big league last year — hit the ball the hardest last season. This post is image heavy, so everything is behind the jump.

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Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, the finding the best outfield defense alignment

January 24, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

Perhaps quietly, the Yankees fielded one of the best defensive outfields in baseball last season. Brett Gardner has always been very good in left field, Aaron Hicks and Jacoby Ellsbury are strong defenders in center, and Aaron Judge showed the world he is much more than a one-dimensional slugger. Judge is an asset in right field.

Here, for reference, are baseball’s best defensive outfields from a year ago:

Red Sox: +48 Defensive Runs Saved
Rays: +46
Yankees: +33
Twins: +24
Mariners: +21

The Yankees figure to again field a good defensive outfield this season because not only are they bringing back the same personnel — Gardner and Ellsbury are at risk of seeing their defense slip given their age, it should be noted — but also because they added Giancarlo Stanton. Like Judge, Stanton is much more than a one-dimensional slugger. The 2017 right field DRS leaderboard:

Mookie Betts: +31
Yasiel Puig: +18
Jason Heyward: +18
Giancarlo Stanton: +10
Aaron Judge: +9

We only have one season’s worth of data for Judge, but for Stanton, the good defensive performance is not a one-year blip. Only once in his eight seasons has he rated as below-average defensively, and that was 2013 (-6 DRS), the year he battled a nagging hamstring injury. In his other seven seasons, Stanton never finished below +3 DRS. He has six seasons of +6 DRS or better. He’s a good defender. I promise.

Adding another top defensive outfielder to an already very good defensive outfield is, generally speaking, pretty awesome. Now the Yankees have to figure out how to deploy these guys. Not counting Clint Frazier, they have five outfielders (Ellsbury, Gardner, Hicks, Judge, Stanton) for three outfield spots, and both Judge and Stanton are career right fielders. Stanton played one emergency inning in center field back in 2011. Otherwise neither he nor Judge has played a position other than right field in the big leagues.

“DH, right field, maybe left field. Just depends on the circumstances of our club at the time and who is needing more time in the DH role,” said Brian Cashman at Stanton’s introductory press conference when asked about his defensive home. “(Stanton’s) attitude’s been great. It’s like, ‘Hey, whatever you need me to do, I’m there. I’ll do whatever you guys think is best.’ So we have spots for everybody.”

Stanton said he is willing to play wherever the Yankees need him to play — “I’m fine with (left field). I can bounce around. Wherever they need me, I’m okay with that. I always liked DHing when we played the AL teams in previous years,” he said at his press conference — and Judge has since said the same thing, unsurprisingly. That’s good. If one guy came out and said he’s only comfortable in right field, it would’ve created some headaches.

There are a few things to keep in mind about the outfield situation. One, the Yankees have a strikeout/ground ball pitching staff, meaning they could maybe get away with a suboptimal outfield alignment. (They allowed the third fewest fly balls to the outfield in the AL last year.) Two, right field at Yankee Stadium is tiny. There’s not much ground to cover out there. And three, left field at Yankee Stadium is pretty spacious, especially in the left-center field gap. Ideally you’d want the better defender in left. Let’s talk about this some more.

1. Here are at the numbers. Judge was a very good defensive right fielder last season and Stanton has been a very good defensive right fielder for pretty much his entire big league career. We know that much. Let’s dig a little deeper and look at some numbers beyond DRS, shall we? We shall.

	Sprint Speed	<50% Catch Probability	Hold Rate
Judge	27.7 ft/s	43.7%	54.3%
Stanton	27.5 ft/s	23.0%	47.4%

There is so much more to range than pure speed. You need to get a good jump and take a good route as well. But, speed helps make up for poor jumps and/or routes, and there are times an outfielder has to simply get on his horse and run a ball down. According to Statcast’s sprint speed, Judge and Stanton are equally fast at their fastest, if that makes sense. We don’t know who reaches their top speed quicker — that is kinda important! — because Statcast doesn’t provide that information. All we know is both guys are equally fast once they get going.

As for their arms, Judge did a much better job preventing runners from taking the extra base (first-to-third on a single, etc.) last season — the league average right field hold rate was 47.7% in 2017 — though the ballpark plays into that. Right field at Yankee Stadium is tiny, allowing Judge to play in a few more steps, and thus giving him a better chance to hold the runner because he was that much closer to the infield. Stanton didn’t have that luxury in spacious Marlins Park. We know Judge has a strong arm anyway. We saw it all year. Stanton has a strong arm too.

The eye test tells us both Stanton and Judge have strong right field caliber arms — it seems Stanton has to put a little more effort into his throws than Judge to get similar carry, but at the end of the day, a good throw is a good throw — and Statcast tells us they are equally fast once underway. That information doesn’t help us determine who would be the better right field option going forward! Catch probability might, however.

According to the ol’ Statcast machine, Judge made considerably more difficult plays than Stanton last season. By difficult plays, I mean outs recorded on batted balls that went for base hits more than 50% of the time based on their exit velocity and launch angle. If the hit probability is 75%, the catch probability is 25%. And on plays with a catch probability no greater than 50%, Judge made the play 43.7% of the time. Stanton? Only 23.0%. Huge difference. Yuuuge.

Okay, so what does that mean, exactly? All it tells us is Judge made more (way more) difficult plays than Stanton last season. Will he make more difficult plays going forward? Who knows! This is the tricky part. We know what each player has done defensively in the past. The Yankees are concerned about their defensive performance going forward. Who has the tools to be the better defender in the future? They both have prototypical right field tools. Judge made more tough plays last year, and maybe that means he will continue doing so in the future, which in theory means he’d be better suited for the more spacious left field at Yankee Stadium.

2. Judge has moved around more recently. Judge has played right field exclusively as a big leaguer, but he hasn’t been a big leaguer very long. He was in Triple-A as recently as August 2016. And during his Triple-A stint in 2016, Judge played seven games in left field as well as three in center field. It’s not much, but it is something. Aside from that one emergency center field inning that means nothing, Stanton has been a full-time right fielder for a decade now.

