2014 Contract Status: Signed through 2016 at $3.5 million, that the Nationals will take care of.
In order to properly grade Matt Thornton's short stint as a New York Yankee, you would have had to actually sit down and watch his appearances. A casual baseball fan might look at his numbers and think that Thornton had a nice stint for us, but again, after viewing his appearances, you would realize that he just wasn't that good, or bad, but pretty average.
The majority of Yankee fans were quite confused when the front office gave the then 37-year-old a two-year contract worth $7 million. Of course this was the front office's response to fill the void left by Boone Logan who had departed to Colorado on a three-year contract worth just under $17 million. A contract that is looking even worst than when it was first announced, as Boone Logan had an awful year for the Rockies that ended with elbow surgery. So, Thornton signed to become that go-to lefty specialist that Joe Girardi loves to use so often.
Thornton didn't exactly gain a lot of supporters as the season went along, as more often than not none of his appearances were clean. Thornton would either give up runs, or give up hits and walks which would in turn give us all anger issues and heart palpitations. Of the 43 base runners that Thornton inherited, 14 scored, which doesn't exactly bode well when most of the time Thornton was called upon to get an out or two. In 46 games with New York, Thornton was 0-3, pitching 24 innings and giving up 23 hits while also racking up an 83% contact rate, which isn't exactly something you want to see. Again, not awful, but easily replaceable, and at a cheaper price which is exactly what the front office realized when they sent Thornton packing.
After the trade deadline came and went, the Yankees decided to put Thornton on the waiver wire and surprisingly, the Nationals decided to pick him and the rest of his contract up so the Yankees now don't have to worry about paying Thornton to occasionally get an out or two. Thornton pitched well for the Nationals, not giving up a run in 11 innings pitched, and made an appearance in the NLDS before going home thanks to the Giants. The Yankees eventually went on to replace Thornton with guys like Rich Hill, David Huff, Chaz Roe, and other names we hope to never see again in a Yankee uniform.
Moving forward, look for the Yankees to bring up one of their own guys to be the lefty out of the pen in 2015. With a good spring training, Tyler Webb could be the guy, although Jacob Lindgren would also be a sight to see especially if he puts up the numbers he did in the minors. I am just salivating to see a Jacob Lindgren/Dellin Betances combo; don't judge. We should also not be surprised if the Yankees check in on Andrew Miller, although I don't think the Yankees want to spend big on the bullpen unless it is to give David Robertson a contract.
Perhaps the most curious aspect of the Red Sox supremely wonderful and bizarre 2004 postseason is that Game Four of the World Series was less a baseball game than a coronation. It seems odd now to think of a time when the Red Sox hadn’t won the World Series in eight plus decades, let alone a time when the possibility of blowing a three games to none lead felt, if not likely, then certainly possible. But that time existed, and it existed on that day.
Recall the Red Sox had just vanquished the Yankees, overcoming decades of mismanagement, disappointment, outright incompetence, and misery in the process, to say nothing of avenging their Game Seven loss to New York one year earlier. After successfully running through that gauntlet, Boston found a 105-win Cardinals team staring at them, snout to snout. So, naturally, the Sox beat ‘em in three straight games, never trailing in the process. This was certain victory. This was redemption to be! This was HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE GREATEST EVER!
Right?
Before you answer, keep in mind the well-earned pre-’04 mindset. Buckner. Boone. Grady Little. Whatever jerk beat the Sox in ’75. Bob Gibson (a different jerk). Every Yankee player ever. Oh, friends, does the list ever go on. If ever that team, the one our grandparents knew, was going to rear it’s hideous head, grab the nearest fire place implement, and take seven or hearty swings at our collective giblets, this was the time. This was as prime a giblet thumping opportunity as had ever existed, and this was the team that lived to thump their fans in the giblets. Up three-games-to-none? Nobody could possibly have thought to protect themselves. We’d all have been too busy throwing up. Giblets were there for the smashing. But, somehow, some way, some something, it didn’t happen.
And the strangest part was that we knew it wouldn’t.
Perhaps that’s too strong. Perhaps, cautious optimism existed for some significant portion of Red Sox Nation going into Game Three. Perhaps it existed at the start of the game, but probably it didn’t go much beyond the first hitter.
Pitch One: fastball, inside corner, strike one.
Pitch Two: fastball, high and away, ball one.
Pitch Three: just like pitch two, ball two.
Pitch Four: fastball, belt high, center of the plate. In play, run(s).
Four pitches. That’s all it took. Johnny Damon, long hair flowing, beard dapperly cut via a two or three setting on the trimmer, got an offer he couldn’t pass up in Jason Marquis’ fourth pitch, a meatball begging to spend some quality time over the right field fence in the Cardinals bullpen. Damon’s swing obliged and, four pitches in, the party was on.
Photo credit: Getty
Oddly for a coronation, Damon’s homer represented a significant amount of the offense the Red Sox would produce that day. The rest of Boston’s three runs came via Trot Nixon’s sweet sweet left-handed swing. The Sox loaded the bases in the top of the third inning on a single by Manny Ramirez, a double by a young-looking David Ortiz, and a four-pitch walk to Bill Mueller. (In between Ortiz and Mueller, Jason Varitek grounded into a fielder’s choice with Albert Pujols throwing Manny Ramirez out at home plate). That brought up Trot, causing 2004 me to loudly exclaim, "My man TROT."
Marquis had been all over the place that game, each new hitter another opportunity for the announcers to note their astonishment at the death-like stillness emanating from the Cardinals bullpen, so it was no surprise when Marquis fell behind Nixon 3-0. The surprise came on the fourth pitch when the extremely patient Nixon of the extremely patient Red Sox swung. The pitch was up and on the outside of the plate but by no means on the black. It was hittable, nigh crushable, and Nixon did so, placing it just below the top of the wall in right center field. He missed a grand slam by thiiiiiiiis much. Ortiz and Varitek scored and despite Mueller standing on third base and Nixon on second, that would be it for the Red Sox offense in that inning and for the game, thanks for coming, please put your garbage in the bins on the way out.
Fortunately, though, Derek Lowe.
Recall Lowe was the guy who had been stripped of his rotation spot before the postseason and relegated to the bullpen. Lowe was the guy who won the last game of the ALDS against the Angels by pitching a clean 10th inning so David Ortiz could play hero by two-run homering in the bottom half. Lowe was the guy who started Game Four of the ALCS and Game Seven of the same series, throwing six innings of one-run ball in the latter and pitching well enough to keep Boston in the game in the former. Lowe was the guy who, through the sheer force of his last three appearances, had turned a lousy season full of unmet expectations, into perhaps the finest of his career. And if that is so, then this game, Game Four of the 2004 World Series, may have been his finest hour. His seven innings of shutout ball were shocking in their normality, beautiful in their ordinariness, and, brutal in their effectiveness. But really, they were the final nail in the coffin of 86 years worth of disappointment. You can almost see old Derek out there with a hammer and a few nails clenched between his teeth, can’t you?
