Chris's Best and Worst Offseason Acquisitions

This offseason has been very interesting for the New York Yankees, they made a lot of acquisitions like Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kelly Johnson, and Brian Roberts.  This cost the Yankees a lot of dough, but it will definitely make the Yankees a better team and is a better strategy than last year's version of The Replacements.  Many Yankees fans, including myself, are looking into the upcoming season with hope.  Of course everyone has their own opinion on what the Yankees did well, and what made you go "wait, what?", here is my opinion 

Best: McCann

 

What I felt was to be the best acquisition by the Yankees in the offseason was one of their first, Brian McCann.   He is 29 years old, and will be 30 on February 20th, has a career batting average of .277 and On Base Percentage of .350, and has hit over 20 home runs in his last 6 seasons.  Pretty similar number to one Russel Martin.  McCann will be filling the biggest hole in the Yankees lineup of Catcher, which was previously filled by Chris Stewart.  This is a huge improvement over Stewart who batted .211, had an OBP of .336, and hit a whopping 4 home runs last year (a career high for him).  

The New York Yankees signed Brian McCann to a five-year $85 million contract that includes a vesting option for a sixth season that could push the total to $100 million.  In my mind a good deal for the talent that the Yankees acquired.  In the past few years McCann has had some injury issues, but has been able to bounce back quickly, I do not feel it will be an issue in the future.  Another good thing McCann brings to the Yankees is experience, which will be especially useful because the Yankees have young talent behind the plate in Austin Romine who will be able to learn from Brian McCann.

That being said, I hope that Austin Romine does not pick up Brian McCann's personality.  In case you do not remember, McCann was the catcher who BLEW UP on Jose Fernandez after Fernandez hit his first career home run and McCann apparently had a problem with Fernandez for admiring his first home run in the MLB for two seconds.  Another incident last year was after Carlos Gomez hit a home run, Brian McCann blocked him from getting to home plate, causing the benches to clear.  That is not something you want your catcher to do, I remember watching the game at the time and saying he would make a good Red Sox catcher with that personality, A-rod/Varitek fight 2004, but I digress.

Even with this, I still believe that Brian McCann was the best off season acquisition that the Yankees made because he is a good hitter, with decent defense, and was by far the best catcher on the market, and catcher was definitely something the Yankees needed.

Worst: Ellsbury

What I feel was the worst off season acquisition by the New York Yankees this off season was signing Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year $153 million contract.  Ellsbury is 30 years old, has a career batting average of .297, an On Base Percentage of .350 and hit 9 home runs last year.  A big part of Ellsbury's game is stealing bases which he stole 52 of last year.  He is also a very good defensive outfielder, so why is he the worst signing by the Yankees if he is such a good player?  Three big reasons, one we don't need him.

The Yankees needed only one outfielder going into this off season, they signed two, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Carlos Beltran.  Beltran is 36 years old, has a career batting average of .283, an OBP of .359, and hit 24 home runs last year.  So why isn't he the worst signing?  For one, we signed him first to a position we needed, and two because we got him a whole lot cheaper, three years $45 million.  The Yankees only needed one outfielder going into the offseason because they already have Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki, and Brett Gardner, and that was before they signed Beltran.

The second reason is that Ellsbury is not worth $153 million, he would be if he was coming off his 2011 season where he hit .321, had an OBP of .376, and hit 32 home runs; that is the only season he hit more than 9 home runs by the way, and stole 39 bases.  But Ellsbury is coming off of a season where he his .298, had an OBP of .355, hit 9 home runs, and stole 52 bases, again not bad numbers, but not $153 million dollar numbers either.

Finally, the third reason Ellsbury was the worst signing by the Yankees was that there were so many other things they could have used that $153 million on.  For example, signing a third baseman, someone better than Kelly Johnson or Brendan Ryan perhaps or we could have used it to keep Robinson Cano, or a relief pitcher. The point is the money could have been used for things the Yankees actually need and Ellsbury is not something the Yankees needed.