Personally, I don’t think those seven games in left field two years ago means a whole lot. Or at least they won’t mean much during the decision-making process. Maybe Judge is ever so slightly more comfortable playing left than Stanton, but I can’t imagine seven games two years ago means much. It is a piece of information the Yankees could consider, however. Maybe Judge showing he’s capable of moving around makes them more likely to put him in left going forward. Who knows?

3. There has already been talk about moving Stanton to left. A year ago at this time Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the team was considering putting Stanton in left field so Marcell Ozuna and his superior arm could play right. They’d already moved Ozuna to left and Christian Yelich to center because Yelich is the superior and rangier defender. Their numbers also suggested Stanton could be better in left. From Joe Frisaro:

“Obviously, right now Giancarlo is a guy that’s been comfortable in right,” Mattingly said. “Marcell is a guy that’s showed he can play left, center or right. We are digging into the metrics of Giancarlo and Marcell.

“We want to put the best club on the field, and what’s best for each guy and how [we’re] the best team. We are just getting up to speed, I think, with the analytics within our organization. … We’re trying to put the right people in the right spots and make sure metrically we are paying attention. With the analytics, there’s so much information. We do want to be able to evaluate our guys, and that’s part of it.”

Ultimately, the Marlins did not move Stanton to left. He stayed in right and Ozuna stayed in left. Why? I’m not sure. I don’t know if Stanton said he wanted to say in right, if Ozuna said he wanted to stay in left, or if the club determined Stanton in right and Ozuna in left was their best defensive alignment. It’s probably the last one. I don’t think Stanton or Ozuna made a stink about possibly changing positions.

Should we read anything into the Marlins considering Stanton in left field, then deciding it was not the right move? They have a very small analytics department — Tim Healey says their analytics department didn’t even exist until two years ago, if you can believe that — and they haven’t been the most well-run organization in the game. Maybe we should just ignore their conclusion entirely? The Yankees have a state of the art analytics department and huge scouting department. I’d trust the Yankees over the Marlins every day of the week, though I did think it was interesting and noteworthy that Miami did think about moving Stanton to left last year.

4. Don’t forget about the DH spot. One reason the Yankees were comfortable acquiring Stanton and his massive contract is the DH spot. They know once he gets into his 30s and inevitably begins to slow down, they can move him to DH. Tying down the DH spot with an expensive older player a la Alex Rodriguez isn’t ideal, but it exists as an option. The Dodgers, Stanton’s first choice, couldn’t offer him a chance to DH.

In reality, the Yankees will rotate five outfielders between the three outfield spots and the DH spot, not rotate five players between the three outfield spots only. Stanton and Judge are going to play everyday, Hicks and Gardner will play most days, and Ellsbury will play a few days. That seems like the plan until further notice. The Yankees will use the DH spot to give Stanton and Judge, two very large humans, regular days to rest and take it easy on their legs. They want to preserve them for the long haul.

“First and foremost, I talked to Stanton, I talked to Judge, about the use of the DH spot to get them some time out of the outfield. I think they’ll both benefit,” said Cashman at Stanton’s press conference. “Clearly right field and DH work, but I think they’re athletic enough to be considered elsewhere. But the very easiest aspect of it is right field and DH, and I think both players will benefit from the DH rest. You won’t have to run somebody into the ground every day.”

Neither Judge (limited MLB time) nor Stanton (career NL player) have much experience as a DH, but even if they did, I’m not sure how predictive their performances would be anyway. They’re both full-time outfielders, so their DH at-bats are scattered over time. Here are their career DH numbers for the sake of having all the information:

Judge: .294/.467/.647 (191 wRC+) with three homers in 45 plate appearances
Stanton: .333/.390/.630 (166 wRC+) with four homers in 59 plate appearances

Both crushed it in their limited at DH. I’m glad neither guy has crummy numbers at DH because if one of them did, you know we’d be hearing “he hasn’t been good at DH so he should play the field full-time” arguments. No. Just no. Both Stanton and Judge should get regular turns at DH in an effort to preserve their bodies long-term. These are big, big dudes. Running around the outfield day after day, year after year will do a number on their knees.

So, thanks to the DH spot, neither Stanton nor Judge has to play left field regularly. They’ll just have to play it once in a while, specifically whenever Gardner gets a day off or the Yankees are in an NL park for an interleague game. That’s the ideal scenario. Everyone stays healthy, Gardner sees the most action in left field, and Judge and Stanton split their time a right field and DH. Hopefully the Yankees don’t have to move Judge or Stanton to left on a full-time basis at any point this year. That will mean something’s gone wrong.

* * *

Based on everything we just talked about, it seems like Judge is better suited to slide over to left field than Stanton, though the evidence is hardly overwhelming. Judge played some left field as recently as 2016, and his big advantage in making difficult plays (per Statcast) suggests he is better suited to play the larger left field at Yankee Stadium. The argument is not convincing, and in a way that’s a good thing. The Yankees are picking between two good options, not two bad options.

At the end of the day, this is going to be decided in Spring Training. All those words up there? Meaningless. The Yankees figure to give both Judge and Stanton left field time during Grapefruit League play, and whoever looks more comfortable out there will probably slide over. The players will decide this for the Yankees. If both look comfortable, great! It’s a good problem to have. Let’s see what they both look like in left field first.

“We’re going to juggle it. Those are things that we’ll flesh out in Spring Training. Who do we believe potentially would move over to play left field in a 20, 30-game situation? Use the DH role strategically, play different matchups that give certain guys days off depending upon the matchups,” said Aaron Boone at the Winter Meetings. “It’ll be a collaborative effort. What’s the best fit, who’s the most comfortable moving over and changing positions every now and then? The one thing we don’t want to disrupt is what they bring to the table offensively.”

We’re not going to know the Yankees’ best possible outfield alignment until we see Stanton and Judge go out and actually play left field in games. These things have a way of taking care of themselves. Ideally neither guy would spend much time in left field during the season because they’re splitting time at right field and DH while Gardner runs down everything in left field. That seems like the best outfield alignment. Gardner in left, Hicks or Ellsbury in center, and either Judge or Stanton or right. If one has to move to left full-time, so be it. The Yankees will adjust.

