2024-25 Yankees Offseason
- Thread starter jon abbey
- Start date
I have always wondered about the pride factor if any prospect Cashman traded away panned out well in excess of their value at the time of the deal, and was then available on the trade market
I’d love to see the Yankees get Josh Smith back. Not sure what it would cost. That said, there is a chance that Oswaldo can do what Smith did this past season*, but with better defense at third.
Can’t bank on similar rates of development. Or any development. But Cabrera is a year younger than Smith and this past age-25 season of his is right around where Smith was in his age-25 season. Maybe just a bit better.
Cabrera is valuable in that he can play all over the field and be relatively solid to pretty good defensively. You lose some of that if he settles down at 3B. But as I’ve said before, I’m curious if his bat develops better/faster if he could. I’m good either way. A Josh Smith type or Cabrera works for me.
*Smith doesn’t have big splits and hits LHP well. That’s valuable. I don’t think Cabrera will improve that much, but if he stops switching and keeps batting lefty against LHP, can he be competent enough against LHP? In a SSS he looked good doing it. If the coaches think he can build on that small success, I’d rather see Cabrera get a chance instead of giving up trade resources for a Josh Smith kind of move that might end up being more lateral than a big improvement. But Cabrera has to be able to improve against LHP to hold down a starting gig. Can he?
Can’t bank on similar rates of development. Or any development. But Cabrera is a year younger than Smith and this past age-25 season of his is right around where Smith was in his age-25 season. Maybe just a bit better.
Cabrera is valuable in that he can play all over the field and be relatively solid to pretty good defensively. You lose some of that if he settles down at 3B. But as I’ve said before, I’m curious if his bat develops better/faster if he could. I’m good either way. A Josh Smith type or Cabrera works for me.
*Smith doesn’t have big splits and hits LHP well. That’s valuable. I don’t think Cabrera will improve that much, but if he stops switching and keeps batting lefty against LHP, can he be competent enough against LHP? In a SSS he looked good doing it. If the coaches think he can build on that small success, I’d rather see Cabrera get a chance instead of giving up trade resources for a Josh Smith kind of move that might end up being more lateral than a big improvement. But Cabrera has to be able to improve against LHP to hold down a starting gig. Can he?
As far as free agents remaining for the 2nd/3rd base slot, Ha-Seong Kim seems like a very good fit for multiple reasons, one of which is actually his unavailability to start the season would allow NY to better test and maybe clear out some of the DJ/Peraza/Cabrera/Vivas roster clog (all on the 40 man).
Might 2/34 do it? Lombard Jr and/or Arias should hopefully be ready by then (2027).
Might 2/34 do it? Lombard Jr and/or Arias should hopefully be ready by then (2027).
If Kim would sign a short deal they should definitely try to get him. Solid contact hitter who doesn't strike out much. Splits aren't a concern. Can play all over the infield, but pretty damn good at 2B. With Kim, I think you keep Chisholm at 3B and just play him at 2B. Seems like a high floor kind of guy both offensively and defensively that you just plug into the lineup and don't have to worry about that spot. A better version of IKF, but maybe closer than you'd think. But hey, I liked IKF well enough. 
Maybe the injury depresses his market enough to make him think about it, but honestly, I think he'll get a better deal elsewhere. But who knows, the longer he remains unsigned maybe there is an opportunity there.
Maybe the injury depresses his market enough to make him think about it, but honestly, I think he'll get a better deal elsewhere. But who knows, the longer he remains unsigned maybe there is an opportunity there.
Happy New Year to all!
I’m sticking to two opinions here:
1) If Cashman really planned to not add a 2B/3B from here, I do not think he would have moved Durbin.
2) Arenado still makes a lot of sense to me if they can figure it out, getting Helsley thrown in would be nice too.
I’m sticking to two opinions here:
1) If Cashman really planned to not add a 2B/3B from here, I do not think he would have moved Durbin.
2) Arenado still makes a lot of sense to me if they can figure it out, getting Helsley thrown in would be nice too.
Still waiting to hear any buzz on Profar.
I think it would be very smart of the Yankees to kick the tires on him. Solves a few problems.
I think it would be very smart of the Yankees to kick the tires on him. Solves a few problems.
If you start with Stanton being a perma-DH and Goldschmidt not being able to play anywhere but 1B, then Bellinger has to play LF or CF along with Dominguez. I mean, theoretically you could sign Profar and not start Dominguez, but that seems epically dumb especially since Profar is a bad OF and Yankee Stadium LF is huge. Just trying to follow along with @Wingack here...