I believe in Zoilo

The man with the name Zoilo Almonte, the switch hitting outfielder made his debut last year as did so many Yankee rookies and he played very well before a high ankle sprain landed him on the DL and some wisdom teeth kept him there for most of the year. In the end Zoilo played 34 games games for the Yankees and his first 17 games were great, he batted .309/.339/.436 in 59  Plate appearances and it really looked like he could be a contributor to the team but he started to slide in July and then he landed on the DL. When he came back he just wasn't the same when he came back in September managing just 2 hits and both of those came in the last game of the year. However I believe in Zoilo, I believe that he can contribute to the Yankees and I believe he can contribute better than Ichiro Suzuki, can he be a starter for the team? I really don't know but you know how we can find out, by giving him a limited bench role to see how he handle's the majors over a full season because struggling at a new level is something that players do, Brett Gardner's stats when he first came up in 2008 were bad .228/.283/.299 bad, but he turned it around and became a good major leaguer. This is how a team develops young talent that can help the major league club and its what the Yankees don't do, they always side with the veteran over a young player and that's mostly good for a team that is always winning but now the Yankees have gone years without developing a single contributor to their team and Zoilo just might be one of the guys who can help stop that trend. Zoilo is by no means a godsend of a prospect and more than likely he is a 4th outfielder long term but there is a chance that he can become a decent starter and keeping him in AAA behind Ichiro is not the way to have him show what he can do.
Mike Axisa wrote about Zoilo Almonte before last season and said that he might be the Yankees best shot at a home grown outfielder and I think he still might be right. Almonte is a guy who walked at a very good rate in the minors, can be a decent base stealer and play solid defense in the corners. There are a few warts on Zoilo as he did not hit left handed pitching well last season but I expect that to adjust as he is a natural right handed hitter. It is possible that the Yankee brass agrees with me as Brian Cashman said last season that the club has “future everyday right fielder scouting grades”on Almonte and keeping Almonte as a 4th outfielder would be very similar to how the Yankees broke Brett Gardner into the major leagues in 2009 and it is really what they should do for Zoilo in 2014. Spring training is only a short time away so hopefully for Zoilo's sake he can have a good spring training and make the club, I just fear that they will keep Ichiro on the roster over him.

Masahiro Tanaka signs with the Yankees

(Koji Watanabe/Getty)

The Yankees signed 25 year old Masahiro Tanaka to a seven year $155 million contract on top of the twenty million dollar posting fee that they will pay to his former club. At various times it was being reported that Tanaka was close to signing with the Cubs and the Dodgers but the Yankees came in and got their man. The deal is already final as the Yankees officially announced the signing and they DFA David Huff to clear a spot.  This also blows the $189 million plan out the window, but that was kind of to be figured as the Yankees lost a lot of money in ticket revenue last season and they probably figured out that using their monetary advantage was a good thing. Most people have heard about his great numbers in Japan including going 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA average last season in 27 starts and you should check out his numbers here but simply put Tanaka will not be as good in the US as he was in Japan. I guarantee you that in his first bad start people will say that he isn't good enough for the MLB and will call him the next Kei Igawa but almost every pitcher struggles when they first move up a level and even the great and powerful Yu Darvish struggled at times in his first MLB season. Don't bother comparing him to Yu Darvish or Dice-K or any other Japanese pitcher because he is different from all of them and will show that over the course of what I am sure will be a fantastic Yankee career.
In a slightly different note Tanaka may very well end up being the youngest player on the Yankees, he is younger than Preston Claiborne and Dellin Betances and that's very much due to the fact that the farm system has produced very little talent the last few years and the Yankees are so old that they all drink prune juice and tell those damn hooligan teenagers to get off their lawns. Aparently the Yankees have been scouting Tanaka since he debuted at the tender age of 18 in Japan and lets hope that it will pay off because the Yankees needed him and now they need him to be good because right now they still have weaknesses at the infield and in the bullpen and I do mean at the infield because they are basically relying on three bounce back seasons and Kelly Johnson to make a good infield.
Even with Tanaka the Yankees need a lot of things to go right as they will need a bounce back season from CC, Jeter, Teixeira, Brian Roberts and Ivan Nova and the bullpen none of which are a given, but as I said the Yankee are a lot better with Tanaka than they are without him. Brian Cashman has also said that he thinks this is the last major move for the Yankees but lets hope they can still acquire a quality bullpen arm so that David Robertson has some actual support in the earlier innings. Now all we have to do is wait and see what number Tanaka takes as I doubt Kuroda is going to give up 18, Tanaka did wear 17 in the World baseball classic but I am kind of hoping he takes 24.

