2018 Yankees Off Season / Spring Training Thread

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Is the plan to cut Blash?

 

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Room for CC and the Toddfather.

 

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Except in the cases of Penn State and Georgetown.

And Rutgers and UConn...

 

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Padres To Acquire Chase Headley, Bryan Mitchell

 

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Yankees Considering Michael Fulmer, Patrick Corbin In Trade Talks

By Jeff Todd | December 12, 2017 at 9:42am CDT

The Yankees are among the teams with interest in Tigers righty Michael Fulmer, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). New York also has considered Diamondbacks lefty Patrick Corbin, per the report.

Clearly, the Yanks are interested in finding a rotation upgrade, as the club was also linked yesterday to Pirates righty Gerrit Cole. Currently, the first four members of the staff seem set: Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, Sonny Gray, and Jordan Montgomery. But the fifth slot is much less settled.

[RELATED: Yankees, Tigers & Diamondbacks Depth Charts]

While the Bronx powerhouse is still committed to remaining under the luxury tax line for 2018, the club obviously sees some ways to fit high-quality hurlers into the payroll. Of course, GM Brian Cashman is also reportedly looking into moving some existing salary to open yet more space.

Fulmer and Corbin each represent quite different assets. There’s some reason to believe that either could be made available, but for differing reasons.

With regard to Fulmer, he’s one of the most intriguing young starters in baseball. The 24-year-old is on track to qualify for Super Two status next year but won’t be a free agent until 2023. And he has already turned in 323 2/3 innings of 3.45 ERA pitching in his first two MLB seasons. While offseason surgery to deal with a nerve issue in his elbow may give some pause, that particular procedure does not seem to come with significant future concern. Accordingly, the asking price is expected to be astronomical, even if the Tigers will hear out teams with interest.

As for Corbin, the D-Backs are in a tight payroll situation that will present challenges as they seek to return to the postseason. GM Mike Hazen indicates yesterday that a “creative” approach will be required, as MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert notes on Twitter. With Corbin projected by MLBTR to take home a $8.3MM payday via arbitration, he could be a useful trade piece, perhaps bringing back pieces that could fill other needs while also freeing up some spending money. The 28-year-old southpaw turned in a solid 2017 campaign, running up 189 2/3 innings of 4.03 ERA ball with 8.4 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9. While Arizona would surely prefer to retain Corbin, they have four other strong rotation pieces on hand along with a few internal candidates to battle for a spot.

 

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Yankees Had Interest In Carlos Santana

By Connor Byrne | December 11, 2017 at 10:25pm CDT

The Yankees expressed interest in free agent Carlos Santana after Ohtani turned them down and before they acquired Giancarlo Stanton, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports (Twitter link). Now, Stanton’s presence removes any need for the Yanks to add another hitter, meaning he won’t end up with them, as Davidoff notes.
On the other hand, the Stanton deal may hasten a rebuild for the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. The Rays would be wise to take that route, Topkin posits, thanks in part to the fact that New York and Boston are in their division. Additionally, the payroll-challenged club already looked primed to trade notable veterans even before the Yankees got Stanton. On the heels of a fourth straight sub-.500 season, the Rays will also lose righty Alex Cobb to free agency, which will make it all the more difficult for them to compete in the near term, Topkin points out.

 

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• The Yankees reportedly came away from talks with the Pirates with the impression that they won’t move righty Gerrit Cole. However, the Pirates are at least willing to listen to offers for Cole, per Buster Olney of ESPN (Twitter link). The Yankees and Bucs match up well for a potential Cole trade, sources tell Olney, who notes that Bombers general manager Brian Cashman and the Pirates’ Neal Huntington have swung plenty of deals in the past.

• In the wake of the Giancarlo Stanton acquisition, the Yankees are loaded with outfielders. Although that seems to be bad news for Jacoby Ellsbury, who’s toward the bottom of the Yankees’ current outfield depth chart, he’s still “unlikely” to waive his no-trade clause, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets. The belief is that the Yankees would eat roughly half of the $68MM to jettison Ellsbury, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag, but it could be a moot point if he’s unwilling to go anywhere. And Cashman said Monday that Ellsbury “has a spot on the roster” and “will compete to take his job back,” Alex Speier of the Boston Globe relays (Twitter link). On the other hand, if the Yankees make 23-year-old outfielder Clint Frazier available, the Athletics would unquestionably have interest, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports (via Twitter). However, the price to acquire Frazier would likely be too high, Slusser adds.