Lowe’s sinker turned the Cardinals bats to putty, which was St. Louis’ last hope as the middle-of-the-road pitchers the Cardinals had used to run up wins after wins after wins that season were no match for the Red Sox patient and powerful lineup. The Red Sox could easily have scored four, five, six, or more runs that game, but doing so would have been inelegant. Three was just enough to keep the pressure off. Three was just enough to show dominance. Three was just enough, and no more were necessary.
For a World Series game featuring the Red Sox in the early aughts, this one went by in a remarkably quick 3:14. It seemed peaceful, even easy. Like, how did we not do this a billion times before? Like when someone shows you the answer to a puzzle or explains a riddle that had befuddled you. It was so simple. How did we not win before this?
Relive the entirety of Game 4 by watching the entire thing right here.
We didn’t because winning was really hard. But that was the great trick of the 2004 Red Sox. They made hard things, scary hard things, that had overwhelmed, flummoxed, and reduced previous teams, look like fun. Hey, 86 years whatever, man, let’s grow our hair out! That likely helped them deal with what otherwise may have been crushing pressure. But the thing that mustn’t be forgotten above all is that, hair or not, carefree attitudes or not, playful personalities or not, this team was really, really good. And that’s why they won. That’s why they swept the Angels, that’s why they didn’t give up against the Yankees, and that’s why they embarrassed perhaps the best regular season Cardinals team ever.
And then, in the ninth inning, Keith Foulke.
And then, two outs later, Edgar Renteria.
Albert Pujols was on second base but who cares or even bothers to remember that. I’ll never forget Renteria’s stance, closed, legs apart, bat held up high, waiving back and forth like a flag, bouncing up and down uncomfortably on his front foot. And Foulke, slightly hunched over in the stretch to get the sign, then rocking back slightly and somehow shot-puting the ball to the plate.
These images are etched by a diamond in my memory. I swear to you I often forget my parents’ birthdays but I remember exactly how Renteria looked standing in the batters box on October 27, 2004.
It was a two-pitch at-bat. The first was outside. The second was… heaven.
"Back to Foulke! Red Sox fans have longed to hear it… the Boston Red Sox are World Champions!"
Did I just quote Joe Buck? You’re damn right I did. It was a great call and, one I wish I’d heard at the time. But, probably like you, I never heard much after the "Back to Foulke!" part. Who can bother to listen when their team has just done what we had all previously assumed was unreachable, inaccessible, impossible? I yelled. I jumped. I fell. I got up again. Someone picked me up and carried me around. We both roared. Other people roared. People in Boston roared. Boston itself roared. New England roared. Red Sox fans around the country roared. Fans stationed in Iraq roared. We all, together, roared, and man did it feel good.
I’m not sure I ever thought it would happen until that day. Beating the Angels was great, but certainly didn’t portend immortality. Beating the Yankees was enough impossible for one season, as if the baseball gods had consulted with Red Sox fans before writing the 2004 ALCS script. (Yankee fans didn’t get any rewrite privileges.) But, though most people act like beating New York was the final act, really it wasn’t. If the Red Sox had lost to St. Lous, beating the Yankees would have been devalued, a .406 batting average or 20-strikeout game to put in a frame somewhere while the real winners celebrated. "They came back to beat the Yankees and STILL couldn’t win the World Series. What a bunch of chokers!" That would’ve been the storyline forever had the Red Sox not won the 2004 World Series. But they did so we don’t have to put up with that filth, and it was Game Four on a cool October night that made it all real.
Varitek, Millar, Mueller, Pedro, Schilling, Manny, Ortiz, Bellhorn, Foulke, Roberts, Damon, Cabrera, and all the rest. These are names carved into the psyche of every Red Sox fan as long as we live. For as long as we take breaths, we will know the 2004 Red Sox were World Champions, and somewhere inside us we will trust that anything is possible because we saw it with our own eyes.
The last couple years have been quite the adventure with catching prospect Gary Sanchez, who ascended to the spot of consensus top Yankees prospect when Jesus Montero was traded to the Mariners in January 2012, and by most accounts, has been there ever since. It's not difficult to see why people like him so much; 70 grade power just doesn't come from catchers very often at all, and throughout his brilliant career, Jorge Posada demonstrated how valuable that can be from behind the plate, even with shaky defense. The fact that Sanchez still has yet to turn 22 only makes him more enticing.
With lofty praise comes lofty expectations though, and Sanchez's 2014 campaign was only okay by those standards. He has yet to truly break out with the kind of eye-popping season in the minors that scouts have said could be coming at some point. Playing half his games in Trenton's pitcher-friendly Arm & Hammer Park certainly didn't help his batting line, but his home/road splits suggest that it didn't really have as dramatic effect as one would think. Sanchez hit .269/.325/.412 at home with seven homers in 56 games and .272/.350/.399 on the road with six homers in 54 games. That's barely a difference at all, and since power is his specialty, it's a little concerning to not see a bit better home run totals away from Trenton.
Like Posada, Sanchez has a strong arm behind the plate, but like Posada and Montero before him, his development in other catching skills has not been easy. MLB.com noted that "though he has gotten better behind the plate... he still needs to work on his receiving and blocking balls." The numbers indicate his difficulties catching, as his 10 passed balls were tied for the most in the Eastern League. Concerns about his work ethic and a five-game suspension handed down by manager Tony Franklin in June for an undisclosed offense only add more question marks to Sanchez's future.
Sanchez's age is really what helps him most here. For all the murkiness surrounding his 2014 campaign, he was still just 21 and playing in Double-A at least three years younger than the majority of Eastern League players. Posada's a tricky comparison since he joined the organization at a slightly older age than Sanchez, but when he was playing his age-21 season, he appeared in just seven games above A-ball. Sanchez still has a lot of time to work through his issues and blossom both as a hitter and defender. It would be stunning to see him become an Ivan Rodriguez lookalike, but if he could even bring his defense up to acceptable Posada-like levels, that would be a start.
Of course, it's always possible that the Yankees trade Sanchez, too, so fans have to always be prepared for that scenario. With Brian McCann locked in under contract for the next few seasons, the Yankees can take their time ensuring that Sanchez properly learns the position if they don't trade him. They made it clear with Montero that they really want their minor league catchers to be capable defenders, and given how much Montero flopped in the majors on defense alone, it's hard to blame them.Triple-A Scranton has somewhat of a logjam of catchers right now with John Ryan Murphy and Austin Romine, but it's still conceivable that Sanchez could reach the Electric City sometime in 2015. Again, Sanchez is only 21. The story of him is a long way from being complete. We're barely in the prologue. He can be frustrating, but patience is key and he's far from a flop at this point.
