moonslav59

They said that last year, too. I think the plan is to start the year with Sale, Eovaldi, Pivetta, Hill and Wacha in the rotation. If they sub Whitlock for Wacha, we still have Wacha (RHP) in the top 3-5 RP'ers in the pen. It doesn't change the balance.

True. They may be gearing up for an always be just good enough to keep fan interest alive and well- maybe add a piece here and there, when chances look better, but basically never going all out like 2018, again.

Had we signed a top pitcher and SS plus Suzuki, would we be a top 4-6 contender in 2022? Would we have still signed significant players to fill in the other gaps we had in the rotation, pen and bench? How much over the tax line would all this have taken? I don't pretend to know the answers to any of this, but my guess is Bloom & Henry & Co. looked it all over and decided this is not "the time."

Having pen depth is not a bad thing, and since DHern has options, he may not be in the mix for much of the season. Last season, we used 33 players in a relief role, at some point. True, only 17 were used for more than 6 innings, but 17 still denotes a high need for depth. Taylor has been pretty good, but I'm not all that excited about DHern and Davis. We still have mostly righties as our best RP'ers: 1. Houck 2. Whitlock 3. Barnes 4. Taylor 5. Brasier 6. Diekman 7. Sawamura 8. Davis or DHern I'm not seeing a major imbalance.

I thought they might view this winter at "the time," but obviously not. Next year, we lose so much salary, many of our best players, we almost have to spend big just to stay even. I'm not sure it will be then, either. Maybe it's been wishful thinking it will be sooner rather than later, but I'd guess 2023 or 2024. Maybe they are waiting for Casas and Mayer, then BOOM!

If the Sox had traded for Donaldson, all you'd be talking about is his age and injury history and certain decline.

Word is, they may use the Donaldson money towards signing Story.

The Twins are toast. Dumping $50M and getting a younger 3Bman must have made them say yes. $50M is a lot of money.

Maybe the best part of the trade is how it helps Torres by moving him to 2B and LeMahieu by letting him play 1B more often.

You got a GG SS, which fixes a lot of problems. Donaldson is a high cost 36 year old, who has played in 115 games in '19, 135 in '21 but not much at all in '17, '18 and '20. He should fit right in with the Yanks. The guy can still rake (.827 OPS in 2021 and .865 from '19-'21 while playing in 318 of 384 games (83% is a better percentage than many other Yanks.). Urshela hit .815 since 2019 and played in 291 of 384 games (76%.)

I don't see an overload. Our top 3 are RHPs: Houck, Whitlock & Barnes. Out of the next 3-5, we have Brasier & Sawamura, so having a pool of lefties in the middle and bottom of the pen is not having too many. DHern has options left.

I heard multi-season. DHern K's more. Taylor has better overall numbers. I'm fine with getting him, but I'm not getting all the hype.

The Yanks got a GG SS, too.

1B: LeMahieu & Voit 2B: Torres & LeMahieu SS: IKF & Torres 3B: Donaldson Lots of questions and a ton of money, but looks better on paper than 2021.

Too injury prone. Too uneven, even when healthy. We couldn't keep Betts, and now we should give Betts money to someone who has had an OPS below .730 in 2 of the past 4 seasons? Pure insanity!

$13m/1

Yanks just acquired Josh Donaldson and his full $50M owed to him & Kiner-Falefa for Gary Sanchez & Gio Urshela!

Price was drafted while Bloom was in the Rays organization. True he was promoted to a bigger role, the year after Price was drafted, but I think he may have had a say in that pick. He got a couple good years from Matt Moore before dumping him. Stanek did pretty well as a starter. He traded for Glasnow. Shane McClanahan would be our 3rd starter, this year.

Doesn't "sell high" imply you get something of value back? (sarcasm alert)

Agreed. I'm nearly certain we add a RH'd OF bat that may delegate Duran to AAA to start the season. My point was that as of now, he's about the only plan B we have.

Jake Diekman? Am I missing something? I mean, you guys hated on Ottavino. (I did a little bit, too, I admit.) Diekman is 35. He's coming off a 5.0 BB/9 season, which is exactly his career number. His WHIP was 1.335, which is also close to his career 1.335. His HR/9 number (1.5 in '21) was over twice his career 0.7 mark. Sure he K's a bunch of people, but so did Ottavino and so does DHern. 12.3 K/9 in 2021 (11.5 career) Ottavino was 35 wen we acquired him (not a lefty, I know). He was coming off a 5.1 BB/9 season, but had a career mark of 4.0 not 5.1. He had an awful WHIP in 2020 and had a career mark of 1.312 before 2021. His career HR/9 is 0.9- about the same as Diekman. His career k/9 was 10.4 and was 12.3 in 2020- close to Diekman's numbers. DHern is 25 and has one of the 8th highest K/9 career rates in MLB history at 14.2 (78+ IP). Sure, his 7.4 BB/9 rate blows Ottavino and Diekman away, but he lets up way less hits (6.3 over the last 2 seasons). His HR/9 rate is about the same at 0.9. Look, I'm not saying I'd take DHern over Diekman, but lets not get carried away on this guy, just yet, anyway. Taylor has better numbers: 3.9 career BB/9 (4.3 in '21) 11.3 K rate (11.3 in '21) 1.329 WHIP (1.427 in '21) 0.8 HR/9 (0.4 in '21)

The guy walks 5 per 9- career and in 2021. If he's our best lefty pen arm, that's a tiny incremental gain.

I'm talking about going into the season as a top 4-6 contender, like we were in 2018. That's what you try to do every few years. The 2013's are the pipe dreams, as was our chances in 2021. Yes, miracles can happen, but I think building for a ring window of a few years is the way to plan. Right now, the plan is not to win it all in 2022. It wasn't in 2021, either, and the proof was when even after a great start, we did not do much at the deadline. Had we spent big, this winter, maybe we could have cracked the top 4-6, but I do not think the top brass sees this as "the time."

Also, looking ahead, the following players see their team control end after this season: Sale (opt out option) Bogey (opt out option) JD Eovaldi Kike Vaz JBJ ($8M option makes him leaving doubtful) Paxton Wacha Hill Strahm Plawecki (Not countign arb choices) The rebuild is far from over. The Devers choice is looming, if not already upon us.

I don't disagree, but looking at the roster, does it look like one finished rebuilding or in the midst of a normal overhaul of its 40 man roster? We've added 12 names to the 40 man roster since opening day 2021. The fact that we did so well, last year does not mean the rebuild was complete. Sure, we will be projected to win more games in 2022 than we were before the 2021 season, but we have a ways to go to get to top contender status, and looking at the players we added, this winter- almost all on 1 year deals- I'm not seeing signs Henry and Bloom feel like "this is the year," despite what we hoped would happen. No major signings. No major trades. Lost ERod and Ottavino, who despite struggling near the end of the season was one of our best RP'ers, last year. One can say Wacha/Hill/Paxton can replace Perez/Richards/Robles, in kind, but who replaces ERod & Ottavino? Our hope is a full year from Sale and Diekman/Strahm. Who replaces Schwarber/Iggy/Shaw? JBJ, Duran and more play from Arroyo? We are far from the promise land.