Yankees Offseason Plan. What do you think?

[maxe0213]

So the Yankees have another interesting offseason ahead. I wanted to put my thoughts out there and see what others think. Sorry for the long read! I think theres quite a few positions that are filled already but there are a few they need to figure out. First, lets look at who is a lock to be on the roster as of now:

Starting Lineup:
C: McCann(Obviously not going anywhere)
1B: Tex(Same as McCann, contract too large)
2B: ??
3B: ??
SS: ??
DH: Rodriguez(do we need to explain?)
LF: Beltran
CF: Ellsbury
RF: Gardner

So obviously there is a wild card here: Martin Prado. I fully expect him to play either 2B or third. I don't think he was as good in the OF but he is much better on the IF IMO as he looks more comfortable.

So lets put him at 2B.
C: McCann(Obviously not going anywhere)
1B: Tex(Same as McCann, contract too large)
2B: Prado
3B: ??
SS: ??
DH: Rodriguez(do we need to explain?)
LF: Beltran
CF: Ellsbury
RF: Gardner

What I think will happen: IF Headley is a reasonably priced player (10 million a year or cheaper) then I think we need to go after him to play 3rd. He plays very very good defense and an IF of Tex, Prado, ??, and Headley would be very very good defensively. I would then think that the Yankees may attempt to get Drew back on a smaller deal. An IF of Tex, Prado, Drew, and Headley would be the best in baseball hands down IMO. But Drew's offense makes me very skeptical but maybe the full spring would help.

What should happen: I think that they should shift Prado to 3B. Then 2B and SS are wide open. Bring up Ref and play him at 2B. I believe he is more than capable and batting 8th as a rookie would be very little pressure. SS is a bit more confusing. I'm not sure Pirela is ready for that, but I would give him a shot in spring. When looking at the FA market there is Hanley (PLEASE STAY AWAY PLEASE). Then there is not much. Drew, Hardy, Lowrie, and Asdrubal are the only ones even worth mentioning. I would look at Hardy and Lowrie although I think Hardy will be too expensive. So I think we should go after either Asdrubal or Lowrie and have them compete with Pirela in the spring. I don't believe Lowrie or Asdrubal will be too expensive and could be had for 5-7 million a year IMO. This would also make Brendan Ryan expendible as whichever loses the battle would stay on as a backup.

Rotation. This is not as big of an issue in my opinion.
SP: Tanaka
SP: Pineda
SP: Sabathia
SP: Greene
SP: ??(Nova later in year)

What I think will happen: I hate to say it but I think management may attempt to go after a big starter. I really hope they do not. Scherzer, Lester, and Shields will all be too much money for what they provide. I think the rotation will end up being Tanaka, Pineda, AN FA, Sabathia, Greene(replaced with Nova later).

What I think should happen: They need to hold of on spending big here. I would say they need to go after reclamation projects for under 2 million a year. Maybe sign a couple and see what happens. Similar to when they went after Colon and McCarthy. The one exception I would agree with is signing McCarthy. He was very good and looked extremely comfortable here. Give him a 3 year deal. We all know all these guys will not stay healthy. A rotation of Tanaka, Pineda, McCarthy, Sabathia, Greene would be very effective. And then add Nova and thats great. Having six solid members of the rotation is necessary with this injury prone group.

That leaves the Bench and the Bullpen with 10 players to play with (counting six starters above already mentioned).

I believe that they will need to sign a backup first basemen. Last year was awful when they tried kelly johnson at first as well as many other out of place guys. They need a back up firstbasemen. I would place these names on the list: Mike Carp, Mike Morse, and Daric Barton. They do not have a farm with a good first basemen ready for the bigs so getting a cheap guy like one of the above would help drastically. I believe Cervelli will be the back up catcher although Cervy, Romine, or Murphy will be traded before spring. So we have the following for the bench so far

C: Cervy/Murphy/Romine
1B: Carp/Morse/Barton
IF: Pirela/Cabrera

That leaves two more spots. I believe the final two will be filled out as follows:

OF: Chris Young
OF: Antoan Richardson

Chris played very well when he was on the Yanks and I believe he can be had for very cheap and is a solid 4th OF. Richardson is a speed guy, basically taking the place of ichiro except faster and younger. Both would be cheap and would round out the roster well.

