January 21st, 2022: Future of Management, Top 100 Prospects, Mailbag

Masahiro Tanaka signed with the Yankees eight years ago tomorrow. That was a pretty fun day. I miss that guy. I miss baseball in general. Every year around this time I start getting the Spring Training itch and I felt it the other day, but alas, no baseball in sight. Maybe in a few weeks. Here are today’s thoughts.

1. The future at each position: management. These last two weeks we’ve used the lockout to evaluate the future of the Yankees at each position. Here are the infielders, outfielders, and pitching staff. Today we’ll wrap up the series with management, a group that is much more difficult to evaluate because they don’t have batting averages or ERAs. Let’s do our best. Sound good? Let’s dive in.

Manager & Coaches

Aaron Boone’s contract expired after last season and the Yankees could have neatly moved on and hired someone else, but instead they looked at the last four seasons and said yep, we want more of that, so they signed Boone to a new three-year deal. That’s an oversimplification … but also kinda true? If they weren’t happy with the last four years, they’d have a new manager.

Boone is the first manager in franchise history to not win a World Series within his first four seasons and be welcomed back for a fifth. Obviously times have changed. It was much easier to win a World Series back in the day, when there were fewer teams and the reserve clause and no draft. Also, the Yankees have a much greater tolerance for falling short than they once did.

Here’s the thing though: I don’t think the new three-year contract means Boone is bulletproof. I say that because Brian Cashman’s contract expires next offseason (more on that in a bit) and a new head baseball operations executive could bring in his own manager, and also because the Yankees have already overhauled Boone’s coaching staff. Look at the 2018 staff:

• Bench coach: Josh Bard (left after 2019)
• Hitting coach: Marcus Thames (fired after 2021)
• Assistant hitting coach: P.J. Pilittere (fired after 2021)
• Pitching coach: Larry Rothschild (fired after 2019)
• First base coach: Reggie Willits (left after 2021)
• Third base coach: Phil Nevin (fired after 2021)
• Bullpen coach: Mike Harkey (remains)
• Catching coach: Jason Brown (fired after 2019)
• Quality control coach: Carlos Mendoza (remains, moved to bench coach after 2019)

Other than Harkey and Mendoza, the coaching staff that was hand-picked for Boone’s inaugural season four years ago is gone. Bard and Willits left on their own to be closer to home, and everyone else was let go (fired or not brought back when their contract expired) because the Yankees determined there was a better person for the job.

With all due respect to Harkey’s bullpen coach duties, there has been a change at every major coaching position within the last 27 months. The Yankees approve of the job Boone is doing but did not approve of his coaches. How many managers survive multiple coaching staffs? Does Boone get to stick around for another pitching coach and another hitting coach without winning something?

When the Yankees hired Boone, Cashman stressed they wanted a manager with “the ability to fully engage, communicate, and connect with the playing personnel,” particularly young players. It’s fair to say Boone has failed at that seeing how nearly every young player he inherited (except Aaron Judge) has gone backwards. Whatever ability he has to “fully engage, communicate, and connect” with players has not translated to on-field performance, and his managerial moves are unremarkable. Boone strikes me as eminently replaceable.

Blame usually starts at the bottom. When things don’t go as planned the coaches are replaced first, then the manager, then the general manager. Boone is on his second coaching staff now, and if this doesn’t work, the order of operations say he is next in the crosshairs. Boone has a new three-year contract, but I wouldn’t mistake that for three years of unquestioned job security.

As for the coaches, I don’t have much to say other than I believe new hitting coach Dillon Lawson and new assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel were elevated in part to keep them in the organization. They previously headed up player development and the Yankees had such a good year in the minors last year that I have to think other teams wanted them. Promoting Lawson and Druschel to the big league staff may have kept them around.

Post-2022 outlook: The new contract says Boone is safe. Another disappointing season and/or a change at the general manager level would put him on the hot seat, at least in theory. Just know Boone is very popular in the organization. Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner love him and they’re the only ones that matter right now. Boone is not untouchable, though he seems fairly safe to me.

At this point I would expect the 2023 coaching staff to look like the 2022 coaching staff, with any changes likely to come via coaches leaving for promotions (i.e. Mendoza becoming a manager, Druschel becoming a main pitching coach, etc.) rather than the Yankees firing them. For better or worse, this is Boone’s staff. And if the team continues to fall short, the blame is going to begin to shift to the manager. One coaching staff has already fallen on the sword.

