moonslav59

What a sad winter it would be, if we addressed our biggest need area by subtracting Sale and Paxton with Gio and Clevinger. It's not even a sure bet those two will outpitch Sale + Paxton in 2024. Adding Monty would be a surer bet on improvement, but he's 31. Unless the FO is fully committed to winning in 2024, I'd look to add a SP'er who will be improving in 2025 and beyond, not trending downwards.

I agree. It would take a perfect storm of so many things going right, that the odds are very long. To me, even adding Monty would not be enough to make us solid contenders. It might make us contenders for a WC slot, but we'd still need a lot to go right, and very little to go wrong. We'd need plus health, too.

It is important to have a solid base of players that are better than bad, or "mediocre" or better at every position and in depth, but you need to go for quality at enough positions to compete. A team that looks to improve at the 4/5 slots of a rotation will get nowhere, fast.

It's also not easy to flip a whole organization's pitching prospect scouting, developing and coaching staff, overnight.

I don't disagree, but I do think the Grissom addition could make a big difference on offense and defense. (Yes, he should be a step up on D from our putrid 2B D, last season.) Losing Turner and Duvall could hurt, a lot, but it will clear room for Duran, Rafaela and Abreu to get more time. That could be good or bad. Yes, lots of "coulds" on this team. To me, we needed to add 2-3 SP'ers and we added none. We just subbed Gio for Sale/Paxton (39 GS/200 IP in '23.)

Wrong. I love him in the pen. I've also said I'd be fine with him as our 4th or 5th starter (over Houck.) I think Pivetta has the best SP profile out of Pivetta, Houck, Crawford and Whitlock. My hope was we'd sign 3 SP'ers, so more of these guys would be in the pen- making the pen a top 5 pen in MLB, IMO. Adding 2 SP'ers would have been fine, but with Sale traded, it's just like adding one.

I agree. We also have some good secondary prospects to add to any package. Now, if teams are looking for pitching prospects, then we fall short. Adding Wikelman, Perales, Mata or Monegro is not going to wow many GMs, if any.

I'm not agreeing with the idea that the plan was to "free up budget space," so we could sign ______. BTW, we did "free up budget space" on three trades: Sale, Dugo and Urias, already.

Your big issue will be injuries, as always. 35 LeMahieu 34 Stanton, Rizzo, Kahnle 33 Cole 31 Judge, Rodon, Trevino Judge: since 2018, Judge has played over 112 games in just 2 of 6 seasons (2020: 28 out of 60.) His 3 worst seasons: 2020: 32/60 games missed 2019: 60/162 missed 2023: 56/162 missed Rodon: After starting 28 games in 2016, he's been a mess. GS/Possible GS 12/32 in '17 20/32 '18 7/32 '19 2/12 '20 24/32 '21 31/32 '22 (a pretty nice 2 year stretch of 55/64) 14/32 '23 Total: 110/204 (7 yrs) Stanton played 2 full seasons in '17 and '18, but only played more than 110 gmes, once since then (139 in '21) 18/162 in '19 23/60 '20 139/162 '21 110/162 '22 101/162 '23 Total: 391/708 (5 yrs) These three guys are pretty big keys to Yankee success.

I'd do it without Puk.

There were reports the Sox were looking at trading Yoshida to free up money for FA signing. If it meant we could sign someone like Monty, I can see the merit. If it frees up enough to sign Paxton, then no.

Ahhh. Yes. What I find interesting is that after Hinojosa, Espinoza and Acosta (all pitchers) were chosen from 2014 to 2014, hardly any were taken with big bonuses. (None for over $750K.

Huh?

I read somewhere they might take Yoshida, if we paid a ton. They would not want to pay for Jansen. We'd have to pay a lot of money to get them to take both Yoshi and Jansen. That goes against the idea of us trading Jansen and Yoshi, but I get your idea. If we could get a SP'er by doing this, it might be worth it. BTV accepted this wild trade: Yoshida (+$50M) Jansen Houck Rafaela Mata for Garrett (5 yrs) AJ Puk (3 yrs)

I wonder what offers were discussed for Yoshida and how much we were expected to pay/save. (Jansen, too.)

Well, at least some of his guys helped DD trade for some studs. Ben's picks... 2012 24 Marrero 31 B Johnson 37 P Light 87 Callahan 151 Buttrey (Could not sign Alex Bregman or Carson Fulmer) 2013 7 T Ball (His worst pick) 43 Stanki 81 Denny Later (traded): Dubon, Asuage, Longhi 2014 26 Chavis 33 Kopech (part of Sale trade) 67 Travis Later: Beeks (traded for Nate) 2015 7 Beni 81 Rei Later (traded): Lakins, Allen IFA Devers Moncada (Sale) Espinoza (Pom Pom) Rusney Castillo Acosta (Part of Kimbrel trade) Mata DHern Trades for prospect: ERod

Not to take away from Theo, but in those days, we were able to stockpile comp picks and sign "unsignable draftees" to much more money than those drafting ahead of us. The system is harder to milk, these days. Comp picks: 2005: Ellsbury, Buchholz, Lowrie, Hansen, Bowden 2006: Bard 2010: Workman, Ranaudo 2011: JBJ, Barnes, Swihart, Owens 2012: Brian Johnson & Pat Light Under Ben 2014: Kopech

Bell is saying he thinks we should have added Gray or others. He is saying he is not fine with people that are okay on us not signing any of the guys he wanted. How is that being a FO apologist?