I am just trying to find a way to get his .380 OBP at the top of the lineup.
Second or third wherever he is most comfortable.
Second or third wherever he is most comfortable.
He hasn’t played more than a handful of games at those positions since 2019. He’s an outfielder.
Cashman needs to be a little creative here. If Profar would be open to it, Cash should be too.
It isn’t about creativity. It’s about whether or not the guy can competently play the infield full time. Seems unlikely.
Stanton can play 2B and Profar DH, how’s that for creative?
I find it really hard to imagine Profar-2B/Jazz-3B being a preferable plan to Jazz-2B/Arenado-3B, I know which one the pitching staff would vote for. Arenado is only two years older, 34 to 32, and has 56.7 career bWAR to Profar’s 8.4.
I find it really hard to imagine Profar-2B/Jazz-3B being a preferable plan to Jazz-2B/Arenado-3B, I know which one the pitching staff would vote for. Arenado is only two years older, 34 to 32, and has 56.7 career bWAR to Profar’s 8.4.
Some numbers from Jomboy to back up what I was talking about all last season with Volpe, give him a day off occasionally!!
View: https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1874887901038665873
View: https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1874887901038665873
He did finally come into his own at age 31, but is that the new normal for him or does he return to the player he was the previous 950 games in his career which is someone you want no where close to the top of the order. Forgetting the whole there isn't a position for him to play on the field . Even if he could play an if spot, you'd have to be very careful of going all in on the player after such a massive outlier of a season
Another YES Hot Stove show tonight, I can somehow almost never bring myself to watch them, but this is the closest we get to knowing NY's genuine latest perspectives via Curry and Kay.
View: https://twitter.com/BobbyMilone29/status/1874966086502039862
View: https://twitter.com/BobbyMilone29/status/1874975278969278721
So now the consensus is back to what I've been saying, they are waiting to figure it out with Arenado, and again STL wants to move him and Arenado fully controls the destination with his no-trade. STL also has John King, a lefty reliever who Cashman already traded for as part of the Joey Gallo deal with TEX, but then NY was not happy with King's physical (and I think he got hurt soon after) so NY took out some prospects (Pereira and Randy Vasquez, from memory) and TEX included Joely Rodriguez for literally nothing (this always makes me laugh when I think of it), maybe to save per diem, and the deal went through.
Anyway NY needs a lefty reliever and Cashman has already traded for King once, he has three years of control left and is cheap. As a lefty groundball pitcher, he would be a good fit accompanying Arenado, maybe not a coincidence that King's numbers got a lot better once he got to STL in 2023.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kingjo01.shtml
View: https://twitter.com/BobbyMilone29/status/1874966086502039862
View: https://twitter.com/BobbyMilone29/status/1874975278969278721
So now the consensus is back to what I've been saying, they are waiting to figure it out with Arenado, and again STL wants to move him and Arenado fully controls the destination with his no-trade. STL also has John King, a lefty reliever who Cashman already traded for as part of the Joey Gallo deal with TEX, but then NY was not happy with King's physical (and I think he got hurt soon after) so NY took out some prospects (Pereira and Randy Vasquez, from memory) and TEX included Joely Rodriguez for literally nothing (this always makes me laugh when I think of it), maybe to save per diem, and the deal went through.
Anyway NY needs a lefty reliever and Cashman has already traded for King once, he has three years of control left and is cheap. As a lefty groundball pitcher, he would be a good fit accompanying Arenado, maybe not a coincidence that King's numbers got a lot better once he got to STL in 2023.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kingjo01.shtml
Cashman has held onto all of his top position player prospects who he believes in in recent years but I could see him giving up one here in the right multi-player deal (Arenado/Helsley/King?), STL has a lot of guys who would slot in nicely to NY's weaker spots. I'm talking one of the Jones/Lombard Jr/Arias trio, and I kind of don't think they can trade Arias because it is too soon and could easily hurt them with future twelve year olds*, so I think it would have to be one of the first two. I hope Cashman can finish the job this winter while still holding onto those three, though.
*This is not an exaggeration, an Instagram IFA account I just started following was hinting at news for the 'class of 2030' this week. I think signees are more often 17 than 16 now but still that is 12 now, and EW.
*This is not an exaggeration, an Instagram IFA account I just started following was hinting at news for the 'class of 2030' this week. I think signees are more often 17 than 16 now but still that is 12 now, and EW.
