November 24, 2024 • 50 mins
EJ, Domenic and Scott discuss what they would do if Soto does not sign with the Yankees.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hell, Hello, and welcome ups. Four hundred and thirty three
of the Bronx Beat podcast. I am E. J. Fagan Tonight,
joined by Dominiclonza, Hello everyone, and Scott Moss Hello everybody.
Dumb it's been like ten years. Good talking to you again.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we were so much younger and more full of
life and happiness.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Though, well, this is a hell of way to get
back to how are you? Good to see you too,
but I like it. We were younger and full of
life and happiness, but the New York Yankees were a
lot worse than they are today when we started this podcast.
I'm glad to be talking to both of you, guys.
This is back to the original Over Educated podcast. Two
lawyers and the PhD. We're going to talk a little
(00:51):
bit about some Yankees options. Since there's not a lot
of news going on, we're going to bring in some
of the news. A couple of rumors we're going to
bring in while we talk about. While we talk about
we're going to talk about, we decide to kind of
do a little exercise. I did this on my sub stack.
We've done this. I've seen other people do similar versions
of this, which is what would you do if Juan
Soto signs elsewhere. We don't really have any real news
(01:14):
about Wan Soto. I still think there's a pretty good
chance he signs with the Yankees. But it is clear
that the Mets are going to be paying him more
money than the Yankees pretty much no matter what, even
if the Yankees come in with a very large offer.
And so there's a good chance that he signs elsewhere,
and so we got to start talking about the plan be.
So here are our plan bes we are going to
We each have kind of given ourselves seventy million dollars
(01:35):
and no Wan Soto. We've given ourselves the ability to
make some trades, move some players around. We even are
allowing ourselves to do some weird stuff kind of move
players out of position, kind of have some fun with
this exercise. And we're all going to try to spend
exactly seventy million dollars or right around there. We have
three plans. I'm going to briefly each of us is
(01:56):
going to briefly summarize our plan, and then we're going
to talk about them position and by position, kind of
go through it slowly. I'll start I went a pitching
and defense route. I have signed three pitchers, Blake Snell,
Jeff Hoffman, and Tanner Scott So, two relievers and one
starting pitcher. I have signed Christian Walker to play first base,
(02:16):
I have signed a I've traded for au Euanio Suarez
from the Diamondbacks to play third base, and I have
salary dumped Marcus Stroman. Dominic, we'll run me through what
you did.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Step one, which isn't reflected on the little spreadsheet working
off of is I cry. Step two is to trade
Marcus Stroman to free up some space to fill out
the roster with relievers, bench guys, whatnot. But then there's
a big three I'm going for all position players, being
Christian Walker to play first base, William Damas to play second,
(02:51):
and Alex Bregman to play third.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
All right, and in scott So question about the Suarez
tree though just on the brownders that his salary is
fifteen million this coming year. Yes, and are assuming we
dumped about that much of Stroman or close or probably
about that. I suspect Stroman's going to you might not
be able to get his full eighteen million dollars, But
I want to talk about that when we talk about
(03:15):
individual positions, but I think I think you can dumb
most of it fair enough. So I decided both because
it's fun and to take one for the team, by
which I mean our team, and not be redundant with
you guys. I went with weird predictions. So most of
them involve someone getting a new baseball glove for a
position they haven't had before. But I'll give you the list.
(03:38):
So I signed Alex Bregman to play second base. He
said he was willing to. I signed Michael Confordo to
play first base. Maybe I'll tell him that after I
signed him, I am trading for Nolan Eronaudo to play
third base. And then I signed an entire bullpen. Tim
Hill is coming back, Scott Alexander, who's the other Tim
Hill is coming to board. I'm bringing back Adam Ottavino
(04:01):
for the hilarity of thing for the Yankees and the
Mets and the Yankees and aj Mintern and the Red
Sox in there too. All right, let's just I want
to go through kind of decisions we made. Now we
all made the same decision, which is Jazz chishm plays
in the outfield, not in the infield. Then there's a
world where he plays second or third base next year,
depending on kind of who the Yankees sign. But without Soto,
(04:24):
the Yankees need an outfielder, and I think we all
saw the outfield the outfielders available, and said Chishom should
be centerfield. So Dominic, let me ask you, why why
do you think Chishm fits best in center.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Chishm his best position in the majors has been center field.
He looked very good at third base. He made some
mistakes that I'd categorize as growing pains, But you know,
when you can get a rock solid third basement and
free agency and it's much harder to get a solid
center fielder. I just think it makes sense to use
what you have on board, and then you know, if
(04:57):
centerfield proves not to be his best position, if if
they identify his weakness as range or reaction time shift
from over to left. We haven't. We have two natural
center fielders, and Domingos and grisshup on the roster already.
I just think it's I think it's the most sensible
way to approach it, given what they have on hand
and what's available on the free agent market. I mean,
there's not unless I'm missing it. I don't think there's
(05:20):
really a true center fielder out there, and I do
not want Judge playing center field ever again.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
But could play centerfield, So if you could sign one
of these guys as a left fielder.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
But that's what I'm saying, I think maximizing what they
have on the roster. I'm not in love with any
of the outfielders either.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, that's why I want to I want to go
through Scott. Are there any outfielders you've considered and decided against?
Not really anything. We all gravitated toward that after Soto.
It's just leak enough. One thing I really like about
europlann Aj is that you left second and third base
as the positions we skimp on. And this is a
note you've sounded before that you got skimp on some
positions just to save the money for elsewhere. And the
(06:04):
plus at Jazz and center field is I like. And
I did a little different thing like this with my plan.
I'll tell you later, but I like when you make
signings that give you flexibility and tendency plans to cover things,
because the last thing you want to do is leave
yourself covering a lot of positions with you know, someone
absolutely terrible. You know, the Benvice experience at first base
(06:24):
or something. So what Jazz and center field and skimp
on the infield does is you know what, if someone's
heard or doesn't work out, or one of the prospects
doesn't work out as second or third, you move Jazz
back and maybe you get a left field or move
to Mingos to center or something. So I do like
the flexibility Jazz and center gives us because he can
set back into the infield if you really need if
all those fails. Yeah, I'll also add like I think
(06:46):
Jazz is probably best at center field, Like his skill
set really translates well to center. He's got good numbers
in center field. Yeah, I has had really strong numbers
at second baits, but that was now a couple of
years ago. And I think that I actually don't know
why he ended up being moved to the outfield. In
my senses is that there was a reason for it.
He's so fast, he's got such a strong arm, He's
(07:07):
played a lot of center, Like to me, just makes
sense for him to be in center. But we can
talk about what's the available talent on this and that,
but it's just really hard to find a good center
fielder because then, yeah, I mean deming guys is your
other is the other guy? Like, that's the only other
option out there, Hey, Petre, If you look at how
many teams, even good teams, have a choice between well,
(07:28):
this guy can hit and he's sort of faking in center,
or well, this guy hits one sixty but he sometimes
you know, stumbles into a home run, but he's a
really good fielder, or you know, singles that are with speed.
I think that center fields a position where if you
don't PLoP someone in there, you're very dangerously risking someone
being either badly at a position at a premium defensive position,
(07:49):
or you decide you're really sucking up catch your level offense.
So I think you get some security when you put
someone who's good on both sides the game and not
old yet in center field, like Jazz. We set there
for years. Yeah, and you know Jazz is under team
control for a while, so there's no reason to really
to really go panic about it. And you also potentially
have Spencer Jones coming up behind him, and you can
(08:10):
move Jazz back to the infield at some point, you know.
I think the other option is taoscar Hernandez Anthony Santander.
These guys are not just faking it in center, they're
faking it in the corners, right. They're bad defenders and
and older, right, So like, I don't want to sign
those guys to a three or four year deal. They're
DHR first base types in the in the near term.
And I think my theme of the team that I
(08:34):
built here is that I think the Yankees absent this losing,
the slugging of Soto, like, their next best way to
structure a team is to become more of a pitching
and defense team. And one of the ways the big
ways to improve your pitching and defense is to improve
your center field. Judge was pretty bad in center last year, Like,
he didn't look bad, but he didn't have much range,
(08:55):
and uh and right field where Soto was bad and
so and frankly Verdugo, you know, average ish. So you
could improve all three outfield positions fairly easily, you know,
simply by moving Judge to right, moving chishmb the center,
putting Domingas in left. And that's just a very big,
very big improvement for a pitching staff that's still going
(09:16):
to be pretty contact oriented next year. And I think
that's important. We'll kind of see that also in my
infield choices. Let's talk about first base. So Dominic and
I both went for Christian Walker. Scott, you decide to
kind of do a bank shot move with Michael Conforto,
So let's talk with about the kind of normal move
(09:36):
first dominant. Christian Walker's what's the rationale here?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He's a real first baseman, and I feel like the
Yankees haven't had a first baseman who appeared to be
an actual human athlete at first base since I don't know,
the beginning of twenty twenty three, before Rosser got hurt.
Walker's been extremely consistent for the last three years. He's
a little older, but that's why you're not signing him
long term. He hits for power. He gets on bass.
(10:05):
He's a shockingly good bass runner, not in terms of
stolen base numbers, but he takes the extra bass. He
doesn't really hit into a lot of double plays for
a slugging first basement. I just think he's kind of
exactly what they need. I mean, I guess it's not
ideal if we're picking knits that he's a righty and
not a lefty, but he hits the snot out of
the ball, and you know, and there.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Aren't a lot of lefty bats. There's very few lefty
bats out there.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
No, the other lefty bat out there is at first base. Really,
somebody who I think you could count on for at
least a year would be Carlos Santana, who I do like,
but he doesn't hit righty's. He does most of his
damage against lefties, So having him as a switch hitter,
I don't know how transformative that really is when batting
from the left side, isn't his strong suit.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, I agree with all that. I'd add that if
you sign Sodo, then Christian Walker's eighteen to twenty million
dollar projected salary starts to look really expensive. But if
you don't sign Soto, then you have money. I think
this is a logical place where they can spend money
over a Carlos Santana or a Yandi Diaz or someone
like that, and upgrade for nothing but money, you can
(11:15):
have a pretty good first basement, really good defender, solid hitter.
You know, essentially, I think a better version of what
they thought they were trading for in Rizzo. Rizzo kind
of was on the decline in the trade for him.
I think they thought that maybe Yankee Stadium they could
kind of revive him a little bit, and the reality
was is they got a pretty steep decline out of
him for reasons, you know, somewhat beyond his control at
(11:37):
the concussion. But still he was never really productive, whereas
Walker is just still kind of at the the renaissance
of his career. He was a late bloomer because he
was blocked behind Paul Goldschmidt, but as soon as gold
was gone, he became a really solid player. So even
though he's thirty three, I have I think that he's
a pretty good bet for at least next year, if
(11:57):
not the year after, to be a productive player like
he's been. So I think Walker just makes so much
sense as a place to spend a little bit of
money and try to save the money elsewhere. Scott, you
tried to save the money at first base, you tried
to sign you want to sign Michael Conforto and convert
him to first base, So give me give me your
logic there. Yeah, I like Walker a lot as an option.
(12:19):
I just get scared of the age because I feel
like and I also went old in another spot. Aeronaud
I'll give you a minute. So I felt like I
don't want to thirty four year olds on the corners,
and I was looking at other options for first base.
I felt hard about Jerks and Profar, who had a
good offensive year. He's gonna cost fifteen a year. He's
been good at first base defensively in the limited play
(12:40):
he's had there, so I thought he'd be an interesting option.