Front Office

Cashman is entering the final year of his contract and he has been fiercely loyal to the Yankees, the only employer he’s had in his adult life, but he’s also not an idiot. He signed four consecutive three-year contracts before leveraging the team’s 2017 breakout into a five-year contract. And when his deal is up, he will happily use Steve Cohen and the president of baseball operations job the Mets have been unable to fill as leverage against the Yankees. Cashman is sneaky ruthless.

“No. I’m not even thinking that way,” Hal Steinbrenner told Ken Davidoff in November when asked whether 2022 is a make or break year for Cashman. “... When a contract’s up, a contract’s up. If I made a decision now, I’d have less information, less data. It doesn’t matter who we’re talking about. One less year of performance to analyze when I’m trying to make a decision. It’s just illogical to me. But that’s the way I am.”

There is plenty of valid criticism to be directed Cashman’s way. I won’t say his front office leans too heavily on analytics (information is good!), but I think they’ve lost sight of some other things, like feel for the game and instincts, the importance of lineup balance (i.e. lefty/righty, strikeouts vs. contact), etc. The Yankees have also been burned by their reluctance to trade top prospects (Clint Frazier, most notably). There’s been an air of complacency over the organization. They had this exciting core five years ago but never put their foot on the gas and really went for it.

Cashman has two assistant general managers (legal and contracts guru Jean Afterman and analytics department head Mike Fishman) and two trusted lieutenants (vice president of baseball operations Tim Naehring and special assistant Jim Hendry). Other front office names to know include random Yankee Matt Daley and Dan Giese (co-directors of pro scouting) and Kevin Reese (senior director of player development). There are countless others behind the scenes.

Should the Yankees move on from Cashman next offseason, I’m not sure they have an obvious successor. Hendry was the Cubs general manager from 2002-11, so he’s certainly experienced in that role. Daley, Giese, and Naehring are all fairly new to high level front office jobs. That doesn’t disqualify them from the general manager’s job, not these days, but I’m not sure the Yankees have a Billy Eppler circa 2011-15, that no doubt future general manager prospect.

Like I said, Cashman is no idiot, and not having a clear successor could be by design. It makes him that much more valuable and difficult to replace. My guess is, if the Yankees and Cashman do part ways after the season, Steinbrenner would do what every team tries to do and hire a young executive away from the Brewers, Guardians, or Rays. Young executives are cheap* and easy to control, and those teams have had success with small payrolls. There is nothing – nothing – Hal wants more than success with a small payroll. (Of course, success is defined differently for the Yankees than it is those teams.)

* Do you think it’s a coincidence the Yankees replaced Joe Girardi, at the time one of the highest paid managers in baseball, with a rookie manager making under $1M? Why wouldn’t we expect a similar approach when it comes time to replace Cashman?

Cashman has been the general manager since 1998 and he was the assistant general manager the six years prior to that. He’s been at this a very long time and his teams are never truly bad* – a bad year for the Yankees is 84 wins and a disappointing year is 92 wins and a Wild Card Game berth – and I think there is value to having that track record and experience in this market. Running the Yankees is unlike running any other team. It ain’t for the faint-hearted.

* Large payrolls certainly help, but if money automatically equaled wins, the Angels and Mariners and Phillies wouldn’t have three of the longest postseason droughts in the sport.

That said, I feel like I’m at the point now with Cashman where I was at the end of Derek Jeter’s career. I fully understand and appreciate the greatness and historical significance, but I’m also ready for someone else, know what I mean? This is definitely a “be careful what you wish for” situation, because many good general manager candidates have gone on to be bad general managers (like Eppler). I can picture Cashman when the Yankees win 82 games with a Rays yuppie running the show in 2023:

I’ve been writing about promoting Cashman to a president role and hiring a new general manager to run the day-to-day operations since 2012. 2012! And Cashman’s still the general manager! Incredible. Keeping Cashman around as a big picture guy who is the public face of the front office while someone else handles the grunt work makes sense to me as an outsider. Does it make sense in the real world? I haven’t the slightest idea.