Yankees avoid arbitration with everyone

Ivan Nova, David Robertson, Brett Gardner, Francisco Cervelli and Shawn Kelely were all eligible for arbitration and the Yankees agreed to deals with everyone but Nova.

Francisco Cervelli signed on the 16th for $700,000 which was less than his projected $1 million but he did have almost no playing time the last two years and was suspended for 50 games this season.  I honestly thought he was going to be non tendered but the Yankees are keeping him at only somewhat above league minimum so its a deal for them. This was his first time through arbitration and so he has two years of team control remaining. Shawn Kelley signed for $1.7625M with a $25 thousand bonus if he appears in 55 games. Kelleys 4.39 ERA is helped by a 3.69 FIP and a ridiculous 11.98 K/9 (31.3 K%) in 53.1 innings across 57 games. Unless the Yankees sign someone I expect that he will be the Yankees setup man this year.  This is also his first time going through arbitration. Brett Gardner received $5.6 million in his last arbitration year which is a decent amount more than his projected $4 million but the MLBPA had said that they thought he would get more than $4million and they were right. David Robertson who projects to be this years closer earned $5.215M which was under his projected $5.5 million, he has one more year of team control and unless something goes horribly wrong his salary will increase quite a bit more than his roughly $2 million raise for this year. Saves pay in arbitration and he could easily rack up a  lot of saves this season. '
Ivan Nova remains unsigned but all that really means is that they could not come up with an agreement today and they will file an amount with the arbitration court and likely agree to a compromise, the Yankees have not gone to an arbitration hearing since 2008 with Chien Ming Wang. 

The Yankees signed Ivan Nova for $3.3 million and so they avoided arbitration with all five of their players signing them for a grand total of $16.58 million. Nova was projected at $2.8 million and so he received half a million more than projected, this is Nova's first time through arbitration and that's always the best for players because its when they starts making bigger money, Nova made $575K last year.

The bullpen takes shape

Matt Thornton

 The Yankees signed Matt Thornton yesterday to a two year $7 million deal and he is expected to be a LOOGY for next seasons Yankee bullpen. With him in the fold the Yankees bullpen now is David Robertson, Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton, Preston Claiborne and a lot of question marks. To be honest I only put Claiborne on the list because Girardi mentioned him specifically when talking about sure things in the bullpen. That still leaves three spots in the pen open and while they can technically fill those spots internally it would probbaly be a good idea if they did not have to do so, however a lot of it depends on how they finish their rotation. If they sign another starting pitcher, whether it be Tanaka or anyone else that will leave Adam Warren, David Phelps, Michael Pineda, Vidal Nuno and any guy they happen to invite to spring training to compete for the 5th spot in the rotation and the long relief spot in the pen; however if they do not sign another pitcher then they will need to use their starting depth right away and the bullpen will suffer for it. The Yankees do have several players who will be competing for bullpen spots but they are very thin on veteran relief pitchers and while I have full confidence in David Robertson being the closer I am more concerned with handing Shawn Kelley the setup job, not that I have any issues with him being able to handle the 8th innings simply that I am not sure that he can be as good as he was for most of last season. Kelley was terrible in April and even worse in September so we are essentially basing his success on 30 innings and while I know he was injured in September its still a limited sample size to make this guy a key feature of the bullpen and if he stinks up.; Cody Eppley was effective for a longer period of time in 2012 and he was so bad in 2013 that he would up playing independent league baseball. All I am really saying is that while I know the Yankees could fill out their bullpen with internal candidates I think it would be really good for them to bring in some veterans to balance out the risk, they could decide to go after someone with a track record Fernando Rodney or go after a guy like Jesse Crain who is coming off a solid season but one in which he was injured for the entire second half. Personally I would like them to go after the Jesse Crain or Ryan Madson types, specifically Jesse Crain as he will likely be cheaper than someone like Rodney and stands a good chance of being more effective too. Thornton made a ton of sense for the Yankees because he is great against left handed batters and while he is no longer the great setup man that he once was the White Sox he will fill a need for the Yankees at a much cheaper cost than Boone Logan, but the Yankees still need to add a dependable arm so that they do not need to rely on Preston Claiborne or Dellin Betances in the 7th inning from the start of the season. The Yankees have had good bullpens with Girardi but they just lost the greatest relief pitcher of all time and there is probably going to be some drop off but they can help mitigate that by adding a veteran to this relatively inexperienced bullpen.