But he's only one good year. And CONFORDO. I like
he's a lefty hitter. He has recovered somewhat from the
down time he had before. He was pretty good last
year ex wo was even a little better than actual
wover the past two years. So I think he's a
(13:01):
legit good hitter, like a one ten to one twenty
rc plusps plus kind of guy, and the sort of
guy I guess he's playing at Yankee Stadium. He's not
been good in the outfield anymore, but you know, he's
a lefty. He's, you know, reasonably athletic. He's not like Walker.
He's not fast, but he's athletic. He's not oafish, so
(13:22):
I can see him being really solid at first base.
So I thought they could just save a little money.
I wouldn't be surprised if over the next two to
three years, Conforido out hits Walker given the age difference,
and that I'm somewhat bullish on Confordo having had a
real improvement last year and being even better than the
numbers were by x wOBA. So I think there's a
bit of a sleeper of a guy who could be
(13:42):
a well above average hitter, not a superstar hitter like
that one or two great years he had, but you know,
and then you save some money with him, I thought.
And he's a New Yorker, right, he was with the
Mets for a long time. That might matter a little bit.
He might might have enjoyed living here, want to come home.
He's a lefty and really both I think Dominic and
(14:02):
I have pretty left righty heavy lineups. So it's interesting.
It's an interesting pick, and uh, you know, I it'd
be interested to see if someone tries to convert him,
because you're right, his defense in the outfield's pretty bad.
All right. Uh, let's go second and third base as
a package, because there's some of these choices are really
really mirrors of each other. I'll start, So I opted
(14:25):
to go at second base, with a spring training competition,
so probably Caleb Durban, but also you have Oswald Parazza,
Oswald Cabrera, some platoon thereof you have potential DJ le Mayhew,
though I suspect he's done, but I think they'll at
least give him a courtesy look in spring training. They
certainly are talking like Cale Durban is going to be
(14:45):
the guy, and I'm very curious to see kind of
what the off season scattering reports are, if there's any
real chance that he's he's good, if people outside the organization,
not just guy in the stat line, believe in him.
So I'm going cheap at second base for a competition there,
and I'm t trading for au Hano Suarez from the
Arizona Diamondbacks. I think that will be a trade that's
gonna hurt. It's probably not a Spencer Jones level trade,
(15:07):
but it's a trade that's going to require the Yankees
to put some guys back guys in there. The Diamondbacks
they have a third baseman prospect coming up who's pretty good.
They probably want to spend save some money there, spend
that money elsewhere. Suarez had a killer second half. He
slugged like six hundred and the second half last year,
has a history of sometimes hitting forty one runs, playing
(15:28):
decent defense at third and so I think he's he's
at fifteen million dollars one year deal. I think he
makes a lot of sense for the Yankees as kind
of a stopgap player. Maybe they bring maybe they keep
them longer, but for now, one year fifty million dollars
save a little bit of money versus some of the
other options. I think it makes a lot of sense.
Scott All ask you to go first. Now, what was
(15:51):
your plan? Yeah, so I in the first draft of
the plan I was doing when you did save money
at second or third, But then I realized this, if
they're not getting Sodo. After Dominic's done crying, what we
love to do is we group and decide where we
can spend the money. And if we're not getting Sodo,
I don't want any position to be gosh. I hope
(16:13):
that kid works out. I want it to be someone
who's basically proven to be a good hitter or good
fielder or both, ideally a little bit of both. And
I'm really pull him for Caleb Durbin. I'll be bummed
if he doesn't get a shot but is Caleb Derbin
really the best plan. No, the guy is five five probably,
and that type has almost never succeeded. He's on Nope.
(16:34):
I can verify that in person by the way he
does like five six might be generous, Like, the dude
is short as hell, So I think that it's a
reach to really expect him to do it. You and
I EJ No both think they should have give him
Paraus a shot, But let's just accept that it hasn't
happened and it isn't gonna happen. If they're going to
give him a shot, they would have at least played
him a little by now. So I don't and Carrera,
(16:55):
you know, he's good for what he is, but I
think that we just need a little more quality control
of that is what I wanted to do. Alex Bregman
said in media interviews that he's up for playing second
base if a team needs it. That was probably a
smartt moved increases value. But let's take the man on
his word. He never actually got worse at short stop
when he moved a third, or not much. Granted he
(17:16):
moved off short four years ago, but he's still really
good a third. I have no doubt that he could
do second, and I thought, you know, yeah, the number
has been down a little bit this past year, but
not apocalyptically. Still, he's still a four R player. And
the way his numbers went down is he decided to
swing at everything somehow and he walked less. Some of
(17:36):
the contact out of the zone was worse, but he
wasn't swinging and missing. He wasn't hitting ground balls at
the alarming rates. In other words, it seemed like there
was some weird swing decisions or whatever, but it didn't
seem like it's age based to climb for a thirty
one year old. And I like him a lot. And
then at third base, I went with Aeronato. We're talking
about both now or should we move on? Yeah, let's
(17:57):
talk about seriously. I know you guys talked about it.
Aeronaut another week. I'm higher on him. Yes he's the client.
Yes we could have Josh donminds of fatigue, but he's
a very different guy than Josh Donaldson and Aeronaudo's a
three war player over the past two years. He's projected
last year and he's almost three hour. He's projected to
be about that level this year. He's maybe an average hitter,
(18:19):
maybe a little better, but I think he's the guy
who's hyper competitive. It's also he and Bregman. I often
don't put a lot of stock in the fieriness and competition,
but given some of the fundamentals things, I like the
idea of kind of fiery guys like a Bregman and Aeronauto,
who are both you know, competitive, admirably, maybe sometimes jerks.
(18:40):
I was once set a Rockies game and someone didn't
cover well on a throat of first he made, and
then there's a conference of the mound, and Aeronauto didn't
join the conference of the mound. He was like stomping
around third base, screaming of the dirt, and it seem
like he was kind of a jerk move, or maybe
he's frustrating himself. Was throw it was in the jerk,
but I don't know. The Gangs couldn't use a little
more of that after a fifth inning of oh you
want to go first piece? You want to go first piece? No? No,
(19:02):
what's the first base? I met the Bregman argument too, right,
I mean Bregman is one of those guys too, Yeah, exactly,
so were the two of them you know, I think
that'd be great. If you guys screaming at baseballs and
dirt in the infield, you know, I think they're all
going to cover first base when there's a grand ball
to pitch, the eight guys running there, so I think
they get used some of that. I think Aeronauto's not cooked.
He's still good defensively. And here's the thing. He's sixty
(19:23):
four million over three years. That alone isn't crazy. But
if Saint LOUI will pay, I put in like three
three and a half a year. Okay, he's seventeen to
eighteen million a year for a three war player. That's
not bad, right, That's cheaper. It's about the same as
Christian Walker. And I think Aeronaut is a better player
right now and about the same age. So I think
(19:44):
you get him under that price if you like Christian Walker,
like Nolan Ronado. Last thing I'll say is that there's
because a trade. He has a trade, but it's a
salary dump a little bit for Saint Louis. The Yantes
will give up somewhat of a real prospect, but not
a really real prospect, and there's no ququalifying offer for
Aeronauda unlike a Walker of Bregman. So you know, in
a sense, it's not really like you're giving him any
(20:07):
value in a trade compared to giving up a qualifying
offer or something. So I think that he'd be a
smart play. And if you get aeronautdo and a pretty
good first base in whether Walker, I think in fourdo
you know you get like five to six war between
those two positions that in bed? All right, So Dominic,
I want to get to your picks in a second
to first time. What do you think about Aeronauto as
(20:27):
an option?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
For Aeronauto? It would all come down to what they're
giving up for him and what the Cardinals are paying.
Because I really like Noel Ernaudo. He has been one
of my favorite players not on the Yankees for a
long time because I'm just a sucker for third base defense.
That's where I played in Little league in high school
and it's what I love. I love watching him play.
(20:51):
I don't think he's cocked. I agree. I think he
might be closer to an average hitter than the superstar
level hitter we saw in twenty twenty two and years probably,
But I think, like Scott said, if he's seventeen million
a year and he's costing a nominal prospect. I think
that's a good play. Once you start to get more
(21:11):
to that, there's certain degrees where I just I just
want no part of them.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, I mean, my problem with that arn not. I
was like, I just don't believe the bad Like he
had an ex wobba last year of two ninety six,
and he is a deadpool hitter, probably gets hurt a
little bit by Yankee stadium. Like he's not bad, Like
he has his pluses, Like he's still a contact bat,
he still has an incredible defense. But I just I
(21:36):
really wonder if we're talking about like late career Evan Longoria,
and it's just I think Yankees can do better, Like
I think ah A Suarez. I think he's just a
better player than that and in similar cost. But you know,
I mean, Scott makes a point that like his salary,
especially if if you get the Cardinals will take a
little bit of it, is really not that bad. I
thought it was worse. And three years is is not
(22:00):
not too long of a commitment. He's a little younger
than Donaldson was. He's I think probably more athletic than Donaldson,
although his foot Speed's gone, is all gone. So I
don't think it's a bad idea, and I think if
the Yankees trade for him, I think I'd be excited.
I try to convince myself that he there's a little
bit of a rebound left in him. But I worry
that there's like a that we're looking at what happened
to LeMay who on the aging curve, what happened to
(22:21):
all these guys that have been diving around the infield
their whole career, and and you end up with really
not a lot left. This is a weird risk of that.
But there's another aspect to this. I still there's some
trouble with this would work out if Boone stops doing
this one stupid thing he's always done, and surely we'll
keep doing so. If you look at the idea of
Stanton as playoff hero, I don't think the Stan's better
(22:41):
than the playoffs. I think Stan's an old, brittle guy
who's better when he plays two out of three days,
like in the playoffs. And you see this with some
other old players. Blackman on the Rockies was exactly this.
You see it with Anthony Volpi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean the days off for an underrated thing when
either it's a premium position like Volpi, or you're old.
You know, when you're oh, look for stan Daging is
(23:01):
as tired as shortstops for Anthony Volpi physically. But I
think that if you get Aernado, he said, even the
people of the Rockies, there's this quote he gave the
yst thing about him being injured. He said, well, there's
this point every July where I'm just a walking bruise
head to toe because he dives all over. Yeah, he's
just being blunket about what all players go through. And that'llly,
(23:22):
you know, could you anything? As you age, you can
less pull it off. I don't think the guys lost physicality.
I think it's that so honestly, if they got an aeronauto,
I think the obvious play would be that you DH him.
You know, when you rest in one day a week,
you DH one day a week, and you give Stanton
off one or two days a week, and I think
they'll both be better. And if you do my plan here,
you have enough bodies who are not scrubs that you know, fine,
(23:44):
you're giving Caleb Durbins some starts at second base or
Cabrera or someone you know, but they're the backup. They'll
lets you rest and move these guys. I think Aeronauta
like stant would be a lot better as a five
day week player. All right, Donic, he went for williadamis
signing him big, signing to play second base and and
Bregman to play third. So your big is sodo move
(24:05):
is basically these two guys, right.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, My move is essentially, you know, haphazardly quoting Moneyball,
is we're not replacing Giambi, We're replacing X, Y and Z.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
So what I write the same exact thing in my
blog post. I did this right because it's exactly what
you got to do, right.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah. So the way I'm looking at this is that
the Yankees are effectively replacing right field left field, first, second,
and third, and I'm covering right field by moving Judge back.