Utilizing the Last Roster Spot

January 14, 2018 by Matt Imbrogno Leave a Comment

Last night, the Astros completed their pursuit of a pitcher, acquiring Gerrit Cole from the Pirates in exchange for prospects. In a way, this cleared up the roster picture for the Yankees, as they didn’t give up anyone, obviously. But that picture’s clarity isn’t exactly crystal yet as we languidly approach Spring Training.

Most of the 25 man roster is “set.” There might be additions and subtractions as the offseason eventually winds down, but in terms of what’s currently available, there isn’t a ton of wiggle room. Let’s take a look:

C–Gary Sanchez, Austin Romine

1B–Greg Bird

2B–Tyler Wade, Ronald Torreyes

3B–Miguel Andujar

SS–Didi Gregorius

OF: Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks, Jacoby Ellsbury, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton

SP: Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, CC Sabathia, Jordan Montgomery

RP: Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, David Robertson, Tommy Khanle, Chad Green, Adam Warren, Chasen Shreve

That’s 24 players for 25 spots. With the remaining spot, the Yankees could go three ways. They could add Clint Frazier to the Major League roster, giving them five outfielders and a four man bench. They could add another reliever, probably Ben Heller or Jonathan Holder, leaving them with a three man bench. Or they could add a backup first baseman, though none of the options there are all too great.

The third option, unsurprisingly, is the least palatable as it’s likely to give the team the least amount of flexibility. Using some combination of players already on the roster–led likely by Austin Romine–as the backup first baseman is not horribly tasty either, but clogging a roster spot with someone who can only play first or DH is much worse. Tyler Austin could mitigate this as he could play a corner outfield spot as well, but given the glut of outfielders the Yankees already have, he’d rarely get time out there, barring injuries. Even though Greg Bird is often hurt, this isn’t the way to use the last spot on the team.

If the Yankees go with the Frazier plan, two things will likely have to be true. First is that Ellsbury is relegated to total bench duty. The second is that the Yankees will have committed to a platoon situation. Against righties, they’d roll with Gardner, Hicks, and Judge across, with Stanton at DH. Against lefties, they’d roll with Frazier, Hicks, Stanton, with Judge at DH to give him a rest. Just like this limits Ellsbury, though, it also limits Frazier and Gardner. Might it be better for Frazier to get everyday at bats against everyone in AAA to work on things (plate discipline, pitch selection, overall patience, based on his cup of coffee last year)? Probably. He would also be up right away in the case of an injury, which is always just a play away. As much as I like Clint and want him on the team as quickly and as permanently as possible, he might have to wait things out for part of this year.

The fact that Adam Warren and Chad Green can both go multiple innings out of the bullpen makes the idea of a short reliever seem superfluous, but given that the Yankees played with a big bullpen last year, I’d imagine that’s what they’ll do this time. It’s also probably the best way they can deploy their resources. Wasting a spot on a first baseman and adding to a position of excess aren’t good strategies, especially when pitchers are always one toss away from injury. Relief pitching is a Yankee strength and a position off depth. Barring any major changes in the next few weeks, the Yankees probably should and probably will use their last roster spot on a relief pitcher.

The four possible backup plans at first base behind Greg Bird

January 10, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

One thing the Yankees have made clear over the years is that they love Greg Bird. Love him. Brian Cashman has said the Yankees internally rated him as their top prospect a few years ago, and on Opening Day last year, it was Bird who hit third in the lineup despite missing the entire 2016 season with shoulder surgery. Heck, during the postseason, Aaron Judge called Bird the team’s best hitter.

And really, what’s not to love (aside from the fact he is incredibly slow)? Bird turned only 25 in November and he returned from his ankle injury last year to hit .250/.355/.555 (~136 wRC+) with eleven home runs in 42 games between the regular season and postseason. He took lefty destroyer Andrew Miller deep in the postseason and hit six homers in the span of eleven regular season games at one point. Considering how much time he’d missed the last two years, that is a mighty fine showing.

But — there’s always a but, isn’t there? — Bird did miss all that time the last two years. He missed the entire 2016 regular season with shoulder surgery and missed a big chunk of last season with his ankle injury. The ankle injury was a fluke — it started when he fouled a pitch into the ankle at the very end of Spring Training– but the damage was done. Bird also missed time with back and shoulder trouble in the minors. Injuries have been a career-long problem.

Because of that, it stands to reason the Yankees will go into the 2018 season with some kind of first base backup plan in mind. The starting job is Bird’s. There’s no doubt about that. But what happens if Bird gets hurt again? It’s happened frequently enough that it is something the Yankees have to actively plan for. I see four potential first base backup plans, and, in theory, the Yankees could employ all four at some point.

1. Give Austin one last chance. The 2018 season will be Tyler Austin’s last chance to carve out a long-term role with the Yankees. It is his final minor league option year, so there is no going to the minors without waivers after this season. Austin has had his own injury issues over the years, and to date, his big league performance has been generally underwhelming: .236/.294/.447 (94 wRC+) in 136 plate appearances. Then again, that right field power.

Because this will be his final option year, the 2018 season is essentially the club’s last chance to find out whether Austin can hack at the big league level. Is he a viable platoon bat? A potential starter? Nothing more than a Quad-A up-and-down guy? Because he is already on the 40-man roster, Austin is the obvious in-house Plan B at first base behind Bird right now. The Yankees could simply stay with the status quo and pencil Austin in as Bird’s injury replacement, should he get hurt again.

2. Sign a bargain free agent. The Yankees did this last year with Chris Carter and it didn’t work out so well. Does that mean they should stop? Of course not. Keep signing 40-homer power dudes to cheap one-year contracts and eventually you’re going to strike gold. First base types are having a hard time getting paid these days, and the free agent market isn’t moving at all anyway, which means there will be several first base types looking for jobs in the days and weeks before Spring Training.

Among the unsigned free agent first basemen (not named Eric Hosmer) are Lucas Duda, Adrian Gonzalez, Adam Lind, Logan Morrison, Mike Napoli, and Mark Reynolds. Duda is familiar with New York. Lind and Morrison can fake the outfield. Reynolds can fake third base. Gonzalez is luxury tax plan friendly because he’ll only cost the pro-rated portion of the league minimum after being released. Napoli is a good clubhouse guy. There are cases to be made for and against each of those guys.