Post-2022 outlook: I think there are three possible reasons Cashman and the Yankees would not reunite after the coming season (in no particular order):

1. The Yankees have a disaster season (like 70 wins) and standing pat is not an option.
2. Cohen and Mets blow Cashman away with a godfather offer he can’t refuse.
3. Cashman feels burnt out and wants to step away.

Letting Cashman leave after the season and replacing him with a cheaper general manager just for the sake of cutting costs is a thing that could happen, but I don’t expect it. After the Yankees eagerly brought Boone back despite four consecutive postseason pantsings, I have a hard time believing Cashman would be let go for non-disaster season performance reasons.

So, I expect Cashman to return next year, and if he doesn’t, the Yankees appear to have little choice but to bring in an outsider to replace him. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing, necessarily. I think the Yankees could use a fresh set of eyes and new ideas. My perfect world scenario is elevating Cashman and bringing in a new day-to-day person. I think the chances it happens are small. Steinbrenner’s given us little reason to think Cashman is any kinda jeopardy.

As for the rest of the front office, it’s hard to have an opinion about those folks, though amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer seems to have hit his expiration date. He’s been at it over 15 years now, and even understanding that the Yankees always pick late in the first round and don’t get a chance at premium talent, his first round picks have been really lacking. The later rounds are great! But the Yankees must start hitting on more first round picks.

Ownership

I am of the opinion that every MLB owner sucks, and Hal Steinbrenner sucks less than most. He hasn’t ordered, say, a Mookie Betts trade to meet his payroll requirements, but he also refuses to run a payroll commensurate with the Yankees market and revenue. Do I need to list the numbers again? I’m going to list the numbers again:

Yankees payroll in 2005: $207.1M
MLB average payroll in 2005: $73.1M

Yankees payroll in 2021: $207.6M
MLB average payroll in 2021: $130.8M

I see two possible explanations for that. Either the Yankees suck at business and haven’t been able to increase revenue despite opening a new ballpark and owning the mother of all regional sports networks, or the top priority is maximizing profits, not fielding the best possible team. It’s obviously the latter. The Yankees are bad at many things, but making money isn’t one of them.

Hal is on the seven-person committee that crafts MLB’s labor policy and he admitted to voting in favor of lowering the luxury tax threshold, something that very obviously goes against his team’s best interests. It doesn’t go against the Steinbrenner family’s best interests, however. Hal wants to further rig the system to redirect dollars away from players, and into ownership’s pockets.

You may remember Hal was initially reluctant to take over the Yankees. Hank was the control person at first, then was sidelined when he bid against himself to re-sign Alex Rodriguez. At that point the more pragmatic Steinbro took over, and it seems like Hal decided if he’s stuck doing something he doesn’t really want to do, then he’s at least going to milk it for all he can.

The Yankees consistently run one of the highest payrolls in the sport and by all accounts they have one of, if not the largest scouting and analytical staffs in the game. That’s great. It also should be expected, and is not something that should earn Hal & Co. a big pat on the back. They’re the Yankees. They’re supposed to have the biggest and best everything.

Hal’s go-to statement is saying he expects to field a “championship-caliber” team every year, and that means one of three things. Either he thinks we’re all idiots who can’t see what’s right in front of us, he’s delusional and thinks his team is better than it is, or “championship-caliber” to him means being good enough to get to the postseason each year, and hoping you run into a title now and then. I think it’s a combination of all three.

Moreso than replacing Cashman, the Steinbrenners selling the team is a “be careful what you wish for” situation. You can always replace bad players or a bad manager or a bad general manager. A bad owner though? There’s no firing them. You’re stuck with them until they decide they don’t want to be stuck with you. Hal is cheap and I wish he’d spend more on players. Do I wish he’d sell the team? Ehhh. I’m not ready to say that. It could definitely be worse. A lot worse.

Steve Cohen paid $2.475 billion for the Mets, which means the Yankees are worth what, at least $3 billion, right? Probably more. The Yankees and Mets share a city and that’s it. The Yankees are the most popular and most recognizable sports brand in the world. Walk around with a blue and orange interlocking NY hat and someone who doesn’t know baseball would guess it’s a Yankees hat before a Mets hat. That brand recognition is insanely valuable.