Although the baseball community's pain will never truly be able to relate to the kind shared by Taveras's family and friends right now, it was a crushing blow to lose the 22-year-old phenom.
Yesterday was an absolutely brutal day for Major League Baseball--there's no way of getting around it. It should have been a joyous occasion, as the Giants and Royals played Game 5 of a tense World Series, one that could end up being just the second Fall Classic to go seven games in the past 11 years. By the early stages of Game 5 though, focus had shifted completely away from this game and to the life of one of the most talented young players in baseball. Soon, it became clear: 22-year-old Cardinals rookie Oscar Taveras and his girlfriend were gone, the fatalities of a rainy car crash in Taveras's native Dominican Republic.
As Giants player and Taveras's close friend Juan Perez noted, the news just didn't seem real. And yet there it was. In the blink of an eye, the third-ranked prospect in Major League Baseball was suddenly no more, and two families dealt with the abrupt and devastating losses of their children. Support and touching tributes to Taveras came flowing in throughout the night, from his teammates and fellow players around the game, MLB itself, the media, and countlessotherfans. The baseball community can truly be a wonderful face of the game, one that transcends the players themselves. All this support came in for a kid who had only appeared in 87 major league games. Yet in his brief cameo of glory, he offered us these thrilling moments:
Home Run Debut
NLCS Hero
And that swing... that beautiful swing.
It seems crazy that such an awesome player is gone. Unfortunately, that's where we are at this point, and Taveras's death stirred up some old memories for me of another time when the Yankees were directly affected by the sudden loss of a player. I'm not old enough to have known what it was like for the team to suddenly lose captain Thurman Munson in an awful plane crash back in 1979, though he was my dad's favorite player, and he was absolutely crushed by Munson's passing (as was the team and pretty much the rest of baseball). I distinctly remember Cardinals ace Darryl Kile's heartbreaking death in 2002 and the sudden loss of Angels starter Nick Adenhart in 2009, who like Taveras was also just 22. (These are just a couple of several sad examples.)
As a young Yankees fan though, the moment that sticks out most to me is pitcher Cory Lidle's passing in a plane crash on a Fall afternoon in 2006. YES Network did a moving retrospective on this tragedy the season after:
It was a normal Wednesday afternoon, and I had just gotten out of my car at the mall after school. I checked my phone and saw there was a message from a girl who I was dating at the time, one who was not that interested in baseball. So it only shocked me even more to learn from her that Cory Lidle was in the plane crash I'd heard about earlier that day. Everything stopped. I forgot why I was even at the mall and just returned to my car for a moment so I could hear more about it on the radio. Lidle had literally just been on the mound for the Yankese days ago, in the disappointing ALDS finale against the Tigers. If the powerful lineup had done its job, he would probably have still been alive and preparing for the ALCS against his old team, the Athletics. (Likewise, if the Cardinals had beaten the Giants, Taveras would almost certainly be alive as well.)
Lidle was no star and had been up and down with the Yankees during his half-season with the team as an extra piece acquired from the Phillies in the Bobby Abreutrade robbery. Hell, he didn't pitch well in his one playoff game either, and he was undeservedly shamed for some post-game comments that "Mike and the Mad Dog" didn't like. (Surprise, surprise.) Nonetheless, it was a crushing loss. It didn't seem fathomable that a player could just suddenly die, even though I had remembered it happening with Kile. The fact that it was a plane crash only made it more eerie, given both Munson's passing and former Yankee pitcher Jim Hardin's death in a '91 crash.
It felt like the baseball world just stopped. There were no playoff games that day, but moments of silence were held in Lidle's memory the day each of the League Championship Series began. Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon had both spent time with Lidle on the A's as well as the Yankees, and from interviews, they were visibly affected by the loss. I remember being sad, but happy that Major League Baseball honored his memory. It didn't matter that he was mostly an unknown name to the public; Lidle deserved to be remembered. The next season, the Yankees wore black armbands and gave his widow and son the privilege of throwing out the first pitch of the 2007 season on Opening Day. It was a truly touching moment, and one that I'll never forget, seeing Giambi out there giving the Lidle family a hug like so many of us fans wanted to do as well.
As fans, we can barely feel a fraction of the loss felt by friends and families of these people, but we clearly haven't forgotten Cory Lidle, Darryl Kile, Thurman Munson, or anyone else lost in such a tragic manner. We'll clearly never forget you, Oscar Taveras. Thank you so much for what joy you brought us in your too-brief time on this Earth.
Two Mets prospects, outfielder Brandon Nimmo and shortstop Matt Reynolds, have been named to the Arizona Fall League All-Star Game. The Fall-Star Game, as it is also known, will be televised live on MLB Network on Saturday, November 1 at 8:00 PM EDT.
Nimmo, who is hitting .233 with 5 RBI and 11 walks in the AFL, split time between the High-A Savannah Sand Gnats and Double-A Binghamton Mets in 2014. He hit .238/.339/.396 in 279 plate appearances with Binghamton. Nimmo is also MLBPipeline.com's number 60 MLB prospect.
Reynolds is hitting .278 with three home runs, 9 RBI, and 10 walks in the AFL. He spent the majority of the year with the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s, hitting .333/.386/.479 in 301 plate appearances. Reynolds got the attention of both the organization and the media with his impressive hitting in 2014 but ultimately was not called up to the majors.
Yes, the Yankees season wasn't fun. But it wasn't all bad!
The Yankees season has been over for a few weeks now, but up until now, there's still been baseball happening. After this week, we can no longer say that. With the prospect of a long, baseball-less winter ahead of us, I asked the PSA staff what they enjoyed, and did not enjoy, about the 2014 MLB season.
Q: With the baseball season coming to an end this week, what have been your favorite and least favorite things about the 2014 Major League Baseball season?
-The confusion over the home plate collision rule.
-Ernie Johnson's and Harold Reynold's playoff announcing
-Rob Thomson's consistently bad third base coaching
-The offseason
John
My favorite and least favorite thing has been the Derek Jeter farewell tour. I think that for a guy lauded as a team first guy, it was a shame to see that overwhelm the year.
I've loved seeing competitive (and mildly competent) baseball back in some great baseball towns: Kansas City, Baltimore, DC, Pittsburgh and Cleveland were all fun to watch. I hate the playoff format that lets a team with a +25 run differential represent the American League.
I've loved watching Mike Trout and Andrew McCutchen continue to dominate their respective leagues on both sides of the ball. I've hated watching the Yankees without a player of that caliber (Jacoby Ellsbury led the Yankees' hitters in WAR with 3.6, tied for 48th in all of baseball; yes, every team in the league has a better player than the Yankees' best and most teams have two).