Signing a bargain free agent right before camp is a sound idea. The only real problem is a potential lack of roster flexibility. If the Yankees were to sign, say, Duda or Gonzalez, how do you squeeze two left-handed hitting first base only types on the roster? The Yankees already have five outfielders for three spots and will need some infield protection. Carrying Bird and another lefty hitting first baseman isn’t the best roster construction. So maybe that pushes the Yankees to Reynolds or (ugh) Napoli.

3. What about Stanton or Judge? Inevitable question is inevitable. Chances are both Giancarlo Stanton and Judge will finish their careers as first basemen. They’re physically huge and all that running around in the outfield is doing to do a number on their legs. At some point down the line, hopefully not until they’re in their 30s, both guys will have to transition to first base because their outfield defense won’t cut it. That’s usually how this goes.

Both Judge and Stanton were first basemen in high school — the Marlins turning two high school first basemen (Stanton and Christian Yelich) into above-average defensive outfielders is a hell of a player development success story — so it’s not like they have zero experience at the position, but playing first base in high school and playing first base in the big leagues are very, very, very different things. Receiving the throw from the other infielders is the easy part. Cutoff plays and positioning are where the learning curve comes into play.

Considering they play the same position and one guy will have to move elsewhere anyway, why not have Stanton or Judge learn first base? It seems simple enough. In Stanton’s case, I don’t think the Yankees want to overload him too much. He has to adjust to his new city and his new league and the new ballpark and all that. Stanton has enough on his plate already. Judge had offseason shoulder surgery — minor surgery, but still surgery — and has only one (great) year in the show. He’s still finding his way at this level.

Also, I don’t think the Yankees want to move either Stanton or Judge down the defensive spectrum yet. We have yet to see either guy play left field — my guess right now is Stanton will stay in right while Judge shifting to left, with necessary — and maybe one of them will be great in left. Or maybe they’re so bad in left that a move to first base makes sense. Stanton or Judge at first could be the best defensive alignment. I don’t think the Yankees will ask either to work out at first base yet, but it is definitely a possibility.

4. What about other guys with no obvious starting spot? Specifically Jacoby Ellsbury. He is at best fifth on the outfield depth chart right now. Give Ellsbury a first baseman’s mitt in camp and tell him you’re trying to find a way to get him in the lineup. Easy enough, right? The downside here is that Ellsbury derives most of his value from his defense these days. Move him from center to first and he might be straight replacement level given the offensive standard at the position. (First baseman collectively hit .265/.347/.487 in 2017.)

Now, that said, the Yankees might be stuck with Ellsbury. They’re trying to trade him, but right now, it doesn’t seem all that likely. Chances are Ellsbury will be on the roster this coming season, and in that case, asking him to learn first base would be a way to maximize his value to the team. Either Ellsbury could be the fifth outfielder, or he could be the fifth outfielder/backup first baseman. That’s how he would be most valuable to the Yankees.

* * *

Behind Austin, the next natural first baseman on the depth chart is Ryan McBroom, who came over in the Rob Refsnyder trade last year. He hit .247/.323/.395 (98 wRC+) in 134 Double-A games as a 25-year-old last season. McBroom isn’t a big league option at the moment, to put it kindly. There’s also Billy McKinney, who started working out at first base in the Arizona Fall League. He has eleven games of experience at the position. With Mike Ford a (temporary?) Seattle Mariner, the first base depth chart is:

Greg Bird
Tyler Austin
???

Last week we heard the Yankees have made an offer to Ji-Man Choi, so we know they’re looking for some first base depth. Lower cost first base depth at that. That seems like the most likely outcome to me. The Yankees import a first baseman on a minor league deal, either Choi or someone like that, then go into the season with Bird as the starter and Austin as the primary backup plan, with he free agent signing the backup backup plan. I don’t think they’ll spend limited payroll dollars on another first baseman, even a cheap one a la Carter last year.

In a perfect world, Bird will stay healthy this coming season and join Stanton, Judge, and Gary Sanchez to form the most devastating lineup foursome since … I don’t even know. The 2009 Phillies were the last team with four 30+ homer guys (Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez), so I guess them? Whatever it is, hopefully Bird stays healthy and rakes. But because he’s had serious injury problems the last few years, the Yankees have to go into 2018 with a Plan B at first base in place.

Sunday Mini Mailbag: Gleyber, Rotation, Infield

January 7, 2018 by Matt Imbrogno Leave a Comment

Happy Sunday, RAB readers. I sincerely hope you’re keeping warm as you read this. As I write this, I’m wearing two hoodies and multiple pairs of socks. A touch dramatic? Sure, but I’m okay with it. To invoke a common metaphor, the Hot Stove season seems to have frozen along with the temperatures. Yeah, the Yankees signed Jace Peterson to a minor league deal, but that’ll keep the stove about as warm as lighting up a single piece of newspaper would. To cope with this, I turned to social media to see if anyone had any burning questions (I promise I’ll stop it now). Here are the results.

Harsh asks: How should Yankees fans temper expectations for Gleyber Torres if he does start at 2B (presumably after 2 weeks)?

The answers should be self-evident, but after what an expectation-shattering year 2017 was, we may need to remind ourselves of a few things. If the Yankees do call Torres up in a timely manner, he’ll be making his debut well short of his 22nd birthday; he just turned 21 in December. As such, he’ll be one of the youngest players in the Majors, as he has been at almost every level he’s been at in his career; he’s never been more than 2.8 years younger than his competition and was 6.7 years younger than his counterparts at AAA in 2017. That alone should be enough to temper expectations. On top of that, he is also coming off of an injury and still learning a new position, and would be doing so at the highest level possible. It’s hard enough to succeed when you already know how to play a position, let alone when you’re trying to master a new one AND learn how to be a Major League quality hitter at the same time. Chances are that Torres will be a good player, but it might not happen right away.

Harsh (also) asks: Why are/were the Yankees looking at SP when they have 5 capable starters (Sevy, Tanaka, Sonny, CC, Montgomery), Chad Green coming to ST as a starter, and a couple of guys in AAA (Adams and Sheffield)?