The bullpen is where it gets slightly more confusing:
After everything from above there are 6 spots in the bullpen until Nova returns. So we will go with a 6 man bullpen.
CL: ??
RP: Delin Betances
RP: Adam Warren
RP: David Phelps
RP: Jacob Lindgren
RP: Esmil Rogers
RP: Shawn Kelley

I believe we need to have Lindgren in the bullpen. He looked lights out and could be the Betances of this year. The rest of the bullpen returns mostly intact although some were sent packing to AAA or off the team (whitley, clairborne, etc). I believe that these are our best options. Betances, Warren, Phelps, Kelley are locks. Lindgren should be a lock. Rogers is the up in the air guy but he can give 3+ innings if asked and looked good for us. The big question is closer. Now I think it is a fairly easy answer: Make Robertson a QO. I think that he will take it if we give him a QO. It will be expensive but we saved some money from Jeet, Ichiro, Kuroda, and a few others off the books (although much of it went back to AROD) and doing this allows us a nice first rounder if he leaves. If he does leave. I think we need to sign another closer who would obviously be cheaper (Romo, Rodriguez, and Janssen would be on the short list). But I would hope that Robertson comes back and firms the closer position again.



So what do you all think Yankee haters and Yankee fans? We lost Jeet, Ichiro, Kuroda, some bullpen pieces, Drew, and some others. We would add a SS (Lowrie, Asdrubal), a backup 1B (Carp, Morse, Barton), Sign back Robertson, McCarthy, and Chris Young. I believe that we would be fielding a very solid team with WHAT I THINK THEY SHOULD DO. However, if they go down the path of the WHAT I THINK THEY WILL DO, it'll be another long year with bloated contracts.

 

[BBCgalaxee]

There should be no bickering about signing Robertson. Get it done!

This year, it was a 7 inning game as both Dellin and Robertson were lock downs.

Also, there should be no one on the pitching radar except McCarthy. Period. No Scherzer, no Shields, no Lester and their gigantic long contracts.

I want the team to think that Refsnyder will break camp and let him play (unless he "Stephen Drew's it" and bats .160 during the spring.)

Sign Headley REASONABLY And look at Asdrubal or Lowrie for short.

But no matter what, the name "Drew" should only be mentioned over the loud speakers when he is on the opposing team.

 

[D-Lite]

There should be no bickering about signing Robertson. Get it done!

This year, it was a 7 inning game as both Dellin and Robertson were lock downs.

Also, there should be no one on the pitching radar except McCarthy. Period. No Scherzer, no Shields, no Lester and their gigantic long contracts.

I want the team to think that Refsnyder will break camp and let him play (unless he "Stephen Drew's it" and bats .160 during the spring.)

Sign Headley REASONABLY And look at Asdrubal or Lowrie for short.

But no matter what, the name "Drew" should only be mentioned over the loud speakers when he is on the opposing team.

Write it down: Robertson signs with Dodgers.

Rumbelow makes the squad, no Rogers.
I like McCarthy to return, as well as Headley as long as both are cheap 3 year deals.
Refsnyder is starting 2B, Prado starts year in RF.
Pirela is super utility.
Tyler Webb or Pazos fills out the BP
Greg Bird replaces Teixeira when he goes down for the season in June.

Basically they need to tread water on the offense until they can get the minor leaguers up. No offense is coming cheaply at the MLB level and the existing contract burden is terrible for two more seasons (Tex, Beltran, and ARod specifically, and also a rapidly aging McCann).

 

[maxe0213]

There should be no bickering about signing Robertson. Get it done!

This year, it was a 7 inning game as both Dellin and Robertson were lock downs.