Center and left are covered by Chisholm and Dominguez and
then first, second, and third. Or it's my new blood
and almost on the same lines as you, EJ. I'm
(24:44):
looking to improve the defense with this too, which it's
not a super high baseline from what we got at
second with gliber Torres, but William damas Is. The numbers
always disagree with him, they have since he was on
the Rais, but i'd hazard he's at least a solid
short stop, and he's played second before. And while he's
not Sodo young, he's young for a free agent. He's
(25:06):
going to play almost all of next year at twenty nine,
and I think there's plenty left in the tank. He's
pretty much as good a hitter as Torre as ever was.
To keep going with the comparison, but again, the defense's
leaps and bounds better, the base running.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Way, the hitting is so much more consistent.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
He's very, very consistent. Pretty much since he became a regular,
he's been very good. Twenty twenty three he was a
down year for him, but the underlying numbers were as
good as ever. I just I see him as kind
of a quiet star, not a superstar, but a quiet star.
And I think he is as safe a bet as
(25:43):
anybody not in the Sodo division to chug along for
several years and give you three and a half plus
war year in and year out, and that's what I want.
It's it's not Sodo, it's not close to Sodo. Maybe
if you're lucky, it's sixty percent of SODO, but I
want to get one of those guy and I think
at least on the position player side, a Damas is
(26:03):
the best bet for that.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
And then at third, I'll he's a club ass guy, right,
He's one of those like leaders that I think the
Yankees kind of neat. I think I think bringing something
like Bregman, like Eronatto. I think bringing one of those
guys in could really matter.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, And it also kind of goes to the fact
that you know, we haven't mentioned it yet. I'm sure
it'll come up or it's come up already to be
fair in off season podcasting, but this is a win
now team and getting guys that we know can plug
and play means a lot and A Damas is that,
and Bregman is that. So Bregman, he has declined a
(26:40):
little bit, but I don't think he's declined appreciably. And
I think down the road maybe he is a guy
that we end up having to move to first, or
maybe you see something and you swap a Damas and
Bregman at second and third. It sounds weird because Bregman's
a third baseman, but I don't know. There's some room
to play around, but Bregman is still at worst and
above average head and solid average defender at third base.
(27:02):
I think you can count on both for at least
a couple more years. And again it's I don't know
that there's many bets that I feel super confident about
on the free agent market. I mean, Taascar Hernandez just
had a career year, but he's thirty two and he's
prone to long slumps. Santander's coming off a career year
(27:24):
that he's never done anything like this before. He is
terrifying jerks and Profi is coming off a great year,
but he's also coming off of being released by multiple
teams in twenty twenty three. It's just ever I look,
I'm frightened, and Bregman, I don't know. Maybe if you
want to tell me, well, actually, the next three years
he's only going to be a one to ten OPS
(27:44):
plus or WRC plus guy. But you're confident about that
that that might be the best that we could get
with certainty, and I think that's.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Always the best. Not he's like the best non SOCO
player available.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I would put a Dames over him, but I think
he's close, and I think the only thing that could
change the Yankees calculus on this. And I don't want
to bemoan the guy because he was great in the playoffs,
but it would be if Stanton wasn't here. Because if
Stanton wasn't here, maybe I feel better about saying, like,
you know what, let's sign Jack Peterson and Taoscar and
just get a ton of thump in there, rotate in
(28:19):
between DH and left and give other guys days off.
And you know, if you have to sit Peterson against
a tough lefty, that's fine because you have other people covering.
But I'm not spending a ton of money on a
platoon in the outfields if we don't have DH open.
And I just think that my plan basically boils down
(28:40):
to the Yankees were the best they've been in several
years in twenty twenty four. I want them to try
to stay at that level in twenty twenty five without
having to count on bouncebacks or guys playing above their
head or their aid, or guys learning a fully new
(29:02):
position or whatever. And I just think that the trio
of Walker, Odamas and Bregman gives us that. I mean,
maybe if I was being cheeky and I wanted to
use that savings were getting on Stroman to do Pete
Alonzo over Christian Walker. Maybe that would give me a
bit more ceiling. But Walker was better than Pete Alonzo
(29:23):
this year, and Yankee Stadium is not a stadium that's
going to help Alonso. So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
It's a huge difference on defense.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Maybe he'll make the Yankees offense better, but I'm going
for defense with these guys. And I don't know. Maybe
this is just me, you know, liking the cut of
my own jib, but I feel like this is the
These three guys represent the best team the Yankee can
build with the most certainty of the Yankees can build
if SODA's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, my only concern with Bregman is ballpark. If you
look at his numbers over like over the last three
or four years, really his entire career, he's always done
way better is expected. Slugging has always really outperformed his
underperformed his slugging, meaning that he's getting he's getting good
bad at ball. I wouldn't say luk results for how
hard he hits the ball, and I think it's because
(30:13):
of the Crawford boxes in Houston he has. He has
a perfect ballpark for his kind of extreme pole power swing,
and he can take advantage of that. I'm terrified that
he's going to sign in Boston, right and he will
be terrorizing us off the Green Monster for the rest
of his career if that's what happens. I hope he
stays in Houston or goes to the National League or something.
(30:34):
But I think in Yankee Stadium, I mean, you know,
it's not that bad straight down the line in the
Yankee Stadium, but it's not a big advantage. And I
think that, you know, I think that Bregman might not
be well sued to that maybe he can get more
singles and doubles in the Yankee Stadium with a big
left field. It's kind of the trade off of having
a big left field. But I get a little concern
(30:54):
that he's going to be a four hundred slugging guy
going forward, which is basically what he is what he
is in, you know, in stack cast.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I mean, for whatever it's worth, Homan away the last
two years, it's actually he's actually been better away the
last couple of years. I don't know if that's a
change in his approach, a change in luck. Oh, but
this year he was better. He did have better power
in Houston, like you said, But in twenty twenty three
he was actually much better on the road, like eighty
points higher and ops better.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So I know that that's interesting. Maybe he's just such
an extreme poll hitter that the foul pole is a
foul pole.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yes, but or really the biggest change was in in
twenty twenty two for whatever reason, he couldn't hit on
the road. Other than that, he's basically been the same
hitter at Homan on the road for his career.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Oh, that's good. That satisfied. Has been one of my concerns.
I think if they signed Bregman, like I am excited
just because Bregman is is is a really good player,
and I feel like he's going to be productive going
forward just on pure contact and defense and all of that.
I just I worry that it's like a low ceiling
pick sometimes, you know, if I could jump in on that,
(32:02):
I think, I like Willia domis Alot's as signing. I
worried a little bit about the fact that as between
him and Bregman at second, I mean, your choice is
obviously the more safe, sensible one because he's been a
middle enfielder. Bragman hasn't in a while. It's just that
they're both going to be a long term deal and expensive,
and I felt like I'm less sold on the bat
(32:26):
of a Domis is just a tick blow Bregman. So
I feel like Bregman could age better and if Adama
stops being a good middle infielder, you know the bat,
I'm not sure it plays for first base or elsewhere,
but I think he's a good choice. I think overall,
I think your plan, dom is probably the one that
I like best. And I was standing that I picked
my plan. I like exploring my plan, or at least
I think yours is the realistic one that could happen,
(32:47):
and I'll be ecstatic if it happens. If they don't
get so Sodo, it's basically we firmed up first, second,
and third to be a really strong infield in lieu
of getting Sodo. Basically, my favorite thing about Willie Domas
is that his first name is actually Willie. It's not
anything so I picturely signed him. I think the performance
art would be at the press conference hesus. You know,
(33:10):
now that I'm thirty years old, I want to go
by William and just says that anyway. And then Alex Bregman.
You know, I was thought there's a huge difference with
the name alex and Alexander and how formalist. I was like, actually,
I am now Alexander D. Bregman. I like to be
referred to that at all times. So I think some
good options there. Let's move on to talk about pitching.
So we all are we went different routes in pitching.
(33:31):
So both of you guys didn't do a lot on pitching.
So Dominic, you didn't sign anybody, Scott you except you
trade away Marcus Stroman. Scott, you signed a whole bunch
of kind of like you know, B minus relievers and
didn't sign a big reliever because you guys both spent
your money on on infielders, right Stroman or Aeronatto Bregman,
(33:51):
adamis I spent my money on pitching, and so I
want to kind of mention this year Blake snell And
as a starter, and then Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Scott in relief.
And to me, this is just about where is their
money to improve the team that you can spend. I
think that the best available improvements are pitching right now.
(34:16):
Blake Snell replaces one of your guys at the back
of the rotation, becomes maybe your best starter, maybe your
second best starter behind Garrett Cole had an incredible second
half last year. I don't know what he's gonna cost.
I put down six years twenty eight million dollars per year.
I'd love to get him for less than that. At
four years thirty million per year is one other prediction
(34:37):
that I saw. I think that's possible. I think that
Blake Snell is just like a straight up improvement for
this rotation and has a chance to win a sy
young And I think he's you know, he's showing the
second half last year, he's just still that good and
just going into the playoffs. You had more starting pitching
(34:57):
on the Yankees than you had on a lot of teams.
But there is really no one besides Call that you
were confident in. I think Snell gives you that second
guy that you are confident can go out there and
be the best pitcher in the game. I then signed
Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman is two of the best
relievers available. Tanner Scott was incredible last year. I was
(35:17):
shocked to look at a stat Gas page just by
how he was basically everywhere better than Weaver, and so
I think Weaver, Tanner, Scott, and then Jeff Hoffman, who
was also incredible last year, become a real knockout back
of the bullpen, and another really big improvement. Then not
only replacing Holmes and cain Lee, but then pushing some
(35:39):
of the other guys down the org chard a little bit, right,
you know, pushing guys like Jake Cousins Ian Hamilton to
back of the bullpen rolls or from of the bullpen
rolls early early inning rolls rather than high leverage rolls.
And I think that's just a huge improvement. And all
of a sudden, the Yankees been have one of the
best bullpens in the majors again, and Luke Weaver is
a really good third third guy compliment those guys I
(36:02):
trade away Marcus Stroman. I have been back and forth
on whether or not Marcus Stroman is salary dumpable for
a while now, and I've landed on yes, you have
a lot of kind of middling pitchers who are gonna
get paid this were expecting it to get paid this offseason.
So Nick Pivetta turned down a qualifying offer. Luis Severino
(36:23):
turned down a qualifying offer. Nick Martinez was offered a
qualifying offer and took it. And these guys are not powerhouses.
They are solid, you know. Nick Martinez is a little better,
but solid, you know, four point zero er or higher guys.
And I think that Stroman's eighteen million dollars starts to
look like not a bad deal at that point, and
(36:45):
I think that some team might want might be willing
to take at least a lot of that contract fifteen
million dollars or so in a salary dump. I still
have six starters on my roster after signing Blake Snell,
and you can get and that's including getting rid of
Marcus Stroman's I think the will be fine on starting pitching,
and could be fine even without Blake Snell. But I
just think that that that is just such a logical
(37:08):
trade for the Yankees, and he's one of the few
guys they can trade that has some money on their roster. Dominic,
why don't you tell me why you went for the
Why Essentially, you went for the no no pitching changes.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Option because I wanted to invest the money in a
way that's kind of replicating what worked for this team
this year in twenty twenty four, there is a part
of me that I will say I was my last
ditch consideration was between Bregman and Max Freed. Who would
(37:42):
actually be the pitcher that I would like to sign
the most, just because I think he's going to age
the best, and if it comes down to all these
guys wanting long term deals, which I wouldn't doubt, I
think he He doesn't have the ceiling of Corbyn Burns
or Snell, but I think he's much much, much safer,
and you know, like Snell, he has the lefty thing
(38:03):
going for him. Like Corbyn Burns, He's not not dependent
on power and repertoire. He's an amazing command and control guy.