Say it with me, everyone: You can never have too much pitching. I’m a big fan of the Yankee rotation, but to play Devil’s Advocate for a moment, there are some question marks. What if Masahiro Tanaka keeps giving up homers at a high clip? What if 2017 was an extreme outlier or Luis Severino? What if CC Sabathia falls off a cliff, as old guys are prone to doing? What if Sonny Gray gets hurt again and Jordan Montgomery takes a step back? Every team has questions about their rotations that are similar to these ones. Additionally, the Yankees may have concerns about the workloads of their pitchers and another starter could help mitigate that. While Chad Green is preparing as a starter, I think that’s mostly for show and a fallback option, just like it was for Adam Warren when he would come to camp prepped for starting. Green’s best role is likely as a long reliever/swingman, with the ability to make an emergency spot start if needed.

As for Chance Adams and Justus Sheffield, they’re great depth and I’m sure we’ll see them–and their upsides–at some point in 2018, but if they’re major parts of the rotation this year, something may have gone wrong. Getting another starter allows the Yankees to be more patient with Adams and Sheffield and bring them up when their time is right, not just when the team’s time is right.

Rich asks: 2018 Yankees as Star Wars characters?

In the interest of brevity, I’m going to limit this to one character and one player, the first thought that I had: David Robertson as BB-8. Both are relatively ‘compact’ and both are very good at getting those around them out of tight spots.

Nick asks: Is it possible the limited prospect sacrifice for Stanton jaded Yankee fans into thinking one doesn’t need to sacrifice quality pieces to bring back value? The outrage over dealing a Clint Frazier for an average to above average MLB arm seems silly.

Part of me agrees wholeheartedly with Nick’s first assertion. Consciously or not, we’ve got the robbery that was the Giancarlo Stanton trade in our minds and we’ve forgotten what a real MLB trade looks like. Then again, we were also told that the Yankees made and were rejected on offers for Chris Archer and Michael Fulmer, which is a ‘nice’ dose of reality. As to Nick’s second point, again, my gut is to agree. The thought of trading a prospect for a need shouldn’t scare anyone off. But as I laid out a few weeks ago, not all trade targets are created equally. I’m fine with trading Frazier in the right deal, but it has to be the right deal. Despite what I said above, the Yankees do have five capable starters and could go without trading for a sixth. Holding out on trading Frazier until you make sure you’re getting back talent and control seems most prudent.

Sam asks: Given where the Yankees are today what combo do you start at 3B/2B on opening day?

As the team is currently constituted, I might bite the bullet and roll with Miguel Andujar at third and a platoon of Tyler Wade and Ronald Torreyes at second, with the latter two submitting to Gleyber as soon as he’s ready. With Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and a hopefully healthy Greg Bird, the Yankees can absorb a bit of lost offense at those positions. Wade and Andujar have offensive upside–even if it’s in different ways–and Toe is a competent defender who can put together good at bats. Wade is also a good defender. This combo should be able to hold down the fort. If not, a veteran who can play either position, like Stephen Drew or Howie Kendrick, might be worth a shot. He .could then slide to a bench role with minimal fuss or long-term damage once a solution–Torres–presented itself.

The Yankees are likely taking the long view with the infield. My guess is that they’re going to go hard after Manny Machado when he is a free agent and they won’t want anyone blocking third. This will shift Torres to second with Didi Gregorius still at shortstop. That means that Andujar probably won’t be with the organization long term. It’s possible (probable?) that if the Yankees sign Machado, Andujar will be traded.

Rob, a Mets fan asks: Will the Mets ever win anything in my lifetime? Plz advise

No.

Next Steps

December 24, 2017 by Matt Imbrogno Leave a Comment

2019. That was supposed to be the year that the Yankees were going to be legitimate contenders. That’s what I thought when they sold off players in 2016. That’s what I thought when 2017 started. The Yankees were rebuilding. Well, that lasted all of five minutes.

The team rode a hot start in April all the way to the seventh game of the ALCS, falling to the eventual world champions. Considering that I thought the 2017 would compete for the wild card if everything went right, it’s hard to imagine a season going much better. What, then, is progress for this team, a team that overshot expectations and seems to have ‘arrived’ well ahead of schedule?

If we go the most literal route, then a World Series appearance–if not a win–is the true mark of progress for the 2018 Yankees. On its face, this seems to give credence to the old Steinbrenner/Jeter “World Series or the year is a failure” mentality, that most of you reading this have long abandoned. Still, it’s not necessarily wrong….just not because of that mindset. Rather, the team was obviously strong last year and has improved this year, just by adding Giancarlo Stanton. If (when) they add a pitcher, the team is likely to be even stronger. A World Series appearance–with the usual ‘playoffs are pretty random’ caveat– is a definite reality for this team in ways that it hasn’t been for the Yankees since 2012.

If we go the more nuanced route–at the team level, that is–then a division title is certainly an indicator of progress. The Yankees weren’t able to get that last year, but should be able to do it this year. Taking the dispassionate angle, winning a division is probably more indicative of success than winning 11 or 12 games in the month of October. But if this team won a division and fell short of at least returning to the ALCS, I think we’d be rightly disappointed.

On a more granular level–the player level–success can take all different forms. For Aaron Hicks and Greg Bird, health and consistency would mark progress. For Gary Sanchez, it’s blocking balls in the dirt. For Aaron Judge, it’s lowering his strikeout rate a bit. Didi Gregorius has to find a way to keep up his semi-powerful power.

Masahiro Tanaka needs to rein in the dingers. Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery need to build on their levels of success.

This is all a bit roundabout and a bit vague and general I admit. So, to me, what would progress be? It would be moving into the mid 90’s for wins. It would be winning the division. It would be making it back to the ALCS. Those are all things this team is capable of doing. Baseball has a funny way of messing with your plans and expectations for progress, but if you steel against that–as the Yankees have with their lineup and seem to be doing with their rotation–things can bounce your way. This is a team that should have things bounce their way.