Andrew
My favorite thing about the season has probably been just watching the players around the majors interact with Derek Jeter. I'm not talking about the staged pre-game ceremonies, either. The #RE2PECT has understandably frustrated some fans, but it really is remarkable to see how many players around the league looked up to him. It all seemed very genuine, and as a fan, it's refreshing to see players step out from the guise of formality and occasionally seem just as starstruck as any fan would be. As much as some snide writers might grumble about it, there's a reason the players treated him like a legend. For them, he was their hero.
The worst part of the season has been the UCL-tearing plague. It's been quite disconcerting to watch the staggering amount of young pitchers go under the knife, and the fact that my favorite pitcher is seemingly destined to fall prey at some point that is impossible to gauge doesn't make it any easier. Baseball's a jerkstore.
Harlan
My favorite thing about the 2014 season was watching Tanaka and Betances pitch...it's too bad we didn't get to see more from Tanaka, but they were both truly electric. My least favorite thing was seeing Robinson Cano play in another uniform while the Yankees couldn't score runs. I get that losing a home grown player on a Hall-of-Fame track in the midst of his prime is something that fans of other teams have to deal with from time to time, but it's not something we've experienced much...if at all. In the future - and unfortunately it's going to be a long time before it's an issue again - the team needs to make sure this doesn't happen.
Jim
Favorite thing was Jeter's last at bat at Yankee Stadium. Least favorite thing was all the other nonsense regarding the Jeter retirement tour.
Greg
Favorite things about the 2014 MLB season? Brett Gardner, Masahiro Tanaka, Dellin Betances, David Robertson, Shane Greene, Brandon McCarthy and his twitter account, Seeing teams that never make it to the postseason make it to the postseason. Seeing the Red Sox be incredibly terrible, and all our Eduardo Nunez scenarios
Least favorite things about the 2014 MLB season? The Yankees sucking on offense, the injury bug/Humbler
Tanya
My favorite things about the 2014 seasons were Tanaka and Dellin being awesome, Foul Territory, the Red Sox being embarrassingly terrible, and the Jeter walk-off in his final home game. My least favorite things were the Yankees being practically unwatchable, the two-hole clause, everything that had to do with Brian Roberts and Stephen Drew, Tanaka getting hurt, Rob Thomson somehow keeping his job as the windmill, and the fact that we might not have D-Rob next season.
Bryan
My favorite thing about the 2014 season was definitely seeing the emergence of Dellin Betances into arguably the best relief pitcher in the game. And of course Derek Jeter's final home game was one of my favorite things as well. Seeing Jeter hit a game winning single in his final home at-bat was spectacular.
My least favorite thing about the 2014: the Yankees missing the postseason.
Chris
My favorite part of the 2014 season was definitely watching Masahiro Tanaka dominate in the first half. He had such broad arsenal of pitches, which gave him numerous weapons for making opposing hitters look silly. The 2014 Yankees were a pretty unremarkable team, but Tanaka was certainly a joy to watch. For a while there, it felt like Tanaka's starts were the only games the Yankees had a good chance of winning.
To start with the bad, the ridiculous number of injuries across baseball was sad. I mean, yes, the Yankees missing the playoffs wasn't fun, but considering the first season I remember is 1996, I can get over a few lean years. Young guys having major injuries that could have a significant impact on their futures sucks.
Now for the good. It's been mentioned a lot already, but Derek Jeter's final home game. As un-fun as this season was a from a Yankees' perspective, that at least gave us something to look back fondly on. Tanaka and Betances were awesome. The two of them combined only had a handful of bad outings. Anytime you can almost guarantee a fun pitching performance is wonderful. And in a sorta gallows humor moment, there was the time I predicted that the Yankees wouldn't be shut out two days in a row.
Now that you've seen our answers, it's your turn. What have been your favorite and lease favorite things about the 2014 season?
Rolling Thunder | Matt Kardos: Hard-hitting top prospect Aaron Judge was selected to the Arizona Fall League All-Star Game on November 1st, but Greg Bird was not selected for some reason even though he's leading the league in homers. Apparently organizations can only have one representative each, and the scouts/farm directors chose Judge. Oh well.
LoHud | Chad Jennings: Departing VP Mark Newman had some high praise for Jaron Long, who is no longer "just the coach's son." Here's hoping Jaron takes another step forward in 2015.
ESPN New York | Wallace Matthews: The Yankees, Mets, and Major League Baseball are graciously donating replicas of the items recently stolen from the Yogi Berra Museum. It still pisses me off that there are people in the world who would steal from Yogi, but I'm happy baseball's teaming up to support the Yankees legend.
Eater | Daniela Galarza: Reason number 5,555 why Hideki Matsui is awesome--he left a very generous $700 tip (40% of the bill) for the staff at Tavern on the Green over the weekend. Go go Godzilla.
On Monday, our own Brian Baker made a convincing case for the Red Sox to sign Pablo Sandoval if and when he hits the free agent market. The Giants have reasons of their own to make an effort to keep Sandoval, but is he worth it?
Even before the season began, Pablo Sandoval's offseason fate was a topic of hot discussion—and rightfully so.
As the majors' top hitter with an expiring contract, Sandoval will find himself on several needy teams' wishlists, and the offers should start rolling in as soon as the Giants extend their third baseman the qualifying offer that everyone knows is coming.
No matter how many seasons Sandoval has spent in San Francisco, how many World Series he ends up with or what type of camaraderie he has developed with the Giants, baseball is a business, and teams will be more than willing to cough up millions—perhaps more than the Giants want to spend—to acquire Sandoval's services.
Both sides are still far apart both monetarily and in contract length. General manager Brian Sabean broke off extension talks with his third baseman in early April, weeks after Sandoval's agent, Gustavo Vasquez, told the Chronicle's Henry Schulman that his client wanted a five-year deal worth no less than Hunter Pence's $90 million contract.
After a somewhat productive 2014 campaign (.279/.324/.415), followed by another breakout postseason, Sandoval should earn at least that amount, whether it's with San Francisco or elsewhere. The question, then, is which one it will be. At this point, it's more like to be the latter, but playing devil's advocate, let's look at why the Giants could end up bringing Sandoval back. More importantly, should they even bother?
★★★
Throughout the regular season, it seemed almost foregone that the Giants would extend a qualifying offer to Sandoval and he would simply kiss them goodbye in favor of free agency. Though it appears they'll still go through with the offer, the Giants' World Series run increases their chances of re-signing Sandoval.
Players want to go where they can win, and even if the Giants lose their next two games in Kansas City, Sandoval would likely think twice about leaving a team with three World Series appearances in the last five seasons. As was the case with the Royals and James Shields in rumors earlier this postseason, a deep playoff run also changes the situation financially, even if a good deal of the revenue generated from postseason games goes directly to the players and commissioner's office.