I just think he could be there for a long time,
and I think he would. I think he's one of
those guys who's going to age like a like Andy
Pettit or CC Sabbathia for another Yankees lefty who you know,
(38:28):
ike CC. He doesn't have to make the transition from
power to command control, but I think he'll be you know,
he's thirty one now. I think he'll be super effective
into his mid to late thirties. If that's how he
choose to play out his career. But like I said,
I think they're pitching as is is still good enough,
(38:49):
and their offense after seeing how dead it was after
for most of the playoffs between what two and two
and a half spots in the lineup, I think spread
that out into adding three effective bats in places where
there were none. It's just more desirable for me.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Scott, what do you think about Blake Snell? Well, first
of all, you call my relievers as then four of
them be minus relievers. I have. You know that Tim
Hill and the off season, lives in your neighborhood. So
I'm giving him your dress is gonna come slappy with
that left arm. There you go, you deserve it. Nothing personal,
So I mean they're not about the neighborhood. By the way,
it's probably not true. Maybe it is. Who knows where
he lives, Blake Snell. I like Blake Snell a lot.
(39:30):
I thought about him. First off, Tim Hill looks like
he lives like on the top of an appellation mountain. Right.
He's just He's just sitting there smoking a pipe and
joining his life. You know that. That's Tim Hill. Yeah,
I'm not sure whether he's like a right wing survivalist
hundred dude, or like a yoga master. It could go
either way. Really, yoga Matt, I would I could see
him being a yoga master, like, okay, well.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Why not a right wing survivalist yoga master.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Wow, that's a multicultural of you. That's you won the
Woke News today? Where were we? Blake Snell? Yes, he's good. Yeah.
The snelling salts, as Boras said, are going to be powerful.
So I think Snow would be a great option if
they signed him. I just like Dom took the view
(40:16):
that you want to save the money for offense because
if you lose Sodo then you can do that. You
also have a solid rotation I mean, I mean Quipple,
but boohoo, they have six starters, and we don't love
our six starters Strowman, who is probably who you guys
think is enough trade value. You think he's actually a
starting pitcher. So you know what if a team of
six starters, who would be in demand and starters for
any team? I feel like they're basically Okay. That said,
(40:39):
I would have signed a Snill or someone if I
could find the money, but I couldn't. If you spend
it on the infield as much as we were all
talking about. Yeah, that really is I think the choice, right,
it's do you spend your money on hitting or pitching?
If you don't have Soto and you know, you still
have to find the hitters, so you have to find
if spend some money on hitting, but it is absolutely
(41:03):
doable to either skip the pitching or do what you
did and go for kind of lower cost relievers. Like
I think that's the that that that that's what this
exercise reveels to me, is like if you if you
can save some money on hitting, then then you have
the opportunity to go to go to pitching. But that's
an optional, like you can you can make this a
(41:25):
viable World Series contender just by restocking the hitting. And
that's right. Are we talking about the bullpen yet or
not yet? Well tell me. I don't want to spend
too much on the individual names, but just just tell
me kind of what you're thinking. You're signing Hill, Alexander
Autavino Holmes. Yeah, and by the way, Dom I realized
you were underspent a bit, so I gave you three
(41:46):
of the B minus relievers added to yours. Hill out
of Alexander because they're about eight million com mine and presto,
suddenly you didn't neglect the bullpen and you're welcome. So
so there three. What is this? Yes, the Yankee c
able to find guys who he's al righty, he was good,
They thought he'd be good, and then Blake works magic,
et cetera. They're limits to that. And I was really
(42:08):
tempted to go with no relievers, but you know, you
need somebody to come in after the starters throw five
innings these days, so I think he needs some arms,
and I looked around in a couple things. First, I
think Clay Holme's got a bum deal. I think he's
still a really good believer. I hate spending money on relievers,
but I think he's really good well, and you're giving
him a better infield defense too. And he also signed
(42:29):
a ton of ground ball pitchers. So Tim Hill and
Scott Alexander are the same guy. They're elderly lefties who
have big platoon splits and get nothing but ground balls.
But Tim Hill is pitchable against righty's at least they're
both cheap, So you got to be ground ball bullpen.
And the reason I went with ground ballers is this
the guys you can find off the scrap heap, like
a weaver or someone or Ian Hamilton, they tend to
(42:51):
be righty strikeout guys. They're just live arms that didn't
quite make it. Usually that means a righty with power stuff,
because if they didn't make it and they didn't have
power stuff, they'd probably be you know, uber drivers by now,
they'd be gone. So I feel like the guys who
get the scrap he typically are the righty power arms.
So let me go with ground bowlers and lefties. That's
(43:12):
Hill and Alexander Homes the ground bowler and Automno, I
think is just cheap. And you know, with relievers, I
think he's cheap enough. Is he possibly cooked, yes, but
he was still solid last year and he'll do fine
with us. And if he doesn't, you know, he's a reliever,
you can get rid of him. So that was my
thought there. And you have a really good bullpen. I
think if you have those four guys, some of them
be good, some won't. But you know what, if Alexander's done,
(43:34):
he's two and change millions, so's him Hill, so's Audavino.
I mean, don't I don't hate the idea of kind
of going for the B minus relievers. I think I
think Matt Blake is capable of finding someone who can
replicate Adam Ontavino, right. I don't think he's capable of
magically turning someone into Hoffmann or Tanner Scott right Like.
I think that that's the difference. Is like, if you
(43:57):
want the tip top of quality, he got to pay
for it and or develop it from from the miners.
Out of you know, is the guy who was the
least committed to Because I agree with you what they
could do is le mcgreens. They get signed Righty's and
you know, out of five writers you try that with,
when comes the weaver to become current level? Out of
Vino and to flop? I said, out of you know
(44:17):
mean because I like him and it was fun. The
idea of he was a Yankee than the Yankee Yeah
New Yorker, right, he's from the Bronx or he's from
from Manhattan Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah, you know. I actually, honestly,
I wouldn't be shocked. I looked at a sad cast page.
I they're not bad. He had a good year. He's
thirty nine years old. I wouldn't be shocked if he
doesn't want to move and he signs with either of
(44:37):
the match of the Yankees, because he's still an effective reliever,
and I think with a greater a better defense, you
can imagine him being a pretty effective player. That he
still strikes out a lot of guys. So I think
he's also got platoon splits to think about. So he's
good against Righty's all right. I want to wrap this
up by kind of talking a little bit about archetypes.
(44:58):
We kind of have two different and sets of strategies, right,
So I'm gonna call mine the pitching and defense strategy
that you fill the the opens positions, but you have
some cheap guys and you you spend money on pitching,
versus the all hitting strategy. You maintain basically the same
pitching staff and you do something like we've talked about
here a Bregman and the damis maybe a trade run,
(45:19):
not thinking of Christian Walker, you know, just something you
get the you get the expensive guys there, and then
you don't. You don't do much on pitching. Maybe you
dump some guys, You make some small moves, but nothing huge.
Those are two different sets of strategies, and I want
to ask you, guys, what do you think the Yankees
will do?
Speaker 2 (45:37):
What?
Speaker 1 (45:37):
What of these do you think we'll actually see in
the event that they don't sign Juan Soto Dominic. Let
me ask you first.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
I my my gut instinct is that they would focus
on position players, offense, defense, whichever is I I feel like,
until or unless they dump salary in the rotation, I
don't think they're touching there. I think they're content with
what they have. I think they have a lot of
faith in.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Blake and.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
The Yankees seem to do this thing where they see
what other teams do successfully and then try to replicate it.
And they just got bounced in the World Series by
a team that had like one and a half starting pitchers,
and I think they see themselves as being able to
do that and just churn through bullpen options. So I
think they would identify that their offense was the weakness
(46:29):
with Wan Sodo. So without Wan Soda, that's that's the
way they'd have to go.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Scott, what do you think? I agree. I think they're
going to go with hitting for a couple of reasons.
One is that you lose Sodo, and you know, I
feel like teams yes, they'll try to sign good players,
but they can also be reactive to two things. First
is way to get burned last year, and the answer
is no first base offense, you know. So I think
they are going to be really feeling that. Like Dom said,
(46:57):
you want a human being who knows which handle with
the first club on. And they're also maybe going to
be act to you lose Sodo. Then you know, if
you lose one Sodo to the Mets because they pay
forty million more or something, then every time the Yankees
lose a game by one run, someone's gonna say, boy,
if they had Sodo, you know, how should a pointed
up the money? Why didn't you think of that? And
(47:18):
I think they're not going to want to lose games
on offense as much without wan Soda because if you
have bad offense the year, if you're losing one Soda,
you will get crushed in the media and with fans
and everybody. So but I also think, you know, there's
good talent to be add and it's not crazy to
think that you can build a bullpen like they did
or get cheap relievers like I'm suggesting, and they have
a solar rotation and deep enough for rotation. That Yeah,
(47:40):
if the question is where can they throw seventy million
dollars and get bodies, it's with the offense, I think,
because yes, of course Blake Snow would improve any team,
but usually the plus of signing a Snail is that
most teams fifth starter is hot garbage and they's sixth
starter is hot garbage, and then you're replacing hot garbage
with much better, like a clean dumpster that's not full
of garbage. So you're making a really big improvement there.
(48:01):
That got away from me that metaphor by the garbage,
but you get my point. But if you have a
solid fifth and sixth starter, they solid enough, then there's
less of a plus factor of getting a Snell or someone.
So that's what I think. I think they will go
for offense, both to be reactive to losing Sodo and
the Anthony Rizzo experience, and I think that they're gonna, yeah,
also just not want to lose games. Offense. I think
(48:25):
they're gonna go for a hybrid of the two, meaning
that I think they're gonna pay for relief pitching, not
do a lot on starting pitching, maybe dump somebody and
then sign it like one expensive position player, so they
they bring in a Bregman, or in a Damis or
someone we're not talking about right now, and then you know,
(48:45):
try to go cheap at some other positions. I think
that there's so many places to improve this roster, but
there's not a huge supply of players out there. One
thing I worry about we talk about signing a Damas
and and and Bragmann or whatever, is that there's other
teams that also want to do this, like the Mets,
for instance, even if they signed Soto have a ton
(49:07):
of money to spend. Those teams are are going to
be competition. So it might be hard to get two
of those guys, But getting one of those guys that
might be doable. And and you know, you may not
really have your pick. You might have to figure out
kind of who's you know, who's who you can get
at a price that's not crazy, And and so I
that that that wouldn't shock me. I went for the
(49:29):
Blake Snell option because I think he's the biggest star available.
He's the biggest he's the best pitcher available. Burns is
kind of Burns and Free are in that boat too,
But we can talk about them at some other time.
I have my concerns. All right, I think that's going
to end it. Where we're going pretty long here. We
we've had a nice episode talking about this dominic. Thank
you for joining me, Scott, thank you for joining me, everybody,
(49:51):
Thank you for listening. Will probably be back next week
after Thanksgiving. We'll see if there's anything really worth talking
about anything in the news. But the winter meetings are
heating and we should start to have some actual transactions
to discuss. I gotta I got this question. Closing question.
We often do emergency podcasts if there's a signing. Will
we do an emergency podcast when the Mets announced the
seven to fifty million dollars signing a Wan Sodo, I
(50:14):
think so. Unfortunately, I think we've never done a non
signing emergency podcast, and I think it's gonna have to
happen if the Yankees don't get Won Soto. But we'll
we'll cross that bridge if we have to when we
come to it. Everybody, thank you for listening. This has
been your Bronx Beat podcast.