Thoughts after the Yanks trade for Giancarlo freaking Stanton

December 11, 2017 by Mike Leave a Comment

It came together so quickly. Less that 24 hours after the Giants and Cardinals publicly declared themselves out on Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees swooped in to grab the reigning NL MVP and MLB home run king over the weekend for the bargain price of Starlin Castro, Jorge Guzman, and Jose Devers. Pretty incredible. The press conference is at 2pm ET today. I imagine it’ll be on MLB Network and MLB.com. (Update: YES will have it for sure.) There’s a lot to say about this trade. More than should be squeezed into one post. Let’s start with some miscellaneous thoughts.

1. Know what I love about this trade? The Yankees are back to being the Evil Empire. They went out and got the biggest name and the best player available even though they didn’t really need him. It was an old school George Steinbrenner move made with those new school “wow the Yankees got a great deal” smarts. Didn’t trade top prospects, didn’t give up draft picks, didn’t blow up the luxury tax plan, nothing like that. The Yankees used to be a rich team that threw money at everything. Now they’re rich and smart. I truly believe it is good for baseball when the Yankees are a great team and everyone hates them. The Yankees being the villain is good for the sport, and the Yankees are back to being that villain. It’s also good for baseball that a player like Stanton is now in the game’s largest market. This past season a lot of outsiders fell in love with the young plucky underdog Yankees, though that was never going to last. The Evil Empire is back and it is glorious.

2. This is the epitome of a “too good to pass up” trade. I don’t think the Yankees had any intention of seriously pursuing Stanton when they went into the offseason, even after asking about him at the trade deadline. Another corner outfielder and more right-handed power was hardly a priority. The Yankees did what they always do. They kept an eye on the market, and if the stars aligned and they could get themselves a good deal on a great player, they’d pounce. And that’s exactly what happened. Stanton backed the Marlins into a corner with his no-trade clause, and with Miami’s leverage basically non-existent, the Yankees took advantage. That’s pretty much all there is to it. Stanton fell right into their laps. It takes a perfect storm for a deal like this to come together. It takes a great player, a team desperate to unload him, and an opportunistic team ready to take advantage. Brian Cashman & Co. are nothing if not opportunistic.

3. Speaking of being opportunistic, the Stanton trade is eerily similar to the Alex Rodriguez trade. During the 2003-04 offseason, A-Rod had just completed his age 27 season, in which he led the league in home runs and was named MVP. Yet his team was so desperate to unload his contract that they traded him to the Yankees for pennies on the dollar and ate money to make it happen. Stanton just completed his age 27 season, a season in which he led the league in homers and was named MVP. And yet, his team was so desperate to unload his contract that they traded him to the Yankees for pennies on the dollar and ate money to make it happen. Both contracts included an opt-out clause too. Stanton can opt out in three years. A-Rod opted out four years after the trade. Pretty freaky how similar the A-Rod and Stanton situations are, huh? The A-Rod trade was great. The problem was giving him a ten-year contract at age 32, after he opted out. Stanton is signed “only” through age 37, and his salary for luxury tax purposes is more favorable than A-Rod’s was during his contract. I would be quite surprised if the Yankees give Giancarlo a massive A-Rod contract should he opt out in a few years, though let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

4. Let’s take a second to remember how this all came together. It took a series a moves — a series of opportunistic moves, to use that word again — to get from Point A to Stanton. Here’s a recap:

Traded Adam Warren to the Cubs for Castro, who’d been pushed out by Ben Zobrist.
Traded four prospects no one misses for Aroldis Chapman, who’s trade value was kaput.
Traded Chapman to the Cubs, who were contending thanks in part to Zobrist, to get Warren back.
Re-signed Chapman as a free agent after the season.
Traded Castro to the Marlins for Stanton, who were desperate to unload his contract.

Pretty ridiculous. There are some other branches on the trade tree — the Yankees traded Brian McCann to the Astros for Guzman, who is going to the Marlins in the Stanton — but that’s the gist of it. This started as Warren (and Brendan Ryan!) for Castro and ballooned into Giancarlo (joining Warren!) in pinstripes. What the what.

5. So apparently I’ve been calculating luxury tax salaries wrong for traded players all these years? I was under the impression that once a player is traded, his luxury tax hit is recalculated based on the remainder of his contract. That is not the case though. Stanton’s huge 13-year, $325M contract has a $25M average annual value (and thus luxury tax hit). There are ten years and $295M left on the contract, so I thought his luxury tax hit going forward would be $29.5M. Apparently not. It is still $25M. Huh. That means I’ve been wrong all these years with guys like Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Castro, who the Yankees acquired in the middle of multi-year contracts. My bad, folks. Anyway, Ken Rosenthal says Stanton’s luxury tax hit going forward will be $22M because the $30M the Marlins will pay Stanton if he doesn’t opt out reduces the luxury tax burden on the Yankees. The Yankees might never actually see a dime of that $30M because Stanton may opt out, but they still get the tax credit. Pretty awesome. The Yankees have Stanton with a $22M luxury tax hit, and when you subtract out Castro, they only increased their 2018 luxury tax payroll roughly $11M with the trade. They still have about $20M in payroll space before reaching the $197M luxury tax threshold, though keep in mind they have to leave some of that open for midseason call-ups and additions. There’s still enough money to make more moves though. The Yankees just gave up a painless package for the largest contract in the sport, and it doesn’t even blow up the luxury tax plan. Amazing.

6. To state the obvious, assuming a ten-year contract and $265M in salary obligation is quite risky. The luxury tax hit may only be $22M a year, but the Yankees are on the hook for $265M in real dollars once you subtract out the $30M they’d get from Miami should Stanton not opt out. The good news is Giancarlo is only 28 — he turned 28 last month, so he’ll spend all of next season at that age — so the contract doesn’t take him into his 40s. That’s still a lot of years and a lot of money. It’s risky. That’s just the way it is. At same time, Stanton’s contract is probably going to look pretty good about 14 months from now, after Bryce Harper signs his inevitable monster contract. Think about it. The Yankees have Stanton at $22M against the luxury tax. Harper could end up at $40M against the luxury tax. Is Stanton as good as Harper? No, I don’t think so. I’d take Harper’s next ten seasons over Stanton’s next ten seasons, no question. But is the difference between Stanton and Harper on the field as great as the difference between Stanton’s contract and Harper’s upcoming contract? Almost certainly not. As big and as scary as Stanton’s contract is, it’s going to look a whole lot better once Bryce gets his payday.