I wonder where they have others. My guess is, we are between 12th and 14th in spending on everyone's list.

SPOTRAC 2024 Lux Tax Budgets 299 NYM 295 NYY 292 LAD 268 ATL 238 PHI 226 HOU 215 TEX 204 TOR 197 SDP 190 CHC 185 STL 181 SFG 176 BOS #13 164 AZ 152 LAA 146 COL 137 MIN 135 SEA 121 MIL 118 KCR 118 CLE 115 CWS 114 WSH 110 TBR 100 CIN 99 DET 81 MIA 80 PIT 79 BAL 42 OAK

The 2024 Roster Additions: SP Giolito OF O'Neill 2B Grissom RP Slaten SP/RP Fitts (AAA) RP Campbell (AAA) RP Weissert (AAA) SP Max Castillo (AAA) RP Criswell (AAA) RP W Mills (AAA) RP Judice (low minors) RP Jorge Benitez & Helcris Olivares (MilB FA in AA) In system moves: Mata is out of options Wikelman & Perales added to 40 to avoid Rule 5.

One could argue the farm started declining during Theo's last years, and he also traded away some top prospects, along the way, like Kelly and Rizzo. The farm Ben inherited was not bad, and it had a few surprises outside the top 3 (Bogey #4) and top 10 (#14 Doubront, #15 Alex Wilson), and Betts, but it did not look all that great, at the time: SEPT 2011 1. Middy 2. Kalish 3. Ranaudo 4. Bogey 5. Iggy 6. Lavarnway 7. Barnes 8. Brentz 9. Jacobs 10. Swihart 11. Coyle 12. Cecchini 13. Weiland 16. Britton 17. Vitek 18. Head 19. Pimental 20. Tejada On DD's drafts: he rarely had top picks and did well with some picks: 2016 12 Groome was his highest slot with the Sox 51 Chtam 88 S Anderson 118 Dalbec 148 Shawaryn 178 Nogosek 298 Espinal 2017 24 Houck 63 Cole Brannen 491 Crawford 2018 26 Casas 64 Decker 160 T Ward 220 Duran 2019 43 (2nd rd) C Cannon 69 M Lugo 107 Zeferjahn 137 Noah Song 197 Murphy 317 S Scott 797 Walter IFA Bello '18 Rafaela '17 Perales '19 Mata '16 Castro '19 Paulino '18 Bastardo '18 Flores '17 RIP

I like your list, too. I think Lugo would have been a good gamble at $15M x 3. The better than nothing category: Stroman $18.5M x 2 M Wacha $16M x 2 Maybe Montas at $14M x 1 (I might prefer Paxton at $10M x 1)

Fair enough. I was thinking they will not bring back much and have a better chance at improving their current trade value in 2024 than what we'd get for them, now. As demanded throw-ins to a trade that nets us a solid SP'er with 4+ years of control, sure. I like Abreu more than his current BTV value has him.

He did choose well on who to keep and who to trade. I'm not sure how much was being "astute," but GM are always bashed in hindsight, so it make sense to praise them when things work out well, in hindsight, too. The sheer number of top or once top prospects trades was astounding, but I've never felt he "emptied the farm" or left it "barren." I loved DD and had no issues with the choices he made to sacrifice some of the extended future for a nice 3 year window (that coulda-shoulda been longer.) The fact that we went from the Devers call-up in 2017 to the Casas and Bello call-ups in '22 & '23 with no noteworthy farm infusion beyond Houck has to fall, at least partially, on DD's shoulders. That being said, he did keep and or add: Devers, ERod, Bello, Casas, Houck, Crawford, Rafaela, Beni and Mata, Wikelman, Perales, Murphy & Walter (a large chunk of our best pitching prospects.) Traded prospects (w top SP's ranking) 1. Moncada, Swihart 3. Espinoza, Margot 5. Kopech, Beeks, RanaudoCecchini 6. Guerra, Brentz 8. Basabe, Chatham 9. Dubon, Lakins 12. W Rijos, Marrero 13. Logan Allen 15. Light, Longhi 17. S Anderson, Buttrey, Jerez 18, The other Basabe 19. Acosta 20, Nogosek Espinal, Gregory Santos, Aro, Asuage, G Bautista, Callahan, Pennington, TShaw (not a prospect, when traded) Note: I am not trying to inflate the value of these guys traded away. Many were traded after they dropped out of the top 10 or 20. My point was to show the numbers of prospects traded away.