Cashman and Arenado makes me think of the old saying about money managers, "No one gets fired for buying IBM", an explanation below for you young 'uns out there:
"For most of the second half of the twentieth century, corporate officers in charge of purchasing computers had a saying: “No one gets fired for buying IBM.” IBM, the fabled Big Blue, the Beast of Armonk (New York), had the largest market share of business computers and made solid, dependable machines. They weren’t cutting edge, but neither were the needs of most businesses. An IBM mainframe was the safe choice for almost any manager."
Of course this saying stuck around much longer than IBM being a solid dependable company did, I guess we'll see where we are on the timeline exactly.
If Cashman puts Judge and Stanton and Bellinger and Goldschmidt and Arenado and some talented kids together with a very good pitching staff and they don't win it all, I think that is on them more than on him.
"For most of the second half of the twentieth century, corporate officers in charge of purchasing computers had a saying: “No one gets fired for buying IBM.” IBM, the fabled Big Blue, the Beast of Armonk (New York), had the largest market share of business computers and made solid, dependable machines. They weren’t cutting edge, but neither were the needs of most businesses. An IBM mainframe was the safe choice for almost any manager."
Of course this saying stuck around much longer than IBM being a solid dependable company did, I guess we'll see where we are on the timeline exactly.
If Cashman puts Judge and Stanton and Bellinger and Goldschmidt and Arenado and some talented kids together with a very good pitching staff and they don't win it all, I think that is on them more than on him.
Bold claim! The talent in that group is incredible but to point out the obvious- age decline, even with Judge…. Is just as likely here.
I can see another WS appearance as easily as an incredibly disappointing (to some but as fun as an Aaron Roger’s Buffalo beat down to me) 3rd place 83 win season with injuries to Judge, continues regression for the rest….
Of course The Bidet does play to a lot of their strengths and I could also see a Carpenter-Bounce for Goldschmidt and Arenado.
Will be interesting
If Judge experienced some age related decline, he'd probably still be an MVP candidate, and predicting injuries goes for anyone. Judge hasn't had a real injury in the past 5 years other than randomly hitting a concrete lip with his toe.
I agree on the other 4 in terms of downside, though.
Sure... but even a slight decline from Judge with say... Stanton playing like he has been the past two years and continued decline from Bellinger, Goldschmidt and Arenado and it's a catastrophic season. They've definitely got good pitching... but getting long in the tooth. I don't think the Yankees improved or will improve from '24. At best they are equal across all aspects in aggrege. The bullpen has a strong possibility to be incredible but they need a lot to break right. Sure, yeah, all teams do but the volatility of this group is pretty high. Yeah, I can see another WS appearance but also just missing the WC3. I suspect the Sox have a lower ceiling but higher floor- and their highest ceiling will hinge on the Yankees luck and health breaking badly
Yeah that’s not really what I meant. From a neutral outside perspective, the Dodgers and maybe other teams are clearly more talented. From an ‘assembling veteran talent and a supporting cast around Judge perspective’, that should be enough. I mean, if Judge was typical Judge in this past WS, NY probably wins. They didn’t, and that result is on Judge more than Cashman IMO.
I don't know that I agree with these 2 things. They've added a fair amount of talent across multiple positions while losing a singular talent at 1 position. Baseball is a pretty high variance sport from year to year, not to mention the current offseason isn't even over... to state confidently that they will not be better and are at absolute best a wash with last year I think is a pretty bold claim of your own. It's very possible, but there are a lot of outcomes out there.
You're somewhat downplaying (really, just not factoring in) any chance of upside from the Yankees' younger talent while (fairly) focusing on the downside of their older players, one of which isn't even on their roster yet. They literally had 2 of the top 3 finishers in RoY in 2024, so they do have young talent.
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When it comes to the Yankees, SLT is like an updated version of rembrat. This bodes well for the new season. I’m really looking forward to it.
It’s funny to me to see anyone refer to the 2024 Yankees as a static singular entity. They were dominant for 72 games (50-22), mediocre for the next 90 (44-46), got the #1 seed with 94 wins because the AL was awful, won two playoff series (3-1 over KC, 4-1 over CLE), and then lost the WS. Cole missed the first half of the season, Chisholm the first 2/3 (before NY traded for him), Dominguez basically the whole season.
I don’t know how someone can look at that and think they have almost any idea how next year’s edition (which isn’t even done yet) compares to last year’s.
I don’t know how someone can look at that and think they have almost any idea how next year’s edition (which isn’t even done yet) compares to last year’s.
I find the current version of the roster superior to last years.
Adding Fried to replace Nestor adding a #2 to replace our #4 or #5 starter
Williams to replace Holmes then the trickle down effect on the bullpen.
Goldy replaces Rizzo even with another 2024 like campaign Goldy is still a huge upgrade from what they got last year from 1st base.