Also, there should be no one on the pitching radar except McCarthy. Period. No Scherzer, no Shields, no Lester and their gigantic long contracts.

I want the team to think that Refsnyder will break camp and let him play (unless he "Stephen Drew's it" and bats .160 during the spring.)

Sign Headley REASONABLY And look at Asdrubal or Lowrie for short.

But no matter what, the name "Drew" should only be mentioned over the loud speakers when he is on the opposing team.

Agree with all of these. Virtually everything you said I said. Glad we are on the same page

Write it down: Robertson signs with Dodgers.

Rumbelow makes the squad, no Rogers.
I like McCarthy to return, as well as Headley as long as both are cheap 3 year deals.
Refsnyder is starting 2B, Prado starts year in RF.
Pirela is super utility.
Tyler Webb or Pazos fills out the BP
Greg Bird replaces Teixeira when he goes down for the season in June.

Basically they need to tread water on the offense until they can get the minor leaguers up. No offense is coming cheaply at the MLB level and the existing contract burden is terrible for two more seasons (Tex, Beltran, and ARod specifically, and also a rapidly aging McCann).

Doubt he goes to the Dodgers. I think he would be silly to turn down a QO. You are putting way to much in our prospects. No way on some of those. Rumbelow needs another at least half year in the minors. Did you look at his stats? Not too great. I hope McCarthy and Headley come back. No way on Prado in right. You expect Beltran and ARod to share DH duties and nobody else? Can I have some of what you're smoking? Beltran will be in right until he gets hurt. You can write that down with a pen. Prado needs to be at 2B or 3B and if Headley comes back then he needs to be at 2B. He is a much better IF than OF. Can Ref play SS? Seems we have too many low level minor league SS's and not enough that are ready.

I will almost guarantee Cervelli or Murphy are traded. They have good value and I would expect them to go either to upgrade SS or to upgrade pitching.

Tex will be able to play around 100 games in the field. He's another year removed from the surgery and they made the mistake of trying to play him too much last year. Beltran was out of shape and had that bone spur. Its now been removed so he should be perfectly fine.

Rapidly aging McCann? He provided more offense than 99% of the offense this year and really came around at the end of the year. It was clear it was a big adjustment but he was very good behind the plate and I would expect his offense to progress to around 250-260 25 hrs 80-100 rbis which is what was expected.

Basically, you are evaluating this as a prospector not as an actual major league team. Yankees will never put 5 prospects who may or may not be ready on the team. Ref and Lindgren make it as does richardson. Webb, Pazos, Rumbelow, Bird? No. They will likely see the bigs at some point but not unless they light up spring.

 

[maxe0213]

I want to bump this up. I'm thinking we add two starters, a ss, a 3B, and resign robertson.

IF we can actually get ARod to learn to play 1B and backup sometimes I think that would be huge. Having ARod play first 2 times a week, DH 3, bench twice would be perfect case scenario. Tex would get two days off although I would bet he would DH at least 1 of those. That leaves 2-3 other days for DHing for Beltran or McCann. Although I think Beltran will be able to play left. And if he can play left for 130-140 games that would be huge.

I'm starting to change my tune on some of the bigger pitchers. Scherzer is a no way. But why not try and get Lester on a 5 year deal or Shields on a 4 year deal? I think that those would be solid tries to get. And I truly hope they resign McCarthy. Having these guys as starters: Tanaka, Pineda, Shields/Lester, Sabathia, McCarthy, Greene would be great. 6 guys for 5 spots and I think that theres no question some time will be missed from Sabathia although I could be wrong. Then when we get Nova back? 7 guys. We could easily trade one or having extra pitching is always great.

If they deem Beltran able to play RF and use a guy from our system as backup, we really don't have many holes. If ARod can play 1B and DH the only holes we have are 3B, SS, 2B, and some starters. Prado is going to be either at 3B or 2B. I would make an effort to resign headley to play everyday and if so Prado would play 2B. But if not, stick prado at third and left ref play 2B.

I'm excited to see how this starts playing out.