Hell, Hello, and welcome ups. Four hundred and thirty three
of the Bronx Beat podcast. I am E. J. Fagan Tonight,
joined by Dominiclonza, Hello everyone, and Scott Moss Hello everybody.
Dumb it's been like ten years. Good talking to you again.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we were so much younger and more full of
life and happiness.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Though, well, this is a hell of way to get
back to how are you? Good to see you too,
but I like it. We were younger and full of
life and happiness, but the New York Yankees were a
lot worse than they are today when we started this podcast.
I'm glad to be talking to both of you, guys.
This is back to the original Over Educated podcast. Two
lawyers and the PhD. We're going to talk a little
(00:51):
bit about some Yankees options. Since there's not a lot
of news going on, we're going to bring in some
of the news. A couple of rumors we're going to
bring in while we talk about. While we talk about
we're going to talk about, we decide to kind of
do a little exercise. I did this on my sub stack.
We've done this. I've seen other people do similar versions
of this, which is what would you do if Juan
Soto signs elsewhere. We don't really have any real news
(01:14):
about Wan Soto. I still think there's a pretty good
chance he signs with the Yankees. But it is clear
that the Mets are going to be paying him more
money than the Yankees pretty much no matter what, even
if the Yankees come in with a very large offer.
And so there's a good chance that he signs elsewhere,
and so we got to start talking about the plan be.
So here are our plan bes we are going to
We each have kind of given ourselves seventy million dollars
(01:35):
and no Wan Soto. We've given ourselves the ability to
make some trades, move some players around. We even are
allowing ourselves to do some weird stuff kind of move
players out of position, kind of have some fun with
this exercise. And we're all going to try to spend
exactly seventy million dollars or right around there. We have
three plans. I'm going to briefly each of us is
(01:56):
going to briefly summarize our plan, and then we're going
to talk about them position and by position, kind of
go through it slowly. I'll start I went a pitching
and defense route. I have signed three pitchers, Blake Snell,
Jeff Hoffman, and Tanner Scott So, two relievers and one
starting pitcher. I have signed Christian Walker to play first base,
(02:16):
I have signed a I've traded for au Euanio Suarez
from the Diamondbacks to play third base, and I have
salary dumped Marcus Stroman. Dominic, we'll run me through what
you did.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Step one, which isn't reflected on the little spreadsheet working
off of is I cry. Step two is to trade
Marcus Stroman to free up some space to fill out
the roster with relievers, bench guys, whatnot. But then there's
a big three I'm going for all position players, being
Christian Walker to play first base, William Damas to play second,
(02:51):
and Alex Bregman to play third.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
All right, and in scott So question about the Suarez
tree though just on the brownders that his salary is
fifteen million this coming year. Yes, and are assuming we
dumped about that much of Stroman or close or probably
about that. I suspect Stroman's going to you might not
be able to get his full eighteen million dollars, But
I want to talk about that when we talk about
(03:15):
individual positions, but I think I think you can dumb
most of it fair enough. So I decided both because
it's fun and to take one for the team, by
which I mean our team, and not be redundant with
you guys. I went with weird predictions. So most of
them involve someone getting a new baseball glove for a
position they haven't had before. But I'll give you the list.
(03:38):
So I signed Alex Bregman to play second base. He
said he was willing to. I signed Michael Confordo to
play first base. Maybe I'll tell him that after I
signed him, I am trading for Nolan Eronaudo to play
third base. And then I signed an entire bullpen. Tim
Hill is coming back, Scott Alexander, who's the other Tim
Hill is coming to board. I'm bringing back Adam Ottavino
(04:01):
for the hilarity of thing for the Yankees and the
Mets and the Yankees and aj Mintern and the Red
Sox in there too. All right, let's just I want
to go through kind of decisions we made. Now we
all made the same decision, which is Jazz chishm plays
in the outfield, not in the infield. Then there's a
world where he plays second or third base next year,
depending on kind of who the Yankees sign. But without Soto,
(04:24):
the Yankees need an outfielder, and I think we all
saw the outfield the outfielders available, and said Chishom should
be centerfield. So Dominic, let me ask you, why why
do you think Chishm fits best in center.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Chishm his best position in the majors has been center field.
He looked very good at third base. He made some
mistakes that I'd categorize as growing pains, But you know,
when you can get a rock solid third basement and
free agency and it's much harder to get a solid
center fielder. I just think it makes sense to use
what you have on board, and then you know, if
(04:57):
centerfield proves not to be his best position, if if
they identify his weakness as range or reaction time shift
from over to left. We haven't. We have two natural
center fielders, and Domingos and grisshup on the roster already.
I just think it's I think it's the most sensible
way to approach it, given what they have on hand
and what's available on the free agent market. I mean,
there's not unless I'm missing it. I don't think there's
(05:20):
really a true center fielder out there, and I do
not want Judge playing center field ever again.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
But could play centerfield, So if you could sign one
of these guys as a left fielder.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
But that's what I'm saying, I think maximizing what they
have on the roster. I'm not in love with any
of the outfielders either.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, that's why I want to I want to go
through Scott. Are there any outfielders you've considered and decided against?
Not really anything. We all gravitated toward that after Soto.
It's just leak enough. One thing I really like about
europlann Aj is that you left second and third base
as the positions we skimp on. And this is a
note you've sounded before that you got skimp on some
positions just to save the money for elsewhere. And the
(06:04):
plus at Jazz and center field is I like. And
I did a little different thing like this with my plan.
I'll tell you later, but I like when you make
signings that give you flexibility and tendency plans to cover things,
because the last thing you want to do is leave
yourself covering a lot of positions with you know, someone
absolutely terrible. You know, the Benvice experience at first base
(06:24):
or something. So what Jazz and center field and skimp
on the infield does is you know what, if someone's
heard or doesn't work out, or one of the prospects
doesn't work out as second or third, you move Jazz
back and maybe you get a left field or move
to Mingos to center or something. So I do like
the flexibility Jazz and center gives us because he can
set back into the infield if you really need if
all those fails. Yeah, I'll also add like I think
(06:46):
Jazz is probably best at center field, Like his skill
set really translates well to center. He's got good numbers
in center field. Yeah, I has had really strong numbers
at second baits, but that was now a couple of
years ago. And I think that I actually don't know
why he ended up being moved to the outfield. In
my senses is that there was a reason for it.
He's so fast, he's got such a strong arm, He's
(07:07):
played a lot of center, Like to me, just makes
sense for him to be in center. But we can
talk about what's the available talent on this and that,
but it's just really hard to find a good center
fielder because then, yeah, I mean deming guys is your
other is the other guy? Like, that's the only other
option out there, Hey, Petre, If you look at how
many teams, even good teams, have a choice between well,
(07:28):
this guy can hit and he's sort of faking in center,
or well, this guy hits one sixty but he sometimes
you know, stumbles into a home run, but he's a
really good fielder, or you know, singles that are with speed.
I think that center fields a position where if you
don't PLoP someone in there, you're very dangerously risking someone
being either badly at a position at a premium defensive position,
(07:49):
or you decide you're really sucking up catch your level offense.
So I think you get some security when you put
someone who's good on both sides the game and not
old yet in center field, like Jazz. We set there
for years. Yeah, and you know Jazz is under team
control for a while, so there's no reason to really
to really go panic about it. And you also potentially
have Spencer Jones coming up behind him, and you can
(08:10):
move Jazz back to the infield at some point, you know.
I think the other option is taoscar Hernandez Anthony Santander.
These guys are not just faking it in center, they're
faking it in the corners, right. They're bad defenders and
and older, right, So like, I don't want to sign
those guys to a three or four year deal. They're
DHR first base types in the in the near term.
And I think my theme of the team that I
(08:34):
built here is that I think the Yankees absent this losing,
the slugging of Soto, like, their next best way to
structure a team is to become more of a pitching
and defense team. And one of the ways the big
ways to improve your pitching and defense is to improve
your center field. Judge was pretty bad in center last year, Like,
he didn't look bad, but he didn't have much range,
(08:55):
and uh and right field where Soto was bad and
so and frankly Verdugo, you know, average ish. So you
could improve all three outfield positions fairly easily, you know,
simply by moving Judge to right, moving chishmb the center,
putting Domingas in left. And that's just a very big,
very big improvement for a pitching staff that's still going
(09:16):
to be pretty contact oriented next year. And I think
that's important. We'll kind of see that also in my
infield choices. Let's talk about first base. So Dominic and
I both went for Christian Walker. Scott, you decide to
kind of do a bank shot move with Michael Conforto,
So let's talk with about the kind of normal move
(09:36):
first dominant. Christian Walker's what's the rationale here?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He's a real first baseman, and I feel like the
Yankees haven't had a first baseman who appeared to be
an actual human athlete at first base since I don't know,
the beginning of twenty twenty three, before Rosser got hurt.
Walker's been extremely consistent for the last three years. He's
a little older, but that's why you're not signing him
long term. He hits for power. He gets on bass.
(10:05):
He's a shockingly good bass runner, not in terms of
stolen base numbers, but he takes the extra bass. He
doesn't really hit into a lot of double plays for
a slugging first basement. I just think he's kind of
exactly what they need. I mean, I guess it's not
ideal if we're picking knits that he's a righty and
not a lefty, but he hits the snot out of
the ball, and you know, and there.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Aren't a lot of lefty bats. There's very few lefty
bats out there.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
No, the other lefty bat out there is at first base. Really,
somebody who I think you could count on for at
least a year would be Carlos Santana, who I do like,
but he doesn't hit righty's. He does most of his
damage against lefties, So having him as a switch hitter,
I don't know how transformative that really is when batting
from the left side, isn't his strong suit.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, I agree with all that. I'd add that if
you sign Sodo, then Christian Walker's eighteen to twenty million
dollar projected salary starts to look really expensive. But if
you don't sign Soto, then you have money. I think
this is a logical place where they can spend money
over a Carlos Santana or a Yandi Diaz or someone
like that, and upgrade for nothing but money, you can
(11:15):
have a pretty good first basement, really good defender, solid hitter.
You know, essentially, I think a better version of what
they thought they were trading for in Rizzo. Rizzo kind
of was on the decline in the trade for him.
I think they thought that maybe Yankee Stadium they could
kind of revive him a little bit, and the reality
was is they got a pretty steep decline out of
him for reasons, you know, somewhat beyond his control at
(11:37):
the concussion. But still he was never really productive, whereas
Walker is just still kind of at the the renaissance
of his career. He was a late bloomer because he
was blocked behind Paul Goldschmidt, but as soon as gold
was gone, he became a really solid player. So even
though he's thirty three, I have I think that he's
a pretty good bet for at least next year, if
(11:57):
not the year after, to be a productive player like
he's been. So I think Walker just makes so much
sense as a place to spend a little bit of
money and try to save the money elsewhere. Scott, you
tried to save the money at first base, you tried
to sign you want to sign Michael Conforto and convert
him to first base, So give me give me your
logic there. Yeah, I like Walker a lot as an option.
(12:19):
I just get scared of the age because I feel
like and I also went old in another spot. Aeronaud
I'll give you a minute. So I felt like I
don't want to thirty four year olds on the corners,
and I was looking at other options for first base.
I felt hard about Jerks and Profar, who had a
good offensive year. He's gonna cost fifteen a year. He's
been good at first base defensively in the limited play
(12:40):
he's had there, so I thought he'd be an interesting option.
