Originally Posted by
jacksonianmarch
With the Astros taking the big lead in game 4 and now staring Verlander, Cole and someone else in the face with 2 of the 3 in Houston, it is fair to say this series isn't looking good. Not willing to say it is entirely over, but enough for me to post this thread.
First order of business. Gut the entire strength and conditioning team. Then gut the medical team. Hell, Stevie Donahue gets the heave-ho too. The amount of injuries and delays in returning were incomprehensible. This was more than just shit luck. This was a conspiracy of bumbling buffoons. All of them go.
The current Yankees roster construction needs to be put into question. We kill the ball all season, then get to the POs and we cannot hit. This has happened 3 years in a row. We seemed to address this with the addition of Lemahieu and seeing some serious strides with Gleyber and Judge. But when you're relying on 3 guys in a lineup of 9 and the other 6 are literally killing your team, a change is needed. We added Stanton two years ago and while he is an upgrade, his health issues this year raise the most important question of, why the ever-living fuck are we playing with only 24 guys for the hope he is ready for the world series? Lots of questions. No real good answers. But the biggest question as roster construction goes is, why do we continue to fall short with the starting pitching. Yes, we went out and got Paxton. He was good, but he wasn't an ace beforehand, he isn't an ace now. His injury issues cropped up again and he is clearly hurt right now (dealt with sciatica to end the regular season campaign). Sevy battled back from injury, but he's a 4 inning pitcher this season. I expect more next year. German beat his girlfriend, otherwise he'd be our 4th starter in the POs. We have a lot of potential in the rotation, but potential only gets you so far. We need a lock down ace. Lots of people on here killed Cashman for not getting Corbin. Corbin was very good for the Nats this year, but his 7+ ERA in the playoffs this year doesn't make him look like a savior either. People killed him for not getting Greinke, but Greinke isn't a post season ace either and he had a no trade with NYY, so we couldn't get him. Where we really fell off the map was not getting Scherzer when he was available. For not getting in on a real, top tier ace. Well, that time has come. Cole and Strasburg will hit the open market. Both are aces. Both are dominant with the chips on the line. We need to get one of them. No question, no jumping out of the way of this. One of them must be on our roster come 2020. How feasible is that financially?
Well, if Chapman opts out and we keep the entire team intact (unlikely), we will have $192 mil on the books (this includes the arb predictions from mlbtraderumors). We would need to find a way to re-up Chapman. No other big time closers are on the list. While I doubt Chap gets $18 mil AAV on the open market, I do think he can get more years. Maybe we tack on 2 yrs and $28 mil onto his current deal and make it a 4 yr $64 mil deal and call it a day. Drop his AAV to $16 mil and leave us right at the first lux tax limit. This would leave us with $40 mil to play with. I move all my chips to the center and use as much of the $40 mil as I need to get Cole. 8 year $260 mil deal? Sign me up. We cannot be outbid. Cole is a strange cat, though. This is the same guy who professed his love for the Yankees enough for them to draft him in the 1st round only for him to say he was going to school. He is a SoCal guy and the Angels need an ace. Do they make the commitment? Who knows. But we need to be the top dollar offer. If he takes another deal for other reasons, then we cannot do anything about that. Then you turn your attention to Strasburg. His long term deal would be shorter because of the injury history, but he has the better playoff history. Fine, one of them must be leading our rotation for 2020. No questions asked.
Then we need to address some of our depth. We let EE walk (TB is actually paying his opt out). Didi, good luck in FA. Brett, great knowing you. We will see JMont return. We will see Andujar return. German will eventually be reinstated. Depth on the team will abound. If we bring back Chappy and sign an ace and bring back everyone else under contract, this would be the club
C- Sanchez, Higashioka
1B- Voit, Ford
2B- Lemahieu, Estrada
SS- Torres, Wade
3B- Andujar, Urshela
LF- Tauchman, Frazier
CF- Hicks
RF- Judge
DH- Stanton
SP1- Cole or Strasburg
SP2- Severino
SP3- Tanaka
SP4- Paxton
SP5- German, Montgomery, Loaisiga
CL- Chapman
SU- Britton
SU- Ottavino
SU- Kahnle
SU- Green
RP- Cessa, et al
Depth will not be a problem for another season, but it might be time to cash in on some of it. Do we package some of these guys together and get another ace. Do we package some of these guys together and get another hitter like Lemahieu. Do we make a drastic deal and send out Sanchez and re-sign Romine. Lots of moving parts here. Lots of options. But going into the season, the three biggest things in order are
1. Sign an ace
2. Fire entire strength, conditioning, medical staff
3. Re-sign Chapman
That's the start. Hopefully, the offseason can be fended off for a bit, but it isn't looking good at this point. The Astros are just a better team at this juncture