7. It stands to reason adding Stanton will take the Yankees out of the running for Harper next offseason. I mostly agree with that — I’d never completely rule out the Yankees pursuing a generational talent like Harper — though I don’t think the Stanton addition means the Yankees will automatically steer clear of another monster contract. Instead of Harper, they might instead shift their focus next winter to Manny Machado, who’d address an obvious long-term need at third base. After all, second base is wide open for Gleyber Torres now. I’m a Miguel Andujar fan. You know that if you’ve read RAB long enough. But you don’t let a guy like Andujar stand in the way of adding Machado. I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s see how the season goes for everyone, what the payroll and luxury tax situations look like going into next winter, then circle back and talk about Machado (and Harper).

8. So what’s the best outfield alignment? Given their size, both Stanton and Aaron Judge are deceptively good defensive right fielders. Stanton is at +23 DRS over the last three seasons, including +10 DRS in 2017. Judge was at +9 DRS this year. Left field is pretty spacious at Yankee Stadium, so, in a perfect world, the Yankees would keep Brett Gardner out there. There’s more to range than pure speed (reads and routes are important too), but Statcast’s sprint speed says Judge (27.7 feet per second) is slightly faster than Stanton (27.5 feet per second), so that doesn’t help us figure out who is better suited for left. Stanton has played right field exclusively in the big leagues. So has Judge, though at least he played seven games in left field in Triple-A last year. Right now, I have no idea whether it would be best to keep Judge in right and move Stanton to left on the days they both play the field, or keep Stanton in right and move Judge to left. This might be one of those things the Yankees have to figure out in Spring Training. Get them both some looks out in left field during Grapefruit League play and see who is more comfortable. Chances are the players will make the decision for the Yankees.

9. It is entirely possible the best outfield alignment has Stanton at DH, but not for defensive reasons. For health reasons. He’s had some injury problems in his career, most notably a series of lower body injuries (groin in 2016, knee in 2012, hamstring in several years), and giving him the majority of the at-bats at DH could keep him healthy, both short and long-term. The Yankees have a lot invested in Stanton financially. They want to get as much out of him as possible, and the key to a more productive Stanton down the road could be giving him more DH time now. The same is true of Judge. These are two massive humans — Judge is listed at 6-foot-7 and 282 lbs., and Stanton isn’t far behind him at 6-foot-6 and 245 lbs. — and the more running around they do, the worse it’ll be for their legs. The Yankees would surely love to use the DH spot to get Judge off his feet regularly as well, but the fact of the matter is Stanton has to be the priority because of his contract. The Yankees don’t have much invested in Judge. If things ever go south in the future, they can non-tender him if necessary. There’s no walking away from Stanton. Given his history of leg injuries, giving Giancarlo the majority of the playing time at DH could be the best thing going forward.

10. The outfield alignment is boring. The batting order is much more fun. There is how I would fill out the lineup card if I were manager Aaron Boone (it’s still weird writing that):

LF Brett Gardner
RF Aaron Judge
DH Giancarlo Stanton
C Gary Sanchez
SS Didi Gregorius
1B Greg Bird
CF Aaron Hicks
3B Chase Headley
2B TBD

Don’t get too hung up on the outfield spots and the DH spot. I’m not worried about who plays where right now, just who hits where. Anyway, yeah, that’s my lineup. Judge is the better on-base player and Stanton is the better power hitter, so Judge before Stanton seems the way to go to me, not Stanton before Judge. I’ve seen some folks in the comments and on Twitter say Bird or Didi should hit third to break up the righties, and while I get it, it seems unnecessary. Among the 111 right-handed hitters who batted at least 300 times against right-handed pitchers this past season, Judge ranked second behind Mike Trout with a 179 wRC+. Stanton was ninth with a 144 wRC+ and Sanchez was 21st with a 130 wRC+. These are not your run of the mill right-handed hitters. These dudes crush righties. I say stack them up high in the lineup and let ’em eat. Maybe Bird will stay healthy and mash, and force a move to the three spot. That’d be cool. Right now though, squeezing Bird or Didi in there to split up the righties, and thus knocking Stanton and Sanchez down a spot, is unnecessary in my opinion.

11. So that TBD I have at second base, what’s going to happen there? This is something we’re going to have to discuss more in the coming days and weeks, but my guess right now is the Yankees will look for a low cost veteran to plug in for the time being, and if nothing really comes along, they’ll stick with their internal options. Those internal options being Ronald Torreyes or Tyler Wade (or Thairo Estrada?) until Torres is ready. If the Yankees don’t sign a free agent for second base, boy oh boy are the calls for Gleyber to start at second going to be loud in Spring Training. I think the chances of Torres breaking camp with the team next year are much better than they were this year, though I still think the Yankees would send him down to Triple-A Scranton for a few weeks, for two reasons. One, to make sure he’s back up to speed after suffering a major elbow injury and missing half the season. I mean, that’s obvious. Give the kid a chance to shake off the rust in a low pressure environment — Torres only had 96 plate appearances with the RailRiders before the injury, and has 235 above Single-A total, so it’s not like the extra at-bats would be a bad thing — before asking him to take over second base. And two, service time. The Yankees usually don’t manipulate service time, but in this case, it is worthwhile. Two weeks in Triple-A in 2018 equals gaining control of Gleyber’s age 27 season in 2024. That is pretty huge. We’re talking about buying a peak year of a potentially great player. Possibly his career year. The Yankees didn’t manipulate Judge’s service time because he’s already 25 and under control through his prime. That wouldn’t be the case with Torres. There is definitely something to be said for taking the best players regardless of service time. In this case, the potential reward is too great to not send Gleyber down for a bit, second base situation be damned.