Sell the team for $3-plus billion and you’re likely looking at an ownership group, not one single cartoonishly rich owner like Cohen. And when you have an ownership group, you have a lot of investors, and investors want a return on their investment. They won’t all be cool with taking, say, 5% less just for the sake of fielding a better team. Baseball needs more owners who were bad at baseball as kids and live out their athletic dreams by owning a team, know what I mean? It's a pure money-making venture for most.

Post-2022 outlook: The Steinbrenners aren’t selling the Yankees. However profitable you think owning the Yankees is, it’s probably even more profitable than that. Owning the Yankees is way too good a racket. Hal is only 52. He has many more years of sucking at the pinstriped teat ahead of him before selling and really cashing in, or handing the Yankees off to the next generation of Steinbrenners. My guess is the Yankees will stay in the family long after we’re all gone.

I wish Hal spent more money on player payroll, and until he does, he should be called out on his budget-hawk nonsense. And when he does spend more on players, we should ask why he isn't spending even more than that. When your brand is built on winning and you flaunt your 27 titles every chance you get, you don’t get to wonder why fans aren’t satisfied. The Steinbrenners aren’t going anywhere. Things could definitely be worse. They could also be a lot better too.

2. BA’s and BP’s top 100 prospects. It’s top 100 prospects season and earlier this week Baseball America (subs. req’d) and Baseball Prospectus (no subs. req’d) released their lists. Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez, Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, and Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. are the top three on each list, though not necessarily in that order.

Three Yankees made each list. The rankings are all over social media, so I can give them away here without feeling guilty:

Baseball America
10. SS Anthony Volpe
55. SS Oswald Peraza
87. OF Jasson Dominguez

Baseball Prospectus
14. SS Anthony Volpe
61. SS Oswald Peraza
90. RHP Randy Vasquez

Neither site included any Yankees among their just misses, though Baseball Prospectus (subs. req’d) had OF Everson Pereira and SS Alex Vargas as candidates to jump into next year’s top 100 list. FanGraphs and Keith Law will release their top 100s in the coming weeks. I assume MLB.com’s is on hold until after the lockout since the list will include a few 40-man roster guys, and they're not creating any new 40-man player content.

I have two thoughts on the BA and BP lists. First, I see Dominguez is already on his way to being a Gary Sanchez type of prospect, where the evaluation on him seems to change seemingly by the month because he was a very high profile international signing and is so under the microscope. Gary’s ranks on BA’s top 100 lists, for reference:

• 2011: No. 30
• 2012: No. 81
• 2013: No. 57
• 2014: No. 35
• 2015: Unranked!
• 2016: No. 36

I mean come on. I get it, we need new prospect rankings every year (every few months, really) and our increasingly short attention spans and need for instant gratification aren’t conducive to taking a big picture approach with prospects, but Dominguez going from No. 33 on BA’s list and No. 59 on BP’s list last year to No. 87 and unranked this year seems a little crazy.

The facts: Dominguez lost 2020 to the pandemic and was still the youngest position player in full season ball when he made his pro debut in 2021. He hit .258/.346/.398 with a 31% strikeout rate and a 50% ground ball rate in a league where the average player hit .236/.344/.370 with 26% strikeouts and 45% ground balls. And again, he was literally the youngest hitter in baseball outside rookie ball.

Also, the further you get away from the big leagues, the less performance matters and the more the scouting report matters. Dominguez was billed as a powerful switch-hitter with, in the words of BP, “swings (that) are very aesthetically pleasing to watch.” This season Dominguez recorded the third highest max exit velocity on public record for a teenager:

1. Jordan Walker, Cardinals: 116.2 mph in Low-A in 2021 (No. 24 on BA’s top 100)
2. Juan Soto, Nationals: 113.7 mph in MLB in 2018
3. Jasson Dominguez, Yankees: 111.7 mph in Low-A in 2021

Good gravy is Soto ridiculous. Anyway, we don’t have Statcast for every minor league, but there aren’t many teenagers playing in full season ball anyway, and even fewer are hitting the ball as hard as Dominguez. He showed the hard-hit ability, his arm is a cannon, and he’s still said to be a plus runner despite bulking up. What did we learn this year? That he’d never faced high level pitching before and may need time to adjust? That was always the book.

So what gives? We putting that much stuck into 214 Low-A plate appearances, which weren’t even bad (especially once you consider Dominguez’s age relative to his competition), to drop him 50+ spots on a top 100 list? I guess so. The initial scouting reports could be overblown and the rankings correction in the other direction the following year can be overblown too. Both things can be true.