But he's only one good year. And CONFORDO. I like
he's a lefty hitter. He has recovered somewhat from the
down time he had before. He was pretty good last
year ex wo was even a little better than actual
wover the past two years. So I think he's a
(13:01):
legit good hitter, like a one ten to one twenty
rc plusps plus kind of guy, and the sort of
guy I guess he's playing at Yankee Stadium. He's not
been good in the outfield anymore, but you know, he's
a lefty. He's, you know, reasonably athletic. He's not like Walker.
He's not fast, but he's athletic. He's not oafish, so
(13:22):
I can see him being really solid at first base.
So I thought they could just save a little money.
I wouldn't be surprised if over the next two to
three years, Conforido out hits Walker given the age difference,
and that I'm somewhat bullish on Confordo having had a
real improvement last year and being even better than the
numbers were by x wOBA. So I think there's a
bit of a sleeper of a guy who could be
(13:42):
a well above average hitter, not a superstar hitter like
that one or two great years he had, but you know,
and then you save some money with him, I thought.
And he's a New Yorker, right, he was with the
Mets for a long time. That might matter a little bit.
He might might have enjoyed living here, want to come home.
He's a lefty and really both I think Dominic and
(14:02):
I have pretty left righty heavy lineups. So it's interesting.
It's an interesting pick, and uh, you know, I it'd
be interested to see if someone tries to convert him,
because you're right, his defense in the outfield's pretty bad.
All right. Uh, let's go second and third base as
a package, because there's some of these choices are really
really mirrors of each other. I'll start, So I opted
(14:25):
to go at second base, with a spring training competition,
so probably Caleb Durban, but also you have Oswald Parazza,
Oswald Cabrera, some platoon thereof you have potential DJ le Mayhew,
though I suspect he's done, but I think they'll at
least give him a courtesy look in spring training. They
certainly are talking like Cale Durban is going to be
(14:45):
the guy, and I'm very curious to see kind of
what the off season scattering reports are, if there's any
real chance that he's he's good, if people outside the organization,
not just guy in the stat line, believe in him.
So I'm going cheap at second base for a competition there,
and I'm t trading for au Hano Suarez from the
Arizona Diamondbacks. I think that will be a trade that's
gonna hurt. It's probably not a Spencer Jones level trade,
(15:07):
but it's a trade that's going to require the Yankees
to put some guys back guys in there. The Diamondbacks
they have a third baseman prospect coming up who's pretty good.
They probably want to spend save some money there, spend
that money elsewhere. Suarez had a killer second half. He
slugged like six hundred and the second half last year,
has a history of sometimes hitting forty one runs, playing
(15:28):
decent defense at third and so I think he's he's
at fifteen million dollars one year deal. I think he
makes a lot of sense for the Yankees as kind
of a stopgap player. Maybe they bring maybe they keep
them longer, but for now, one year fifty million dollars
save a little bit of money versus some of the
other options. I think it makes a lot of sense.
Scott All ask you to go first. Now, what was
(15:51):
your plan? Yeah, so I in the first draft of
the plan I was doing when you did save money
at second or third, But then I realized this, if
they're not getting Sodo. After Dominic's done crying, what we
love to do is we group and decide where we
can spend the money. And if we're not getting Sodo,
I don't want any position to be gosh. I hope
(16:13):
that kid works out. I want it to be someone
who's basically proven to be a good hitter or good
fielder or both, ideally a little bit of both. And
I'm really pull him for Caleb Durbin. I'll be bummed
if he doesn't get a shot but is Caleb Derbin
really the best plan. No, the guy is five five probably,
and that type has almost never succeeded. He's on Nope.
(16:34):
I can verify that in person by the way he
does like five six might be generous, Like, the dude
is short as hell, So I think that it's a
reach to really expect him to do it. You and
I EJ No both think they should have give him
Paraus a shot, But let's just accept that it hasn't
happened and it isn't gonna happen. If they're going to
give him a shot, they would have at least played
him a little by now. So I don't and Carrera,
(16:55):
you know, he's good for what he is, but I
think that we just need a little more quality control
of that is what I wanted to do. Alex Bregman
said in media interviews that he's up for playing second
base if a team needs it. That was probably a
smartt moved increases value. But let's take the man on
his word. He never actually got worse at short stop
when he moved a third, or not much. Granted he
(17:16):
moved off short four years ago, but he's still really
good a third. I have no doubt that he could
do second, and I thought, you know, yeah, the number
has been down a little bit this past year, but
not apocalyptically. Still, he's still a four R player. And
the way his numbers went down is he decided to
swing at everything somehow and he walked less. Some of
(17:36):
the contact out of the zone was worse, but he
wasn't swinging and missing. He wasn't hitting ground balls at
the alarming rates. In other words, it seemed like there
was some weird swing decisions or whatever, but it didn't
seem like it's age based to climb for a thirty
one year old. And I like him a lot. And
then at third base, I went with Aeronato. We're talking
about both now or should we move on? Yeah, let's
(17:57):
talk about seriously. I know you guys talked about it.
Aeronaut another week. I'm higher on him. Yes he's the client.
Yes we could have Josh donminds of fatigue, but he's
a very different guy than Josh Donaldson and Aeronaudo's a
three war player over the past two years. He's projected
last year and he's almost three hour. He's projected to
be about that level this year. He's maybe an average hitter,
(18:19):
maybe a little better, but I think he's the guy
who's hyper competitive. It's also he and Bregman. I often
don't put a lot of stock in the fieriness and competition,
but given some of the fundamentals things, I like the
idea of kind of fiery guys like a Bregman and Aeronauto,
who are both you know, competitive, admirably, maybe sometimes jerks.
(18:40):
I was once set a Rockies game and someone didn't
cover well on a throat of first he made, and
then there's a conference of the mound, and Aeronauto didn't
join the conference of the mound. He was like stomping
around third base, screaming of the dirt, and it seem
like he was kind of a jerk move, or maybe
he's frustrating himself. Was throw it was in the jerk,
but I don't know. The Gangs couldn't use a little
more of that after a fifth inning of oh you
want to go first piece? You want to go first piece? No? No,
(19:02):
what's the first base? I met the Bregman argument too, right,
I mean Bregman is one of those guys too, Yeah, exactly,
so were the two of them you know, I think
that'd be great. If you guys screaming at baseballs and
dirt in the infield, you know, I think they're all
going to cover first base when there's a grand ball
to pitch, the eight guys running there, so I think
they get used some of that. I think Aeronauto's not cooked.
He's still good defensively. And here's the thing. He's sixty
(19:23):
four million over three years. That alone isn't crazy. But
if Saint LOUI will pay, I put in like three
three and a half a year. Okay, he's seventeen to
eighteen million a year for a three war player. That's
not bad, right, That's cheaper. It's about the same as
Christian Walker. And I think Aeronaut is a better player
right now and about the same age. So I think
(19:44):
you get him under that price if you like Christian Walker,
like Nolan Ronado. Last thing I'll say is that there's
because a trade. He has a trade, but it's a
salary dump a little bit for Saint Louis. The Yantes
will give up somewhat of a real prospect, but not
a really real prospect, and there's no ququalifying offer for
Aeronauda unlike a Walker of Bregman. So you know, in
a sense, it's not really like you're giving him any
(20:07):
value in a trade compared to giving up a qualifying
offer or something. So I think that he'd be a
smart play. And if you get aeronautdo and a pretty
good first base in whether Walker, I think in fourdo
you know you get like five to six war between
those two positions that in bed? All right, So Dominic,
I want to get to your picks in a second
to first time. What do you think about Aeronauto as
(20:27):
an option?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
For Aeronauto? It would all come down to what they're
giving up for him and what the Cardinals are paying.
Because I really like Noel Ernaudo. He has been one
of my favorite players not on the Yankees for a
long time because I'm just a sucker for third base defense.
That's where I played in Little league in high school
and it's what I love. I love watching him play.
(20:51):
I don't think he's cocked. I agree. I think he
might be closer to an average hitter than the superstar
level hitter we saw in twenty twenty two and years probably,
But I think, like Scott said, if he's seventeen million
a year and he's costing a nominal prospect. I think
that's a good play. Once you start to get more
(21:11):
to that, there's certain degrees where I just I just
want no part of them.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, I mean, my problem with that arn not. I
was like, I just don't believe the bad Like he
had an ex wobba last year of two ninety six,
and he is a deadpool hitter, probably gets hurt a
little bit by Yankee stadium. Like he's not bad, Like
he has his pluses, Like he's still a contact bat,
he still has an incredible defense. But I just I
(21:36):
really wonder if we're talking about like late career Evan Longoria,
and it's just I think Yankees can do better, Like
I think ah A Suarez. I think he's just a
better player than that and in similar cost. But you know,
I mean, Scott makes a point that like his salary,
especially if if you get the Cardinals will take a
little bit of it, is really not that bad. I
thought it was worse. And three years is is not
(22:00):
not too long of a commitment. He's a little younger
than Donaldson was. He's I think probably more athletic than Donaldson,
although his foot Speed's gone, is all gone. So I
don't think it's a bad idea, and I think if
the Yankees trade for him, I think I'd be excited.
I try to convince myself that he there's a little
bit of a rebound left in him. But I worry
that there's like a that we're looking at what happened
to LeMay who on the aging curve, what happened to
(22:21):
all these guys that have been diving around the infield
their whole career, and and you end up with really
not a lot left. This is a weird risk of that.
But there's another aspect to this. I still there's some
trouble with this would work out if Boone stops doing
this one stupid thing he's always done, and surely we'll
keep doing so. If you look at the idea of
Stanton as playoff hero, I don't think the Stan's better
(22:41):
than the playoffs. I think Stan's an old, brittle guy
who's better when he plays two out of three days,
like in the playoffs. And you see this with some
other old players. Blackman on the Rockies was exactly this.
You see it with Anthony Volpi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean the days off for an underrated thing when
either it's a premium position like Volpi, or you're old.
You know, when you're oh, look for stan Daging is
(23:01):
as tired as shortstops for Anthony Volpi physically. But I
think that if you get Aernado, he said, even the
people of the Rockies, there's this quote he gave the
yst thing about him being injured. He said, well, there's
this point every July where I'm just a walking bruise
head to toe because he dives all over. Yeah, he's
just being blunket about what all players go through. And that'llly,
(23:22):
you know, could you anything? As you age, you can
less pull it off. I don't think the guys lost physicality.
I think it's that so honestly, if they got an aeronauto,
I think the obvious play would be that you DH him.
You know, when you rest in one day a week,
you DH one day a week, and you give Stanton
off one or two days a week, and I think
they'll both be better. And if you do my plan here,
you have enough bodies who are not scrubs that you know, fine,
(23:44):
you're giving Caleb Durbins some starts at second base or
Cabrera or someone you know, but they're the backup. They'll
lets you rest and move these guys. I think Aeronauta
like stant would be a lot better as a five
day week player. All right, Donic, he went for williadamis
signing him big, signing to play second base and and
Bregman to play third. So your big is sodo move
(24:05):
is basically these two guys, right.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, My move is essentially, you know, haphazardly quoting Moneyball,
is we're not replacing Giambi, We're replacing X, Y and Z.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
So what I write the same exact thing in my
blog post. I did this right because it's exactly what
you got to do, right.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah. So the way I'm looking at this is that
the Yankees are effectively replacing right field left field, first, second,
and third, and I'm covering right field by moving Judge back.