Also not to be overlooked is Sabean's tendency to re-sign his key players. On top of bringing back Pence last offseason, the Giants general manager has extended core players like Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain in recent years. Posey was 26 years old at the time of his extension; Pence was 30 while Cain was 27. Right on par, Sandoval is 28.
Giants president Larry Baer is likely a strong proponent of an extension as well. Losing Sandoval would be a marketing hit for the Giants, and while exact figures aren't readily available, the team's executives would probably prefer to keep "Panda" merchandise on the shelves. Sandoval is so popular in San Francisco that the loss of his merchandise sales could be enough to have a slight impact on the team's decision. (It's a stretch, but Baer is the one who writes the checks, and he stands to benefit from Sandoval's popularity in the team stores.)
Most importantly, however, Sandoval is the Giants' best option at the hot corner going into 2015, and it really isn't close.
In terms of in-house options, rookie Matt Duffy would likely be the best replacement option. After back-to-back seasons of steady production in the minors (.832 and .842 OPS totals in 2013 and 2014, respectively) combined with strong plate discipline that speaks well for his future in the majors, Duffy could fill in reasonably for Sandoval. But even including the postseason, Duffy has just 70 plate appearances of experience in the majors, making it a huge leap of faith to rely on him for a full season.
The Giants could also turn to cheaper options on the free agent market, like Yankees third baseman Chase Headley. But Headley is an undeniable downgrade from Sandoval, especially with his proven inability to hit in pitcher-friendly parks. (The former Padres third baseman is a career .243/.331/.372 hitter at Petco Park.) Given Headley's hefty price tag, the Giants would likely be better off dropping more money for Sandoval instead—if that option proves feasible.
They might not have the payroll to do so, however, otherwise they likely would have given Sandoval a better offer during regular season negotiations.
"It’s gonna be hard for us to compete against an American League team in terms of years," Sabean said earlier this week, via the New York Daily News' Bill Madden. "We’ll just have to wait and see what his offers are."
Maybe the Giants would be better off in the long run not re-signing Sandoval. It's one thing to wonder if they have the financial capacity to do so; it's another to consider whether it's a smart move in the first place. Sure, he's consistent. But over the last three years, Sandoval's wRC+ has been as follows: 118, 116, 111. Above average, yes, but numbers that also might not be worth the potential nine-figure deal he'll command.
Sandoval's power outage is also somewhat of a concern. Since the start of 2012, he has just 42 homers in 1,509 at-bats, a number nearly matched by Baltimore's Nelson Cruz (40 homers this year) in 896 fewer at-bats.
It's not really a matter of whether the Giants want Sandoval. Rather, the issue is whether he's actually worth the price tag—which will be dictated by whatever the Giants' competitors see fit to offer. But if Sandoval ends up elsewhere next season, the team could find themselves with a situation similar to the second base and left field woes of 2014 and 2013, respectively.
Either way, in an offseason severely lacking in offensive talent, the Pablo Sandoval saga figures to be the most interesting story to follow.
2015 Contract Status: Signed through 2016, earning $22.5 million each year.
In July 2013, Mark Teixeira had season-ending surgery to repair the tendon sheath in his right wrist. Though he was initially expected to be ready to join the team when spring training rolled around, even that ended up being delayed. In a telling interview back in January, Tex said that he expected the tightness he was still experiencing in his wrist to last until June or possibly even all season. Unfortunately, he was plagued by wrist problems all season, and ended up putting up the worst numbers of his career.
Though much has been said about Teixeira being a notoriously slow starter, he actually played well during the first half of the season. Through the All-Star Break, he hit .241/.341/.464 with 125 wRC+, which is very similar to his stats from 2010-2012. At the end of May, he left a game against the Twins with discomfort in his wrist. He received a cortisone shot and was back on the field after a few games. He really fell off a cliff during the second half of the season, hitting a putrid .179/.271/.309 with just five home runs and 62 wRC+.
His decrease in performance was likely due in part to his wrist bothering him more and more as the season dragged on. Aside from his wrist, he also missed playing time due to "tired legs, a sore knee, dizziness, a strained oblique, a strained hamstring, and a gashed left hand." The hand injury happened when he slid into home and jammed his pinky into the catcher's foot, which ended up requiring stitches. When all was said and done, Tex received three cortisone shots in his wrist over the course of the season. The last one was given to him during the last week of the season, when it seemed like the team would have been better off shutting him down.
Recently, Teixeira stated that his body just wasn't strong enough to make it through the season, which he blamed on his inability to condition during the offseason due to the fact that he was still recovering from the wrist surgery. He has already started his offseason conditioning this year instead of shutting it down for a month like he usually does. When asked if he would try to drop a few pounds, Tex said if anything he wanted to gain weight, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to hit home runs.
The good news is that it took both David Ortiz and Jose Bautista full seasons to recover from the same exact surgery, so there is that possibility. Hopefully Tex is able to strengthen his wrist, and we see him revert back to the numbers he put up over the past few years in 2015. Even if he is able to do so, the Yankees still need to find him a backup during the offseason. The team already made the mistake in 2014 of not having a legitimate backup first baseman, and that was somewhat of a nightmare.
This once-unknown amateur signing is now the top pitching prospect in the farm system and a Top 50 talent overall. That will do adequately.
Grade: A+
2014 Statistics: 2.79 ERA (2.70 FIP), 67.2 IP w/ Low-A; 1.31 ERA (1.55 FIP), 20.2 IP w/ High-A; 2.52 ERA (2.27 FIP), 25 IP w/ Double A
2014 Level/Roster Status: Double-A/Non 40-man
I think most people that follow Yankees prospects agreed that Luis Severino was an intriguing player. He had impressed with his dynamic stuff in his first two seasons with the organization, but I think we could all agree that his stuff was very raw. At 20 years old though, he had plenty of time to refine his craft, and I figured they would give him a year per level given how young he was. That was grossly conservative, as he rocketed up to Double-A by the second half of the season and now finds himself on the fast-track to the Bronx.
I wrote a season outlook for Severino way back in February, and I stated:
If he refines his peripheral pitches and command, he will not only jump to the top of the Yankee prospect radar, but will definitely be on any Top 100 list.
That isn't to toot my own horn, but it is to say that this was the 90th percentile outcome. I was probably being too optimistic that a young kid with one good pitch would be that good, but he has been. He started off the year in Charleston and quickly dominated day after day before the team realized that they couldn't hold him back--he needed a new challenge as he was promoted to High-A on June 15. And even after that, there wasn't much for the organization to see. Just one month later (to the day!), he was promoted to Double-A. He was so good, in fact, that he was named to the World Team of the MLB Futures Game and pitched a scoreless inning. And in that scoreless inning, he struck out top prospect Joey Gallo on this nasty, filthy slider:
I'll be watching that all offseason. You can check out the whole video here.