Robinson Cano signs with the Mariners

Well there is a sentence I never thought I would have to type ever, or speak or even really think. But yes Robinson Cano signed a ten year $240 million deal with the Seattle Mariners and I am really expecting that there will not be any Jay-Z concerts at Yankee stadium anytime soon. The Yankees offered Cano a 7 year $175 million deal which has a higher per year pay but obviously not the years or total money and Cano took it. I never blame players for leaving in free agency and I do not blame Cano for taking the money, really I see it simply as Cano wanted money more than he wanted to be a Yankee. I am not bashing Cano with that statement or making any kind of slash at his character but it is simply that he wanted to maximize his earning potential and who are we to judge him for that? Anyways I hope that Cano is happy in Seattle and that he never gets a hit against the Yankees. Also it is really weird to be outbid by the Mariners for an elite homegrown Yankee player, I don't know the last time the Yankees were outbid trying to retain one of their own or if its really ever happened.

On another note the Mets signed Curtis Granderson to a 4-year $60 million deal and I wish Granderson all the luck in Queens. I have to bring up that I think I may have preferred Granderson 4/60 to Ellsbury 7/153 but they are different players and we will have to see what happens. The Yankees also resigned Hiroki Kuroda to a one year deal and are very likely to make several more moves as they have all of there Cano money left to use. We will have to wait and see what happens here on out and I know personally I hope the Yankees go hard after Tanaka if he is indeed posted.

Woe but for an infield

Can Gladus here play shortstop?

Via Ken Rosenthal the Yankees signed Brendan Ryan to a 2-year deal worthy around $5 million with an odd option that basically adds another year. On top of that they are still pursuing Stephen Drew and were pursuing Jhonny Peralta until he signed with the Cardinals, via Jon Morosi. This is all with Derek Jeter being under contract for this coming season, but as the Yankees have already noted they will be looking for a new starting shortstop so Jeter may be viewed as more of a DH. At this point right now the Yankees infield is putrid, especially because we do not know what will happen with Robinson Cano, as after him there is only Mark Teixeira in the infield. Obviously there are tiers of free agents and someone like Brendan Ryan ranks toward the bottom,which makes giving him two years very odd, but unfortunately players like David Adams, Corban Joseph and Eduardo Nunez rank lower than him as Ryan is an amazing fielder but a very poor hitter while Eduardo Nunez is a below average to an average hitter and a poor fielder even if he isn't throwing the ball into the stands anymore. I don't expect that Ryan will be the starting shortstop but it does remain a possibility and a strong one at that. As of right now though we have no starting second baseman or third baseman (well technically A-rod is still on the roster) and yes the Yankees are likely to resign Robinson Cano but that still leaves them with a gaping hole at third and everybody else in the infield is over 30 which does not bode well for the health of that infield and there are not any young guys looking to steal somebodies job and not many good free agent targets so we are looking at another stopgap 1-year veteran at third and hoping that Tex does not get injured again. There are no prospects at any of the infield positions that are anywhere close to the majors and so the Yankees are going to be stuck with a lot of one year contract veterans because their big money infielders are getting old, hurt and ineffective; all the while still being owed a ridiculous amount of money. The Yankees have always been good at finding talent on 1-year veteran deals, but we saw last year how that as your entire off season strategy can go very badly and with no solution on the left side of the infield that is exactly what they Yankees will need to do for the foreseeable future.