Center and left are covered by Chisholm and Dominguez and
then first, second, and third. Or it's my new blood
and almost on the same lines as you, EJ. I'm
(24:44):
looking to improve the defense with this too, which it's
not a super high baseline from what we got at
second with gliber Torres, but William damas Is. The numbers
always disagree with him, they have since he was on
the Rais, but i'd hazard he's at least a solid
short stop, and he's played second before. And while he's
not Sodo young, he's young for a free agent. He's
(25:06):
going to play almost all of next year at twenty nine,
and I think there's plenty left in the tank. He's
pretty much as good a hitter as Torre as ever was.
To keep going with the comparison, but again, the defense's
leaps and bounds better, the base running.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Way, the hitting is so much more consistent.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
He's very, very consistent. Pretty much since he became a regular,
he's been very good. Twenty twenty three he was a
down year for him, but the underlying numbers were as
good as ever. I just I see him as kind
of a quiet star, not a superstar, but a quiet star.
And I think he is as safe a bet as
(25:43):
anybody not in the Sodo division to chug along for
several years and give you three and a half plus
war year in and year out, and that's what I want.
It's it's not Sodo, it's not close to Sodo. Maybe
if you're lucky, it's sixty percent of SODO, but I
want to get one of those guy and I think
at least on the position player side, a Damas is
(26:03):
the best bet for that.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
And then at third, I'll he's a club ass guy, right,
He's one of those like leaders that I think the
Yankees kind of neat. I think I think bringing something
like Bregman, like Eronatto. I think bringing one of those
guys in could really matter.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, And it also kind of goes to the fact
that you know, we haven't mentioned it yet. I'm sure
it'll come up or it's come up already to be
fair in off season podcasting, but this is a win
now team and getting guys that we know can plug
and play means a lot and A Damas is that,
and Bregman is that. So Bregman, he has declined a
(26:40):
little bit, but I don't think he's declined appreciably. And
I think down the road maybe he is a guy
that we end up having to move to first, or
maybe you see something and you swap a Damas and
Bregman at second and third. It sounds weird because Bregman's
a third baseman, but I don't know. There's some room
to play around, but Bregman is still at worst and
above average head and solid average defender at third base.
(27:02):
I think you can count on both for at least
a couple more years. And again it's I don't know
that there's many bets that I feel super confident about
on the free agent market. I mean, Taascar Hernandez just
had a career year, but he's thirty two and he's
prone to long slumps. Santander's coming off a career year
(27:24):
that he's never done anything like this before. He is
terrifying jerks and Profi is coming off a great year,
but he's also coming off of being released by multiple
teams in twenty twenty three. It's just ever I look,
I'm frightened, and Bregman, I don't know. Maybe if you
want to tell me, well, actually, the next three years
he's only going to be a one to ten OPS
(27:44):
plus or WRC plus guy. But you're confident about that
that that might be the best that we could get
with certainty, and I think that's.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Always the best. Not he's like the best non SOCO
player available.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I would put a Dames over him, but I think
he's close, and I think the only thing that could
change the Yankees calculus on this. And I don't want
to bemoan the guy because he was great in the playoffs,
but it would be if Stanton wasn't here. Because if
Stanton wasn't here, maybe I feel better about saying, like,
you know what, let's sign Jack Peterson and Taoscar and
just get a ton of thump in there, rotate in
(28:19):
between DH and left and give other guys days off.
And you know, if you have to sit Peterson against
a tough lefty, that's fine because you have other people covering.
But I'm not spending a ton of money on a
platoon in the outfields if we don't have DH open.
And I just think that my plan basically boils down
(28:40):
to the Yankees were the best they've been in several
years in twenty twenty four. I want them to try
to stay at that level in twenty twenty five without
having to count on bouncebacks or guys playing above their
head or their aid, or guys learning a fully new
(29:02):
position or whatever. And I just think that the trio
of Walker, Odamas and Bregman gives us that. I mean,
maybe if I was being cheeky and I wanted to
use that savings were getting on Stroman to do Pete
Alonzo over Christian Walker. Maybe that would give me a
bit more ceiling. But Walker was better than Pete Alonzo
(29:23):
this year, and Yankee Stadium is not a stadium that's
going to help Alonso. So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
It's a huge difference on defense.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Maybe he'll make the Yankees offense better, but I'm going
for defense with these guys. And I don't know. Maybe
this is just me, you know, liking the cut of
my own jib, but I feel like this is the
These three guys represent the best team the Yankee can
build with the most certainty of the Yankees can build
if SODA's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, my only concern with Bregman is ballpark. If you
look at his numbers over like over the last three
or four years, really his entire career, he's always done
way better is expected. Slugging has always really outperformed his
underperformed his slugging, meaning that he's getting he's getting good
bad at ball. I wouldn't say luk results for how
hard he hits the ball, and I think it's because
(30:13):
of the Crawford boxes in Houston he has. He has
a perfect ballpark for his kind of extreme pole power swing,
and he can take advantage of that. I'm terrified that
he's going to sign in Boston, right and he will
be terrorizing us off the Green Monster for the rest
of his career if that's what happens. I hope he
stays in Houston or goes to the National League or something.
(30:34):
But I think in Yankee Stadium, I mean, you know,
it's not that bad straight down the line in the
Yankee Stadium, but it's not a big advantage. And I
think that, you know, I think that Bregman might not
be well sued to that maybe he can get more
singles and doubles in the Yankee Stadium with a big
left field. It's kind of the trade off of having
a big left field. But I get a little concern
(30:54):
that he's going to be a four hundred slugging guy
going forward, which is basically what he is what he
is in, you know, in stack cast.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I mean, for whatever it's worth, Homan away the last
two years, it's actually he's actually been better away the
last couple of years. I don't know if that's a
change in his approach, a change in luck. Oh, but
this year he was better. He did have better power
in Houston, like you said, But in twenty twenty three
he was actually much better on the road, like eighty
points higher and ops better.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So I know that that's interesting. Maybe he's just such
an extreme poll hitter that the foul pole is a
foul pole.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yes, but or really the biggest change was in in
twenty twenty two for whatever reason, he couldn't hit on
the road. Other than that, he's basically been the same
hitter at Homan on the road for his career.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Oh, that's good. That satisfied. Has been one of my concerns.
I think if they signed Bregman, like I am excited
just because Bregman is is is a really good player,
and I feel like he's going to be productive going
forward just on pure contact and defense and all of that.
I just I worry that it's like a low ceiling
pick sometimes, you know, if I could jump in on that,
(32:02):
I think, I like Willia domis Alot's as signing. I
worried a little bit about the fact that as between
him and Bregman at second, I mean, your choice is
obviously the more safe, sensible one because he's been a
middle enfielder. Bragman hasn't in a while. It's just that
they're both going to be a long term deal and expensive,
and I felt like I'm less sold on the bat
(32:26):
of a Domis is just a tick blow Bregman. So
I feel like Bregman could age better and if Adama
stops being a good middle infielder, you know the bat,
I'm not sure it plays for first base or elsewhere,
but I think he's a good choice. I think overall,
I think your plan, dom is probably the one that
I like best. And I was standing that I picked
my plan. I like exploring my plan, or at least
I think yours is the realistic one that could happen,
(32:47):
and I'll be ecstatic if it happens. If they don't
get so Sodo, it's basically we firmed up first, second,
and third to be a really strong infield in lieu
of getting Sodo. Basically, my favorite thing about Willie Domas
is that his first name is actually Willie. It's not
anything so I picturely signed him. I think the performance
art would be at the press conference hesus. You know,
(33:10):
now that I'm thirty years old, I want to go
by William and just says that anyway. And then Alex Bregman.
You know, I was thought there's a huge difference with
the name alex and Alexander and how formalist. I was like, actually,
I am now Alexander D. Bregman. I like to be
referred to that at all times. So I think some
good options there. Let's move on to talk about pitching.
So we all are we went different routes in pitching.
(33:31):
So both of you guys didn't do a lot on pitching.
So Dominic, you didn't sign anybody, Scott you except you
trade away Marcus Stroman. Scott, you signed a whole bunch
of kind of like you know, B minus relievers and
didn't sign a big reliever because you guys both spent
your money on on infielders, right Stroman or Aeronatto Bregman,
(33:51):
adamis I spent my money on pitching, and so I
want to kind of mention this year Blake snell And
as a starter, and then Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Scott in relief.
And to me, this is just about where is their
money to improve the team that you can spend. I
think that the best available improvements are pitching right now.
(34:16):
Blake Snell replaces one of your guys at the back
of the rotation, becomes maybe your best starter, maybe your
second best starter behind Garrett Cole had an incredible second
half last year. I don't know what he's gonna cost.
I put down six years twenty eight million dollars per year.
I'd love to get him for less than that. At
four years thirty million per year is one other prediction
(34:37):
that I saw. I think that's possible. I think that
Blake Snell is just like a straight up improvement for
this rotation and has a chance to win a sy
young And I think he's you know, he's showing the
second half last year, he's just still that good and
just going into the playoffs. You had more starting pitching
(34:57):
on the Yankees than you had on a lot of teams.
But there is really no one besides Call that you
were confident in. I think Snell gives you that second
guy that you are confident can go out there and
be the best pitcher in the game. I then signed
Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman is two of the best
relievers available. Tanner Scott was incredible last year. I was
(35:17):
shocked to look at a stat Gas page just by
how he was basically everywhere better than Weaver, and so
I think Weaver, Tanner, Scott, and then Jeff Hoffman, who
was also incredible last year, become a real knockout back
of the bullpen, and another really big improvement. Then not
only replacing Holmes and cain Lee, but then pushing some
(35:39):
of the other guys down the org chard a little bit, right,
you know, pushing guys like Jake Cousins Ian Hamilton to
back of the bullpen rolls or from of the bullpen
rolls early early inning rolls rather than high leverage rolls.
And I think that's just a huge improvement. And all
of a sudden, the Yankees been have one of the
best bullpens in the majors again, and Luke Weaver is
a really good third third guy compliment those guys I
(36:02):
trade away Marcus Stroman. I have been back and forth
on whether or not Marcus Stroman is salary dumpable for
a while now, and I've landed on yes, you have
a lot of kind of middling pitchers who are gonna
get paid this were expecting it to get paid this offseason.
So Nick Pivetta turned down a qualifying offer. Luis Severino
(36:23):
turned down a qualifying offer. Nick Martinez was offered a
qualifying offer and took it. And these guys are not powerhouses.
They are solid, you know. Nick Martinez is a little better,
but solid, you know, four point zero er or higher guys.
And I think that Stroman's eighteen million dollars starts to
look like not a bad deal at that point, and
(36:45):
I think that some team might want might be willing
to take at least a lot of that contract fifteen
million dollars or so in a salary dump. I still
have six starters on my roster after signing Blake Snell,
and you can get and that's including getting rid of
Marcus Stroman's I think the will be fine on starting pitching,
and could be fine even without Blake Snell. But I
just think that that that is just such a logical
(37:08):
trade for the Yankees, and he's one of the few
guys they can trade that has some money on their roster. Dominic,
why don't you tell me why you went for the
Why Essentially, you went for the no no pitching changes.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Option because I wanted to invest the money in a
way that's kind of replicating what worked for this team
this year in twenty twenty four, there is a part
of me that I will say I was my last
ditch consideration was between Bregman and Max Freed. Who would
(37:42):
actually be the pitcher that I would like to sign
the most, just because I think he's going to age
the best, and if it comes down to all these
guys wanting long term deals, which I wouldn't doubt, I
think he He doesn't have the ceiling of Corbyn Burns
or Snell, but I think he's much much, much safer,
and you know, like Snell, he has the lefty thing
(38:03):
going for him. Like Corbyn Burns, He's not not dependent
on power and repertoire. He's an amazing command and control guy.