And even after being promoted to Double-A, he was still dominant. Double-A is often the hardest transition for young pitchers, but he met the challenge. As he kept rolling, he started popping up on midseason top prospects lists. Baseball America ranked him 34th, and Baseball Prospectus 48th. BP had the following to say about him:
There is still some debate about whether his future is in the rotation or out of the pen, but if his slider comes along as his changeup has, the odds of him sticking as a starter will greatly increase. No matter which way you view his future role, Severino is a legit talent and one of the most enjoyable arms to watch in any farm
He finished off his season strong at Double-A as he pitched six starts at the level, racking up 29 strikeouts in 25 innings, a SO/BB ratio of 4.83, and an ERA of 2.52. He's also 4.6 years younger than the average Double-A player, by the way.
Luis Severino is a resounding success for a farm system that has lacked talent and legitimate upside, especially since the Yankees have not produced a top-tier starting pitcher since Andy Pettitte (or Chien-Ming Wang, depending on your qualifications). At such a low cost, he has already paid for himself and then some; he already possesses a great deal of trade value before even touching the soil at Yankee Stadium. There are still real concerns about his ability to pitch in the rotation--so I would keep expectations tempered--but he has been one of the most exciting prospects to watch in a while. If going from an unknown to top prospect isn't an A+, then I don't know what is.
After eight years on the job, the Yankees fired Kevin Long from his position as the team's hitting coach. How did Yankee hitters perform during his tenure?
As of this writing, we don't yet know who the Yankees hitting coach will be in 2015. What we do know, however, is that it won't be Kevin Long, who the Yankees fired a couple of weeks ago. The 2015 season will mark the first time the Yankees will have a new hitting coach since way back in 2007, when Long took over for Don Mattingly prior to Joe Torre's last season as manager. Yeah, it's been that long.
In his eight years as Yankee hitting coach, Long presided over some of the most dominant offenses in recent memory. The Bombers scored the most runs in baseball three times (2007, 2009, and 2010) under Long's watch, and only the Red Sox outscored them over that eight-year span. But it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine, as there were a few disappointing seasons mixed in as well. And unfortunately for Long, a couple of them took place in 2013 and 2014. The Yankees offense was among the worst in baseball each of the past two campaigns, which was the biggest reason why the team missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 20 years.
On the aggregate though, Yankee hitters performed pretty darn well during Long's tenure. Of course, Long's had a solid cast of hitters to work with. Guys like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Hideki Matsui were great hitters before they had anything to do with Long, so it's no surprise that these players continued to hit like All-Stars. Anything less would have been labeled a disappointment. But while most Yankee hitters were already good, many performed even better than expected under Long's tutelage. From 2007-2014, 2,681 major league hitters with pre-season Marcel projections came to the plate at least 200 times in a season. On average, these players under-performed their projected wOBA's by .011 points, but the 80 Yankee hitters fell short by just .005.
You can ignore the fact that both of these wOBA differentials are negative. This is simply a byproduct of the declining offensive environment across baseball. What matters here is that -- relative to projection -- the average Yankee hitter performed about .006 wOBA better than the average non-Yankee.
Whether or not Long had anything to do with this differential is up for debate. After all, .006 is a pretty small delta, even over eight years. Either way, Yankee hitters outperforming expectations is something that happened over Long's tenure. Unfortunately, it stopped happening after the 2012 season.
But what was behind this drop-off? Let's take a deeper dive into these players' performances, keeping in mind that linking any of these trends directly to Long is probably a bit of a stretch. The recent Yankees' failure to meet expectations was largely due to two factors: 1) higher than expected strikeouts and 2) lower than expected power output.
Here's a look at this data for members of the 2013 and 2014 Yankees.
Let's dig a little deeper. FanGraphs uses PITCHf/x data to track how often each player swings at pitches inside of the strike zone (Z-Swing%) and pitches outside of it (O-Swing%). These metrics aren't typically subject to much random variation, so any observed changes would be more likely to be attributable to Long.
Not a heck of a lot going on here. Maybe a few Yankees got a little more aggressive on pitches outside of the zone in 2014, but nothing ground-breaking. And that certainly wasn't the case in 2013, when many more Yankees hitters cut down on their out-of-zone hacks.
So was it Kevin Long's fault that Curtis Granderson's power evaporated in 2013? Or that Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Beltran crapped the bed last year? We obviously can't know for certain, but I'd say probably not -- or at least not in any significant way.
All else being equal, these underperformances imply that Long's instructions hurt more than they helped. But in reality, so much else comes into play. A player's health, his willingness to improve, and plain old luck all play a role in a player's offensive trajectory, and have little to do with his hitting coach. For all we know, Long may have made Alfonso Soriano's and Carlos Beltran's wOBAs .005 points better, but this was outweighed by a confluence of other factors that made them ~.050 points worse.
Nonetheless, the bottom line is that several Yankee hitters fell short of expectations over the last couple of seasons. And as the hitting coach, it's Long's job to prevent that from happening by being a resource for hitting advice. So deserving or not, Long was the obvious scapegoat when an the Yankees hitters stopped hitting. Maybe he'll have better luck with the Mets.
New York Post | Joel Sherman: The Kansas City Royals, who are one win away from a World Series title, actually beat the Yankees' offer for outfielder Carlos Beltran last offseason. Beltran wanted to be a Yankees and play in a big market, so he turned down the extra money to put on pinstripes.
ESPN: Jose Canseco is recovering after accidentally shooting a finger on his left hand while cleaning his gun at his home. Sigh.
The St. Louis Cardinals also paid tribute to Oscar Taveras after his untimely death by leaving the right field lights on at Busch Stadium Tuesday night.
The right-field lights are on in Busch Stadium in tribute to Oscar Taveras: http://t.co/Xf9x7NA32W
Predictably after getting a nice contribution from the venerable Ichiro Suzuki toward the tail end of 2012, the Yankees bought high on the veteran and gave him a two-year, $12 million dollar deal. Unsurprisingly it really didn't work out too well for them. On the positive side though, he was less terrible at the plate in 2014 than in his prior campaign. His UZR is responsible for him being worth 0.7 fWAR more last season, but with no readily apparent dip in his fielding prowess I'd say this season was a slight uptick in his quality of play. Not that that's some big compliment or anything.
Ichiro actually started out the season very well, as his role as occasional starter seemed to fit his high-mileage bones a little better. He had a wRC+ over 100 through May and 96 through the first half. But as Carlos Beltran missed time to his various ailments and playing Alfonso Soriano became a ghastly proposition, Suzuki saw more and more time in the outfield. He cratered in June and July: an illustration as why you probably should have a relatively spry and youthful player as your fourth outfielder. Trading for Martin Prado gave him somewhat of a reprieve in the waning days of the season and he was slightly better.