BTW Bird and Judge have been raking in the AFL. Judge is our future RF I believe.

 

[Enfuego79]

I want to bump this up. I'm thinking we add two starters, a ss, a 3B, and resign robertson.

IF we can actually get ARod to learn to play 1B and backup sometimes I think that would be huge. Having ARod play first 2 times a week, DH 3, bench twice would be perfect case scenario. Tex would get two days off although I would bet he would DH at least 1 of those. That leaves 2-3 other days for DHing for Beltran or McCann. Although I think Beltran will be able to play left. And if he can play left for 130-140 games that would be huge.

I'm starting to change my tune on some of the bigger pitchers. Scherzer is a no way. But why not try and get Lester on a 5 year deal or Shields on a 4 year deal? I think that those would be solid tries to get. And I truly hope they resign McCarthy. Having these guys as starters: Tanaka, Pineda, Shields/Lester, Sabathia, McCarthy, Greene would be great. 6 guys for 5 spots and I think that theres no question some time will be missed from Sabathia although I could be wrong. Then when we get Nova back? 7 guys. We could easily trade one or having extra pitching is always great.

If they deem Beltran able to play RF and use a guy from our system as backup, we really don't have many holes. If ARod can play 1B and DH the only holes we have are 3B, SS, 2B, and some starters. Prado is going to be either at 3B or 2B. I would make an effort to resign headley to play everyday and if so Prado would play 2B. But if not, stick prado at third and left ref play 2B.

I'm excited to see how this starts playing out.


BTW Bird and Judge have been raking in the AFL. Judge is our future RF I believe.

There has been some talk about POSSIBLY signing Lester. I am interested/pondering as to how the line up will look next season. I am rooting for AROD to have a limelight season after being benched for close to a season and a half. Hopefully Cashman and the Steinbrenner's does what's best for both the team and it's fans...

 

[NY Tony]

I honestly think they will keep the plan quite simple

Cashman said AROD will start at 3Rd... Cashman doesn't purposely mislead the media with these type of things

Prado in at 2B
SS will be a cheap journeyman played with an invite of refs- with the plan for refs to be utility back up infielder which will ultimately hurt his development

Yanks will definitely sign Lester


Lots of talk yanks will let Robertson walk
Which is really stupid
But usually where's there smoke there's fire- this was probably set in motion with Betances pitching brilliantly

With the outfield
I'm completely clueless - but Nelson Cruz wouldn't be a bad idea

My version doesn't look bright at all

 

[maxe0213]

I honestly think they will keep the plan quite simple

Cashman said AROD will start at 3Rd... Cashman doesn't purposely mislead the media with these type of things

Prado in at 2B
SS will be a cheap journeyman played with an invite of refs- with the plan for refs to be utility back up infielder which will ultimately hurt his development

Yanks will definitely sign Lester


Lots of talk yanks will let Robertson walk
Which is really stupid
But usually where's there smoke there's fire- this was probably set in motion with Betances pitching brilliantly

With the outfield
I'm completely clueless - but Nelson Cruz wouldn't be a bad idea

My version doesn't look bright at all

Cashman much more recently said that ARod is being worked out as a back up 1B which is much more likely. Prado is going to be either at 2B or 3B. I think him at 2B is a better option but that blocks ref. If we can play prado at 3B and Ref at 2B that would be a nice set up. Refs won't play SS so I don't know what you mean.

I think the Yanks will only really consider Lester. After watching Shields pitch and scherzers huge deal coming I think that Lester is the most likely.

Yanks will likely give him a QO and I think they should either see if he accepts or let him walk. We can easily get two-three good options for 15-17 million a year which Robertson would want if he declines a QO. And if he signs elsewhere we would get a pick which would help.

Outfield? They don't need to sign an OF'er like Cruz. Cruz would be a huge mistake. Beltran should be good to go in RF. He was playing great out there until he toppled over the wall and he had some freak injuries. The only OF they will look at signing is a 4th OF and they would be better off to use someone in the minors.