Bellinger replaces Soto huge downgrade but better defense moving Judge to RF and Belli in center or left.
Dominguez replaces Verdugo should be at worst a draw.
Full year of Wells Dominguez Jazz
There is a glaring hole at 3b if Jazz goes back to 2nd. The offseason isn’t over yet!
Adding Fried to replace Nestor adding a #2 to replace our #4 or #5 starter
Williams to replace Holmes then the trickle down effect on the bullpen.
Goldy replaces Rizzo even with another 2024 like campaign Goldy is still a huge upgrade from what they got last year from 1st base.
Bellinger replaces Soto huge downgrade but better defense moving Judge to RF and Belli in center or left.
Dominguez replaces Verdugo should be at worst a draw.
Full year of Wells Dominguez Jazz
There is a glaring hole at 3b if Jazz goes back to 2nd. The offseason isn’t over yet!
Good. Really good.
His defense was excellent and while he had an up and down season at the plate, I think he showed enough there as a rookie, even with a heavy catching workload, to be confident about his development.
RAB had an interesting take on Volpe today that I thought was interesting (and pertinent to this convo).
They need to give Volpe an occasional day off, it is not rocket science with him. A few posts up (#668) I posted a Jomboy tweet with his splits after getting days off, it is eye-opening (I mean, not to those of us talking about it here all last season, but hopefully to Boone).
I don't really remember but they asked him to do a ton last season, they moved him to cleanup behind Judge for a while because no one else could do it, in addition to catching almost every day after Trevino got hurt (and after he came back still).
Yeah, I thought that was eye-opening to see spelled out like that. I just thought RAB's thoughts were interesting as well.
It would also be great if Boone had better options on the bench to be able to give Volpe regular rest. I'm going to be pissed if they don't have someone like Peraza on the roster to do it. I like Cabrera, but he really isn't a SS.
Austin Wells was hit in the hand by Chase Anderson.
Anderson was pitching for Texas because he had been DFA by the Red Sox a few weeks before. His last appearance for the Sox was an extra inning loss against the Yankees.
Anderson was pitching for Texas because he had been DFA by the Red Sox a few weeks before. His last appearance for the Sox was an extra inning loss against the Yankees.
I was driving from NY to Maryland all day today and was thinking, “hey Gavin Lux doesn’t have a job right now. Yanks could use him on their infield!”
Then I saw this on X when I pulled in the driveway:
View: https://twitter.com/talkinyanks/status/1875949058428453122?s=46&t=-M7K07aV9oTvsCKHtZkfZQ
Then I saw this on X when I pulled in the driveway:
View: https://twitter.com/talkinyanks/status/1875949058428453122?s=46&t=-M7K07aV9oTvsCKHtZkfZQ
I researched Lux some, the prospect pedigree is sexy (and Cashman always loves that) but he has never hit in MLB until the second half of last year and then he went back to sucking in the postseason (.580 OPS). Also he is a mediocre 2B and would keep Jazz at 3B, probably weakening both slots defensively.
I still want Arenado, I think. His 3B defense is so exciting to me, given the options, even the aging version. If his bat bounces back (and it was reported earlier he had regained bat speed this winter), he could be very valuable.
I still want Arenado, I think. His 3B defense is so exciting to me, given the options, even the aging version. If his bat bounces back (and it was reported earlier he had regained bat speed this winter), he could be very valuable.
Passan says NY has been kicking the tires on Arraez who is a sexy name but just not a helpful baseball player. He gets singles but hurts the team in every other way, bad defense, few walks, few extra base hits, below average baserunning. Cashman can do better.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-myth-of-luis-arraez/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-myth-of-luis-arraez/
He is pretty much all batting average, but it does lead to him having a good OBP, which the Yankees are in desperate need of to put at the top of the lineup.
Arraez had a .346 OBP last year, Arenado had a .325, that means he gets on base one extra time every 50 PAs, so maybe 12-14 times over a full season.
I continue to think Arraez is the most overrated player in baseball, Oswaldo Cabrera had a higher bWAR last year with less than half the PAs.
Arraez: 1.0 bWAR in 672 PAs
Cabrera: 1.3 bWAR in 326 PAs
I continue to think Arraez is the most overrated player in baseball, Oswaldo Cabrera had a higher bWAR last year with less than half the PAs.
Arraez: 1.0 bWAR in 672 PAs
Cabrera: 1.3 bWAR in 326 PAs
A team with championship aspirations shouldn't waste resources on one dimensional players, even if that one dimension is pretty good.