During his two-year deal, Ichiro did manage to nab his 4,000th career hit between his time in the Majors and the NPB, no small feat for one of the best hitters on either side of the Pacific. The second Ichiro came to MLB, it became clear that he had the necessary ability to get hits in bunches. While his legendary speed and contact abilities were no longer the same here with the Yankees, you knew anytime he got his bat on the ball something interesting could happen. Sure, that ball was often in the other batter's box, but I digress.
What Ichiro ends up doing in 2015 is anybody's guess. There's the obvious expectation that a veteran-obsessed team like the Phillies would pick him up, but even they might shy away from a slap-hitting 40 year-old. There's also the possibility that he makes a triumphant return to Japan, coming back as the conquering hit king for one last go-around where he got his start. He could also decide to retire, but his indications throughout the season were that he doesn't think he is out of contributions to make at the professional level.
However it turns out, it's been an amazing career for the international superstar. It was no doubt interesting to see his one of a kind swing and bizarre approach to the game in pinstripes, even if they didn't lead to a lot of success for himself or his employer.
Luis Torrens could be the one to take the torch from Posada as the next great Yankee catcher.
Grade: A-
2014 Statistics: .256/.331/.383, 3 HR, 22 RBI, 14 2B between Low-A and Short Season
2014 Level/Roster Status: Short Season Class-A/Non 40-man
Luis Torrens was the crown jewel of the Yankees 2012 international free agency period, signing for a $1.3 million bonus out of Venezuela. Originally an infielder, the team saw enough potential in his tools to move him behind the plate shortly after signing. Talent evaluators around the game have praised his poise, work ethic, pitch recognition, hitting ability and defensive skills.
In 2014 the Yankees very aggressively started the then 17-year-old in Low-A Charleston this season. In his brief time with the Riverdogs he appeared overmatched, hitting to a slash line of .154/.353/.269 in just 26 at-bats. His rough stint in Charleston ended on April 15 when an injured shoulder kept him out of the line up for over two months. Torrens returned to action on June 20, as part of a five-game rehab assignment in rookie ball.
After his rehab assignment, he was sent back to the Staten Island Yankees, which proved to be a much more appropriate placement for the young prospect, as he started hitting his stride, batting .275 with two homers and 19 runs batted in over his final 193 at-bats. The offensive highlight of Torrens’s season started on June 28th in only his second game with the team, as he began a 21-game hit streak that didn’t end until July 26th. The hit streak, along with his excellent overall play, led to him being named to the New York-Penn League All-Star Game in August. He was the youngest player on the All-Star team this year and that’s quite the testament to the young man’s play on the field.
Defensively, scouts say that Torrens has a cannon for an arm to go along with solid pitch blocking, framing and game calling skills as well as leadership qualities. His strong arm and accurate throws showed as he threw out 39% of attempted base stealers across three levels this year. To put that into perspective, Brian McCann threw out 37% of base runners at the major league level.
It was the tale of two seasons for Torrens; the beginning was a struggle and the end saw him prosper. The season ended on a high note as he was named the fourth-best prospect in the New York-Penn League by Baseball America. Torrens is in prime position to step up next season and assert himself as the catcher of the future in the Bronx. Although he is only 18 years old, and still needs further development in his game, Luis Torrens could be the next great Yankees catcher. With John Ryan Murphy, Gary Sanchez and Luis Torrens, the team is blessed with great depth at the catching position. The question becomes who do they keep and who do they trade? For my money, Torrens will be the keeper and continue the tradition of great Yankee catchers.
Alex Rodriguez is almost back, and even though the 2014 Yankees were much less interesting without the Centaur around, it might be for the best if we never see him again. While they seem to have no delusions about what he will offer them going forward, the Yankees still plan to use A-Rod at third base next year. However, at this point, as a 39-year-old with two bum hips coming off a year-long suspension, what's the point of even trying? It's time to get someone else in here who can give them more definite value going forward without any of the drama.
This offseason would represent the perfect time to make such a move, with so many alternatives available on the open market. For years the Yankees have gone with Alex Rodriguez and some kind of lesser alternative that somehow seems to be even more injury-prone. There was Eric Chavez for 2011 and 2012 and then there was Kevin Youkilis in 2013, but it's time to move away from that approach and get someone legitimate in here. Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval,Chase Headley, and even Jed Lowrie all offer an upgrade over the returning Rodriguez, but none of them are going to want to sign in New York if A-Rod can come back.
According to Steamer, A-Rod projects to be a .234/.312/.370, 92 wRC+ hitter in 2015, which surely isn't too bad. However, once you consider the fact that he WILL (not MIGHT) get hurt at some point during the season and that line will certainly fall with whatever injury is plaguing him this time, he quickly becomes even less desirable. He also projects to be the worst hitter out of any of his healthier alternatives:
Add the fact that most of these options will offer superior defense at third base and there seems to be absolutely no reason to expect A-Rod to be worth it. Yes, he still has $61 million on his contract over the next three years, but that money is already a sunk cost and they need to give up on it. They saved nearly $20 million from his suspension this year and with around $45 million coming off the books, the Yankees have money laying around. After two years of mediocrity, the best way for the Steinbrenners to prove that they're in it to win it is for them to just cut ties with A-Rod and find a superior option at third base, contract status be damned. Sure, wasting all that money will hurt, but if it's for the betterment of the team you can't blame them. In fact, I'd praise them.
Conventional baseball wisdom suggests that they'll keep A-Rod around because they're paying him far too much for him to sit at home. He'll hit a few home runs, probably tap into his bonus money, get hurt, struggle, and then we'll have to rely on whatever sub-replacement player they get to fill in behind him. Hopefully that will be Martin Prado and hopefully someone like Rob Refsnyder can come up and provide solid production at second base to fill the void, but we're asking for a lot here and we know what happens to baseball's best laid plans; we've been living it.
Whether they do it this year or next, the Yankees are going to need to release Alex Rodriguez before his contract is up if they want to find better production and less risk. This is nothing against Alex Rodriguez, there's no hate here, but there is logic. Yes, A-Rod provides top-notch entertainment, but I think I'd rather see Chase Headley play well over watching Rodriguez struggle while doing and saying ridiculous things. It's highly unlikely that both players can coexist on the same team, so who would you rather have? The choice should be an easy one.
It doesn't get a whole lot more exciting than Game 7. If the Yankees aren't playing, this is pretty much the best you can hope for. The Royals fought off elimination with a 10-0 blowout in Game 6 in front of their home crowd; can they do it again tonight? Will the star of the postseason in Madison Bumgarner find a way to help his team on short rest out of the bullpen?
