At the beginning of the winter meetings New York Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman commented on a potential Manny Machado deal, stating that he would not be willing to surpass the $200 million mark for the superstar free agent’s services.
Fast forward several weeks and Cashman had spent about $150 million retaining Zac(k) Britton and J.A. Happ, while adding Troy Tulowitzki, DJ LeMahieu, James Paxton, and Adam Ottavino to the team. That’s six influential players that will make an impact on the 2019 season for the Bombers. But, my question is – did Cashman choose quantity over quality?
There’s no doubt that Machado would have instantly improved the infield defensively and the batting order offensively, but his price-tag was far above the room Cashman had in his checkbook.
New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner lashes back:
Some fans feel that the Yankees were ‘cheap’ this offseason, as they didn’t go out and secure Machado or Bryce Harper. Steinbrenner surely didn’t take that well, stating:
“If there’s a narrative that we’re not spending money and being cheap, it’s just false,” he said. “I mean, we’re well above $200 million [in payroll] — we’re at $220 [million] right now — and we’re well above where we were last year. We did everything we wanted to do to really improve, again, the pitching, because that’s where I wanted improvement, because as far as I’m concerned pitching was a big problem in the division series, more so than anything else.”
He further commented:
“Fans should keep an open mind that I’m never done until I’m done, and that’s usually not until Opening Day,” he said. “Proposals come to me every day with these guys, between the analytics guys and the pro scouting guys, and I’m going to consider every single one of them.”
Now, my immediate thought is – who cares how much the team spent this offseason…did they improve enough to potentially reach the World Series?
Have the Yankees truly improved the team?
Right of the bat, I would say, yes. They added a great bullpen piece in Ottavino and two solid defenders that can move around the infield in Tulo and LeMahieu. They didn’t go out and sign a big-name free agent, but it didn’t seem like they needed to, especially with the 10-year, $300 million contract that Machado was demanding.
We spoke briefly in a previous article about a potential one-year deal for Harper or Machado, just to see them earn an opportunity to secure a ring before landing a long-term deal. This is a possibility, albeit an unlikely one.
The bottom line, the Yankees seem to have spent enough to improve the team as a whole, but there still remains several question marks that sit atop players like Gary Sanchez, CC Sabathia, Brett Gardner, etc. The poor performance of some in 2018 need to be corrected if the Yankees wish to chase No.28.