I just think he could be there for a long time,
and I think he would. I think he's one of
those guys who's going to age like a like Andy
Pettit or CC Sabbathia for another Yankees lefty who you know,
(38:28):
ike CC. He doesn't have to make the transition from
power to command control, but I think he'll be you know,
he's thirty one now. I think he'll be super effective
into his mid to late thirties. If that's how he
choose to play out his career. But like I said,
I think they're pitching as is is still good enough,
(38:49):
and their offense after seeing how dead it was after
for most of the playoffs between what two and two
and a half spots in the lineup, I think spread
that out into adding three effective bats in places where
there were none. It's just more desirable for me.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Scott, what do you think about Blake Snell? Well, first
of all, you call my relievers as then four of
them be minus relievers. I have. You know that Tim
Hill and the off season, lives in your neighborhood. So
I'm giving him your dress is gonna come slappy with
that left arm. There you go, you deserve it. Nothing personal,
So I mean they're not about the neighborhood. By the way,
it's probably not true. Maybe it is. Who knows where
he lives, Blake Snell. I like Blake Snell a lot.
(39:30):
I thought about him. First off, Tim Hill looks like
he lives like on the top of an appellation mountain. Right.
He's just He's just sitting there smoking a pipe and
joining his life. You know that. That's Tim Hill. Yeah,
I'm not sure whether he's like a right wing survivalist
hundred dude, or like a yoga master. It could go
either way. Really, yoga Matt, I would I could see
him being a yoga master, like, okay, well.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Why not a right wing survivalist yoga master.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Wow, that's a multicultural of you. That's you won the
Woke News today? Where were we? Blake Snell? Yes, he's good. Yeah.
The snelling salts, as Boras said, are going to be powerful.
So I think Snow would be a great option if
they signed him. I just like Dom took the view
(40:16):
that you want to save the money for offense because
if you lose Sodo then you can do that. You
also have a solid rotation I mean, I mean Quipple,
but boohoo, they have six starters, and we don't love
our six starters Strowman, who is probably who you guys
think is enough trade value. You think he's actually a
starting pitcher. So you know what if a team of
six starters, who would be in demand and starters for
any team? I feel like they're basically Okay. That said,
(40:39):
I would have signed a Snill or someone if I
could find the money, but I couldn't. If you spend
it on the infield as much as we were all
talking about. Yeah, that really is I think the choice, right,
it's do you spend your money on hitting or pitching?
If you don't have Soto and you know, you still
have to find the hitters, so you have to find
if spend some money on hitting, but it is absolutely
(41:03):
doable to either skip the pitching or do what you
did and go for kind of lower cost relievers. Like
I think that's the that that that that's what this
exercise reveels to me, is like if you if you
can save some money on hitting, then then you have
the opportunity to go to go to pitching. But that's
an optional, like you can you can make this a
(41:25):
viable World Series contender just by restocking the hitting. And
that's right. Are we talking about the bullpen yet or
not yet? Well tell me. I don't want to spend
too much on the individual names, but just just tell
me kind of what you're thinking. You're signing Hill, Alexander
Autavino Holmes. Yeah, and by the way, Dom I realized
you were underspent a bit, so I gave you three
(41:46):
of the B minus relievers added to yours. Hill out
of Alexander because they're about eight million com mine and presto,
suddenly you didn't neglect the bullpen and you're welcome. So
so there three. What is this? Yes, the Yankee c
able to find guys who he's al righty, he was good,
They thought he'd be good, and then Blake works magic,
et cetera. They're limits to that. And I was really
(42:08):
tempted to go with no relievers, but you know, you
need somebody to come in after the starters throw five
innings these days, so I think he needs some arms,
and I looked around in a couple things. First, I
think Clay Holme's got a bum deal. I think he's
still a really good believer. I hate spending money on relievers,
but I think he's really good well, and you're giving
him a better infield defense too. And he also signed
(42:29):
a ton of ground ball pitchers. So Tim Hill and
Scott Alexander are the same guy. They're elderly lefties who
have big platoon splits and get nothing but ground balls.
But Tim Hill is pitchable against righty's at least they're
both cheap, So you got to be ground ball bullpen.
And the reason I went with ground ballers is this
the guys you can find off the scrap heap, like
a weaver or someone or Ian Hamilton, they tend to
(42:51):
be righty strikeout guys. They're just live arms that didn't
quite make it. Usually that means a righty with power stuff,
because if they didn't make it and they didn't have
power stuff, they'd probably be you know, uber drivers by now,
they'd be gone. So I feel like the guys who
get the scrap he typically are the righty power arms.
So let me go with ground bowlers and lefties. That's
(43:12):
Hill and Alexander Homes the ground bowler and Automno, I
think is just cheap. And you know, with relievers, I
think he's cheap enough. Is he possibly cooked, yes, but
he was still solid last year and he'll do fine
with us. And if he doesn't, you know, he's a reliever,
you can get rid of him. So that was my
thought there. And you have a really good bullpen. I
think if you have those four guys, some of them
be good, some won't. But you know what, if Alexander's done,
(43:34):
he's two and change millions, so's him Hill, so's Audavino.
I mean, don't I don't hate the idea of kind
of going for the B minus relievers. I think I
think Matt Blake is capable of finding someone who can
replicate Adam Ontavino, right. I don't think he's capable of
magically turning someone into Hoffmann or Tanner Scott right Like.
I think that that's the difference. Is like, if you
(43:57):
want the tip top of quality, he got to pay
for it and or develop it from from the miners.
Out of you know, is the guy who was the
least committed to Because I agree with you what they
could do is le mcgreens. They get signed Righty's and
you know, out of five writers you try that with,
when comes the weaver to become current level? Out of
Vino and to flop? I said, out of you know
(44:17):
mean because I like him and it was fun. The
idea of he was a Yankee than the Yankee Yeah
New Yorker, right, he's from the Bronx or he's from
from Manhattan Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah, you know. I actually, honestly,
I wouldn't be shocked. I looked at a sad cast page.
I they're not bad. He had a good year. He's
thirty nine years old. I wouldn't be shocked if he
doesn't want to move and he signs with either of
(44:37):
the match of the Yankees, because he's still an effective reliever,
and I think with a greater a better defense, you
can imagine him being a pretty effective player. That he
still strikes out a lot of guys. So I think
he's also got platoon splits to think about. So he's
good against Righty's all right. I want to wrap this
up by kind of talking a little bit about archetypes.
(44:58):
We kind of have two different and sets of strategies, right,
So I'm gonna call mine the pitching and defense strategy
that you fill the the opens positions, but you have
some cheap guys and you you spend money on pitching,
versus the all hitting strategy. You maintain basically the same
pitching staff and you do something like we've talked about
here a Bregman and the damis maybe a trade run,
(45:19):
not thinking of Christian Walker, you know, just something you
get the you get the expensive guys there, and then
you don't. You don't do much on pitching. Maybe you
dump some guys, You make some small moves, but nothing huge.
Those are two different sets of strategies, and I want
to ask you, guys, what do you think the Yankees
will do?
Speaker 2 (45:37):
What?
Speaker 1 (45:37):
What of these do you think we'll actually see in
the event that they don't sign Juan Soto Dominic. Let
me ask you first.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
I my my gut instinct is that they would focus
on position players, offense, defense, whichever is I I feel like,
until or unless they dump salary in the rotation, I
don't think they're touching there. I think they're content with
what they have. I think they have a lot of
faith in.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Blake and.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
The Yankees seem to do this thing where they see
what other teams do successfully and then try to replicate it.
And they just got bounced in the World Series by
a team that had like one and a half starting pitchers,
and I think they see themselves as being able to
do that and just churn through bullpen options. So I
think they would identify that their offense was the weakness
(46:29):
with Wan Sodo. So without Wan Soda, that's that's the
way they'd have to go.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Scott, what do you think? I agree. I think they're
going to go with hitting for a couple of reasons.
One is that you lose Sodo, and you know, I
feel like teams yes, they'll try to sign good players,
but they can also be reactive to two things. First
is way to get burned last year, and the answer
is no first base offense, you know. So I think
they are going to be really feeling that. Like Dom said,
(46:57):
you want a human being who knows which handle with
the first club on. And they're also maybe going to
be act to you lose Sodo. Then you know, if
you lose one Sodo to the Mets because they pay
forty million more or something, then every time the Yankees
lose a game by one run, someone's gonna say, boy,
if they had Sodo, you know, how should a pointed
up the money? Why didn't you think of that? And
(47:18):
I think they're not going to want to lose games
on offense as much without wan Soda because if you
have bad offense the year, if you're losing one Soda,
you will get crushed in the media and with fans
and everybody. So but I also think, you know, there's
good talent to be add and it's not crazy to
think that you can build a bullpen like they did
or get cheap relievers like I'm suggesting, and they have
a solar rotation and deep enough for rotation. That Yeah,
(47:40):
if the question is where can they throw seventy million
dollars and get bodies, it's with the offense, I think,
because yes, of course Blake Snow would improve any team,
but usually the plus of signing a Snail is that
most teams fifth starter is hot garbage and they's sixth
starter is hot garbage, and then you're replacing hot garbage
with much better, like a clean dumpster that's not full
of garbage. So you're making a really big improvement there.
(48:01):
That got away from me that metaphor by the garbage,
but you get my point. But if you have a
solid fifth and sixth starter, they solid enough, then there's
less of a plus factor of getting a Snell or someone.
So that's what I think. I think they will go
for offense, both to be reactive to losing Sodo and
the Anthony Rizzo experience, and I think that they're gonna, yeah,
also just not want to lose games. Offense. I think
(48:25):
they're gonna go for a hybrid of the two, meaning
that I think they're gonna pay for relief pitching, not
do a lot on starting pitching, maybe dump somebody and
then sign it like one expensive position player, so they
they bring in a Bregman, or in a Damis or
someone we're not talking about right now, and then you know,
(48:45):
try to go cheap at some other positions. I think
that there's so many places to improve this roster, but
there's not a huge supply of players out there. One
thing I worry about we talk about signing a Damas
and and and Bragmann or whatever, is that there's other
teams that also want to do this, like the Mets,
for instance, even if they signed Soto have a ton
(49:07):
of money to spend. Those teams are are going to
be competition. So it might be hard to get two
of those guys, But getting one of those guys that
might be doable. And and you know, you may not
really have your pick. You might have to figure out
kind of who's you know, who's who you can get
at a price that's not crazy, And and so I
that that that wouldn't shock me. I went for the
(49:29):
Blake Snell option because I think he's the biggest star available.
He's the biggest he's the best pitcher available. Burns is
kind of Burns and Free are in that boat too,
But we can talk about them at some other time.
I have my concerns. All right, I think that's going
to end it. Where we're going pretty long here. We
we've had a nice episode talking about this dominic. Thank
you for joining me, Scott, thank you for joining me, everybody,
(49:51):
Thank you for listening. Will probably be back next week
after Thanksgiving. We'll see if there's anything really worth talking
about anything in the news. But the winter meetings are
heating and we should start to have some actual transactions
to discuss. I gotta I got this question. Closing question.
We often do emergency podcasts if there's a signing. Will
we do an emergency podcast when the Mets announced the
seven to fifty million dollars signing a Wan Sodo, I
(50:14):
think so. Unfortunately, I think we've never done a non
signing emergency podcast, and I think it's gonna have to
happen if the Yankees don't get Won Soto. But we'll
we'll cross that bridge if we have to when we
come to it. Everybody, thank you for listening. This has
been your Bronx Beat podcast.
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