After the trophy is handed out tonight, it will be time for baseball to pack it up for the winter. Hot stove season will be upon us and there will be any number of rumors and acquisitions to dissect. I can't imagine too many Yankees fans are sad to see 2014 go.
He didn't start any games, and he was touted as a starter as late as February. But he wasn't asked to start this season. He could have given up fewer game losing hits (his six losses actually tied for second on the entire team), but that's nitpicking a few bad outings in nearly 80 innings of work. And it's not like the Yankees' offense was ever going to bail him out of any of his mistakes.
At the heart of things, Adam Warren was everything the Yankees asked him to be this season. He basically had one outing each month when he gave up multiple runs, surrounded by several extended runs of excellence. Warren, Betances and Robertson were the crutch that kept the Yankees upright when every starter on the roster fell victim to the Humbler.
Did you realize that Adam Warren put up a 1.4 WAR? Did you realize that makes him one of the 20 most valuable relievers in all of the major leagues in 2014? The Royals' relief corp has gotten a lot of (well-deserved) attention this month, but the Yankees' pen matches up inch for inch with the AL pennant winners'.
Joe Girardi probably leaned a little too heavily on Adam Warren in the first half of the season, asking the 26-year-old for multiple frames 18 times in the first half (on his way to 29 appearances where he recorded 4+ outs). Warren was pretty rough in June and July, posting a WHIP over 1.5 each of those months. So then both with Warren obviously needing a little rest, and with the pitching staff coming together around the addition of Brandon McCarthy, Warren rebounded nicely in August. Then he was completely dominant in September: 15IP, 2ER (from one outing), four hits and two walks.
And it's Warren's success that makes me most convinced that the Yankees should let David Robertson test the free agent market. I think the Yankees should do their best to sign Robertson, of course, because when you've got a great bullpen you shouldn't just let it walk away without a fight. But if somebody offers David Robertson a big contract, a Jonathan Papelbon four-year and $50 million, well, Adam Warren can handle the 8th inning.
For Warren, the biggest shame of the 2014 season is that his breakout season came at the same time as the breakout season for a much bigger prospect. If he doesn't get traded for a bat this offseason, I look forward to seeing him pitch multiple innings next year.
One of the most talked about issues around the 2014 trade deadline was how the Blue Jays didn't make any moves due to their feeling that none of the potential deals made sense 'baseball-wise'. Most fans knew that money played a bigger role than any of the front office was willing to admit, especially when many of these traded players ended up performing extremely well with their new teams. Two players that were acquired by the Yankees at the deadline in Brandon McCarthy and Chase Headley ended up filling holes for New York that were left gaping for the Blue Jays, which irked more than a few people (including some Blue Jays players).
With Paul Beeston making it clear that money is still not an issue, we might as well give him the benefit of the doubt early in the offseason and assume that Alex Anthopoulos has all the resources he needs to upgrade the roster in the coming months. With that in mind, we can focus more on how much sense certain free agents make 'baseball-wise' and assume that cash is only playing a small role. The free agent under the microscope today is the former Yankees third baseman I already mentioned in 30-year-old Chase Headley. After the Padres got very little in return for the switch hitter, Headley went to New York and hit .262/.371/.398 with six home runs in 58 games making it hard to to believe that he wouldn't have made sense 'baseball-wise' on the Toronto Blue Jays.
Thankfully, Headley was just a rental for the Yankees and will hit the market as a free agent in the coming days looking to cash in on his consistent performance in the past five years. Over at FanGraphs the crowdsourcing projections assume he'll get somewhere in the neighbourhood of four years and $56 million this offseason, which could be on the lower end of the scale if we're being honest. On the surface, this doesn't exactly resemble a contract that the Blue Jays would ever agree to with a free agent, especially with their payroll already being pretty high. On the flip side, the rumours of Adam Lind and Mark Buehrle being on the trade block give the impression that the front office is shedding big salaries and will probably end up having some money to throw around this offseason. Whether they actually decide to use it is anybody's guess, but Anthopoulos is probably beginning to feel a little heat from upper management and may ditch his cautious style to save his job instead of facing a potential rebuild if things go poorly once again in 2015.
Assuming that the move fits on the financial side of the ledger, does Chase Headley make sense 'baseball-wise' in November of 2014 just three months after he apparently didn't make sense at the trade deadline? As we saw over the course of the past season the team is quite willing to play Brett Lawrie at second base which opens up some flexibility at the third base position, not to mention the fact that Lawrie is hurt most of the time anyway. Bringing a guy in like Headley, who has played at least 130 games in five of the last six seasons albeit with some troubling injuries, would potentially shore up the hot corner while also allowing Lawrie to fill the ever-present hole at second base as well as providing both players with rest at the DH position.
Headley's defence is phenomenal with a 48.1 UZR over his career at third base with 20.9 of that coming in this past season. While players like Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez will receive larger paydays this offseason thanks to their more impressive offensive numbers, Headley likely will slide slightly under the radar and probably be underpaid thanks to the un-sexiness of defensive numbers in free agency. By no means is Headley an offensive black hole though, as he has the ability to consistently get on base despite a high strikeout rate, while also providing a fair amount of power to boot.
With all of the roster inflexibility issues that cropped up during the 2014 season it would certainly help having another switch hitter in the lineup who can hit both lefties and righties equally well, considering the team could be losing another one of those players in Melky Cabrera. With the turf potentially causing an issue for a number of the Blue Jays players, this added flexibility would allow Lawrie and Headley to see more DH time leading to an increased chance that they both remain on the field more often going forward.
The days before free agency kick off are always the most optimistic for baseball fans beside Spring Training because nothing seems impossible and dreaming of Chase Headley manning the hot corner at the Rogers Centre helps you forget about the fact that baseball is done for four months. Although the Blue Jays will likely be too cautious in the free agency market, there's a real opportunity to pay below fair-value for Headley thanks to the other third basemen in the free agent class. The team hasn't had consistent performance from the third base position since Scott Rolen and eventually they will need to address the fact that Brett Lawrie can't stay healthy for extended periods of time. The coming months will really put into view how much financial flexibility the front office actually has and whether all this talk of a payroll increase is true or not. In my eyes the signing of Chase Headley would make sense "baseball-wise" but I also thought the same thing three months ago and look how that worked out.
Can you name all of the Captain's World Series teammates?
Now that the World Series is at its conclusion, how about a Sporcle quiz remembering one of the greatest World Series players of the past half-century? Derek Jeter played in seven World Series with the Yankees, winning five of them while hitting .321/.384/.449 in 38 games against the National League's finest and being awarded the 2000 World Series MVP along the way. He was OK. (#HotTakes)
However, can you named every single player who appeared in a World Series game with the Captain? It's a challenge. Take the quiz, see you do, and share your results!