 

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Orioles Reportedly Asking For Offers On Manny Machado

By Steve Adams | December 12, 2017 at 10:57am CDT

While it’s been reported that the Orioles are at least willing to listen to offers on Manny Machado, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic takes things a step further, reporting that the O’s have asked interested parties to make them offers for the star infielder (subscription required and highly recommended). The term “infielder” is of particular note, as Rosenthal also writes that Machado’s desire is to return to shortstop in 2018 whether he’s in Baltimore or with a new club.

Machado, 25, has long stood out as an on-paper trade candidate given his proximity to free agency and the Orioles’ lack of starting pitching. The O’s, who have been looking to add as many as three starters to their rotation this winter, will be hard-pressed to contend for an AL East title in 2018 (even more so in the wake of the Yankees’ acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton). With Machado set to hit the open market next winter in position to land a record-setting contract — assuming a healthy year, anything south of Stanton’s $325MM guarantee would seem to be a nonstarter — it’s difficult to envision him remaining in Baltimore. For the time being, MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $17.3MM salary for Machado next year after his final trip through the arbitration process.

The Orioles, per Rosenthal, are aiming to acquire two controllable young starters in any trade for Machado. That’s a lofty ask for a lot of teams, but a win-now club with an ample supply of touted but unproven pitching could look at that as an acceptable price to pay for a player that has been worth better than five wins per season, on average, over the past half decade (despite missing 80 games due to injury in 2014). Notably, Rosenthal adds that owner Peter Angelos does not want to trade with the division-rival Yankees.

Machado didn’t have his best season in 2017, as he got off to a shockingly pedestrian start to the year. Through the season’s first three months, Machado was batting just .216/.289/.423 with an elevated (by his standards) 20.6 percent strikeout rate. Over the final three months, though, the Machado of old resurfaced, as he mashed at a .295/.329/.513 pace with a vastly improved 13.1 percent punchout rate.

Machado has two Gold Gloves and a Platinum Glove to his name at third base and has long graded out as an elite defender there, but there’s little doubt that he could still handle shortstop at an above-average level as well. He logged nearly 400 innings there in 2016, for instance, and drew generally positive marks from Ultimate Zone Rating (+1.9) and Defensive Runs Saved (+3).

From a broader perspective, Machado is one of several players entering his final year of team control in Baltimore. Zach Britton, Adam Jones and Brad Brach are all free agents following the 2018 season, while Jonathan Schoop is controlled for just one year beyond that. Depending on how aggressively the O’s are willing to sell off parts, they could quickly restock their farm with an ample supply of talent by marketing more than one of their soon-to-be free agents, though doing so would also mean largely punting on the 2018 campaign at the very least.
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[KaiserUEO]

Happy Holidays from the New York Yankees

 

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Official:

 

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Twins Sign Michael Pineda

By Jeff Todd | December 13, 2017 at 8:44am CDT

The Twins have announced a two-year deal with righty Michael Pineda. The former Yankees righty is still working back from Tommy John surgery. He receives a $10MM guarantee, split into consecutive $2MM and $8MM salaries.

Pineda, who turns 29 in January, went under the knife in mid-July of 2017, so he’s certain to miss the bulk of the coming season. But it’s possible he could return late in the year. Clearly, though, the deal is aimed primarily at achieving value in the ensuing campaign.

Much like Drew Smyly, who went to the Cubs yesterday (also on a $10MM deal), Pineda seems to offer ample upside. Though he carried only a 4.56 ERA over the past three seasons, Pineda has tantalized with his power arsenal and maintained 9.5 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in that span.

Despite sparkling grades from fielding-independent pitching measures, home runs have to this point been a problem that Pineda has not solved. His rate of long balls permitted has steadily risen in each of his four years in the Bronx, topping out in 2017 at 1.87 per nine with a 22.5% HR/FB rate.

There are also health questions that go beyond the TJ recovery process. Pineda has dealt with significant shoulder problems in the past, though he had recovered to the point that he took the ball 59 times over the 2015-16 campaigns.

Regardless, it’s an intriguing move for a Minnesota organization that has a few unsettled spots in the current and future rotation. If the club can sustain contention as it did in 2017, it’s also imaginable that Pineda could return somewhat sooner and function as a possible impact reliever down the stretch.

 

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Yankees Sign Erik Kratz

By Mark Polishuk | December 12, 2017 at 11:30pm CDT

The Yankees have re-signed veteran catcher Erik Kratz, as revealed in a tweet by Kratz’s representatives at JMG Baseball. Kratz elected to become a free agent after the season rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, though it appears he’ll be back in the pinstripes providing the Yankees with experienced catching depth in the minors.