12. Literally the only thing I do not like about the trade is that it adds more strikeouts to the lineup, but that is more of a minor nuisance than a major problem. Stanton is effectively replacing Matt Holliday in the lineup and Holliday struck out a ton this season (26.7%). Travis Sawchik wrote a neat post examining some adjustments Stanton made at the plate this past season, specifically the way he closed up his stance, which stops him from flying open and swinging through pitches on the outer half, and the result was a significant drop in strikeout rate:

Stanton cut his strikeout rate from 29.8% in 2016 to a career low 23.6% in 2017, which was only a bit north of the 21.6% league average. Two extra strikeouts per 100 plate appearances. Not a huge deal. His previous career low was a 26.6% strikeout rate in 2014. Stanton has made adjustments to cut down on his strikeout rate and that’s great. He’s still going to strike out a bunch. The Yankees ran into some problems at times last season (especially in the postseason) when they couldn’t put the ball in play, and adding Stanton won’t solve that. But, when you’re getting the game’s premier power hitter in his prime, you live with the strikeouts because the reward is so great.

13. I can’t help but feel a little bad for Castro. He spent all those years with the Cubs while they rebuilt, got to the NLCS with them in 2015, then was traded away the offseason before they won the World Series. He went through all the rebuilding pain without reaping any of the reward. Now Castro spent two seasons with the Yankees, made it to the ALCS this year, and got traded right before the club looks poised to take off. That must suck. This is a business though. That’s the way it goes. I can’t imagine Starlin will be with the Marlins long — they’re probably going to flip him elsewhere for prospects since he’s making real money ($22M total from 2018-19) — so maybe he’ll get traded to a contender (the Angels and Mets jump to mind as possible landing spots). The timing just stinks. Castro was with the Cubs and got traded before they won the World Series. He was with the Yankees and now they traded him right when it looks like they’re on the verge of being a powerhouse. Poor Starlin.

14. This is another one of those things worth a full post (or a series of posts) at some point in the future, but Clint Frazier is going to shopped around for a starting pitcher now, isn’t he? I like Clint, he’s pretty awesome, but Stanton and Judge aren’t going anywhere, so he is capital-B Blocked as a corner outfielder. It only makes sense to put him out there on the trade market and see what offers come along. The Yankees could try to package Frazier for an established controllable big leaguer like, say, Gerrit Cole or Sean Manaea or Danny Duffy, though I wonder if they’ll look to trade him for a pitcher version of Frazier. A young guy with a some MLB time under his belt who is not yet established in the show. A prospect-for-prospect challenge trade, essentially. Someone like Diamondbacks lefty Anthony Banda (they have to replace J.D. Martinez) or Braves lefties Max Fried or Luiz Gohara (Matt Kemp and Nick Markakis are sooo bad) might work. I dunno. Just spitballin’ here. A trade doesn’t have to happen now. The Yankees could hang on to Frazier and stash him in Triple-A when the season starts, then see what materializes at the trade deadline. This isn’t something that has to be taken care of right now, before Spring Training. My point is it’s just hard to see where Frazier fits now. Cashman and his staff wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they didn’t at least put Clint’s name out there to see what kind of return they’d get.

15. A cool thing about the trade is that the Yankees gave up lower level prospects in Guzman and Devers. Guzman is really good, he could be a top 100 guy by midseason next year, but he’s yet to pitch in a full season league. Devers is in rookie ball. You trade guys that far away from MLB for a dude like Stanton every single time. Anyway, my larger point is that the Yankees didn’t give up any of their upper level depth pieces. They kept Frazier, they kept Wade, they kept Billy McKinney, they kept Luis Cessa, they kept guys like that. Are they great? No. But they’re useful pieces who are a phone call away. Keeping Cessa means no scrambling for a spot starter at midseason, for example. I thought the Marlins would seek upper level talent in their salary dump trades but that has not been the case. Not with the Stanton trade and not with the Dee Gordon trade. They went with lower level players who aren’t particularly close to contributing at the big league level. The Yankees got Stanton and got to keep their depth players. That shouldn’t be overlooked. One of the reasons the Yankees look so formidable going forward is the way they’ve been able to raise their own internal replacement level, if that makes sense. They have quality players waiting in Triple-A as reserves.

16. Beyond his on-field impact, Stanton is going to boost television ratings as well as ticket and merchandise sales massively. The Yankees were already trending up in ratings and attendance. They’re going to jump even more now. Stanton is one of the few players in baseball whose value transcends what he does on the field. He puts butts in the seats and gets people to tune in regularly. Know what the Yankees should do now? They should open the gates a little earlier prior to home games so fans can watch batting practice. Gates open two hours before first pitch now, so by time you walk in the door, the Yankees are pretty much done with batting practice. You get to see the bench guys hit their final round and that’s it. Open the gates a half-hour earlier and fans will get to see Stanton and Judge do their thing, and as someone who has seen both of them take batting practice multiple times, it is fun as hell. The Yankees wouldn’t necessarily make money from that (other than getting 30 extra minutes of concession sales) but it would still be a cool thing to do for fans. If they don’t want to do it every single game, maybe do it once a homestand or something. Make these great players more accessible. There’s the Judge’s Chambers in right field. Put Stanton Island in the left field bleachers or something. Market the hell out of them.

17. And finally, wow does the trade look terrible for MLB and the Marlins. The Bruce Sherman/Derek Jeter ownership group bought the Marlins for $1.2 billion a few weeks ago and now they’re crying poor and salary dumping their best players because they came into this venture without much capital. They’re already looking for new investors for a cash infusion. They don’t have any money and I don’t see much of a plan to make the team competitive down the road. Their only focus seems to be eliminating debt. What are the odds the Marlins are going to spend all that revenue sharing money they receive next year on players? The Sherman/Jeter group knew the team’s financial situation going into the purchase and so did MLB. They league reviews the finances of every prospective buyer. They knew this fire sale was coming, yet they approved the sale anyway. Pretty terrible. Forget the conspiracy theories about Jeter helping the Yankees. That’s nonsense. Stanton would be a Giant or Cardinal if Jeter had his way. But instead, Stanton is a Yankee because instead of turning the franchise over to owners ready to invest, MLB allowed them to be sold to a cash-strapped outfit. Yeesh. Bad look.