Kratz only played four games for New York after being acquired on an August 31 trade from the Indians, as he was picked up to add more depth during the September roster expansion. Those were Kratz’s only four Major League games of the 2017 season, giving him appearances in parts of the last eight big league campaigns. Kratz has only a .203/.250/.366 slash line over 649 career PA with the Yankees, Blue Jays, Astros, Royals, and two separate stints each with the Phillies and Pirates.

 

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Latest On Yankees, Todd Frazier

By Mark Polishuk | December 12, 2017 at 9:56pm CDT

The Blue Jays met with C.C. Sabathia today, George A. King III of the New York Post reports (via Twitter). Toronto joins the Yankees and Angels as teams that have checked in on Sabathia to bolster the back of their rotations, eating innings and still delivering effective results at age 37. The Jays have a lot of uncertainty with the fifth spot in their rotation, and maybe even beyond that given the blister and fingernail problems that plagued Aaron Sanchez last season. There was some good news on that front today, however, as Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi reports that Sanchez played catch for the first time in three months and reported no issues with his finger.

• After Chase Headley was dealt earlier today, speculation immediately arose that the Yankees could look to re-sign Todd Frazier. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reported that Yankees GM Brian Cashman has been speaking with Frazier’s agent, though things don’t “appear hot at the moment” between the two sides, as per FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman. As the New York Post’s Joel Sherman observes, one of the stumbling blocks is that Frazier is naturally looking for a multi-year deal, whereas the Yankees don’t want to lock up third base with prospect Miguel Andujar in the fold and a possible pursuit of Manny Machado coming next winter.

 

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New York Notes: Mets Pen, Harvey, Lowrie, Duffy, Yankees Options

By Jeff Todd | December 12, 2017 at 3:56pm CDT

New Mets skipper Mickey Callaway indicated in his comments to reporters that he’s disinclined to utilize a traditional closer, as Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. While Jeurys Familia has thrived in that role at times in the past, it seems the Mets may at least consider dabbling in more of a late-inning matchup approach, though surely the team’s approach will also depend upon its ensuing transactions. GM Sandy Alderson suggested to reporters, including Marc Carig of Newsday (Twitter link), that bullpen usage plans are still open for consideration.

More from the New York organizations:

• Meanwhile, recent chatter surrounding Matt Harvey does not seem likely to go anywhere. Alderson indicated (also via Carig, on Twitter) that Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland have recommended the organization retain the former ace. While it’s not clear that anything has changed since the rumors emerged yesterday, that viewpoint seems at least to be informing the Mets’ valuation of a pitcher that has a massive ceiling but who has struggled quite notably of late.
• While the Mets held at least some conversations with the Athletics regarding second baseman Jed Lowrie, per Puma (via Twitter), the clubs “don’t appear to match up.” That seems to remove at least one possibility from the Mets’ seemingly wide-open search for options up the middle. At this stage, it’s anyone’s guess how the open job will be filled.
• The Yankees have reached out to the Royals to express interest in lefty Danny Duffy, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports on Twitter. Kansas City seems to be in the early stages of exploring trade scenarios for Duffy and others, but we’ve heard some news trickle out on various possibilities in recent days. The Yanks, meanwhile, have been connected to a variety of names; Sherman also discusses some of the other avenues for building out the Yanks’ rotation.
• Sherman also looks at the Yankees’ situation from a higher level. Without further salary-shedding maneuvers, he tweets, the team may have something on the order of $20MM to $25MM to work with before reaching luxury tax territory. Given that the organization has possibilities for moving yet more cash off the books, it seems there’s still ample flexibility.

 

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https://nypost.com/2017/12/12/the-starters-yankees-could-trade-for-and-what-they-would-cost/

 

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The Yankees have not only been in contact with the Diamondbacks about lefty Patrick Corbin, they’ve also discussed infielder/outfielder Brandon Drury in those talks, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Sherman notes that multiple clubs have discussed Drury with the Snakes, but he’s a strong fit in the Bronx following trades of Chase Headley and Starlin Castro. The 25-year-old Drury has slashed .275/.323/.453 with 29 homers in 979 plate appearances across the past two seasons while playing second base, third base and left field. He’s controllable for another four seasons and won’t be arbitration-eligible until next winter.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Makes sense, since we've got 39 spots accounted for.

 

[Stern]

Machado to Yanks not out of the realm even if Machado goes to White Sox first they might just flip him to Yanks

https://nypost.com/2017/12/14/yankees-could-work-around-the-orioles-to-get-manny-machado/

 

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