Ultimately, the rankings are whatever. They’re just a snapshot and don’t determine how a prospect develops. Some of the first words I ever wrote about Dominguez were “the scouting reports sound too good to be true,” and they were. He’s clearly not a generational talent like Vlad Guerrero Jr. Those guys pop early and leave no doubt about their ability. That doesn’t mean Dominguez is Jesus Montero either. I look forward to Dominguez being top 25 next year and No. 80 the year after that. Eh, whatever.

And second, Volpe has a chance to be the No. 1 prospect in baseball next year. I’ll take the field over any one player, but he’s already a top 10-ish prospect, and quite a few guys ranked ahead of him will likely graduate in 2022. That includes Rutschman, Rodriguez, Witt, Tigers outfielder Riley Greene and infielder Spencer Torkelson, and Rays righty Shane Baz.

Volpe has to do what he did in 2021 again in 2022 to have a chance at the No. 1 spot, and he’ll have to do it while making the jump to Double-A (research has shown the jump from Triple-A to MLB is the biggest, then it’s High-A to Double-A). It won’t be easy but it is doable. He’s already a scout’s favorite. That’s half the battle. Continue to perform and the No. 1 spot is Volpe’s for the taking.

As things stand, Volpe is the highest ranking Yankees prospect on BA’s and BP’s lists since Gleyber Torres in 2018. BA had him No. 6 and BP had him No. 3. The Yankees have had BA’s No. 1 prospect once: Brien Taylor in 1992. They’ve had the No. 2 prospect twice (Taylor in 1992 and Ruben Rivera in 1994). Volpe has a chance to join them next year. It’s within reach.

3. Rapid fire thoughts. Andrew Marchand reports the YES Network is considering Carlos Beltran, Jeff Nelson, and random Yankee Cameron Maybin for an analyst gig. They also might increase John Flaherty’s workload, but not Paul O’Neill’s. O’Neill will stay on the same schedule. Ken Singleton retired and David Cone will do fewer games after taking ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball job, so YES has a few broadcasts to fill. I don’t remember anything from Nelson’s occasional appearances over the years, but I’m guessing I would have remembered if he was great or horrible, so he was probably somewhere in the middle (I remember Tino Martinez being pretty bad). Maybin is very funny. That doesn’t mean he would be good in the booth, but funny is a good starting point. Beltran is very knowledgeable about baseball and my guess is we’d learn a ton when he’s in the booth. Anyway, nothing official yet. These are just the names (a few of the names?) the YES Network is considering … The Rays’ ridiculous two-city Tampa/Montreal plan is dead. MLB nixed it. At no point was it realistic. I assumed the plan was to wait until one city blinked and offered to house the team full-time, so I’m kinda surprised MLB put an end to it. Anyway, Rays owner Stu Sternberg basically said “we’ll see” when asked where the team will go from here. Their lease at Tropicana Field expires after 2027 and they’ve already made two failed attempts at securing a new ballpark site in Tampa itself (not St. Petersburg). The A’s Howard Terminal plan is slowly moving forward, and if they get that figured out, I imagine the “Rays to Las Vegas” rumors will pick up. 53 combined seasons of Marlins and Rays baseball leaves me unconvinced Major League Baseball can work in Florida, which is a shame. I’m not sure what the next step is for the Rays, but we’ll find out soon enough … MLB posted a job listing that all but confirms the automated strike zone is coming to “select Spring Training venues in Florida” and Triple-A next year. It’s Triple-A West though, not Triple-A East, where the RailRiders play. MLB tested the automatic strike zone in Low-A Southeast and the independent Atlantic League last year, and now they’re moving it up the ladder, so much so that big leaguers (or at least fringe big leaguers) will play with it in camp and in Triple-A. I’m not sure how far away robot umpires are from being fully implemented in the big leagues (seems it’s still a few years away, right? one Triple-A league and select Grapefruit League parks can’t be enough testing to nail this down) but they’re getting closer … And finally, Greg Maddux recently said he intended to sign with the Yankees in 1992, but someone in the front office had a heart attack, and they never made him a contract offer. A few years ago Maddux said he wanted to stay in the National League and go to a team with a chance to win, so either his memory is a little foggy or he’s changing his story. As a reminder, Maddux became a free agent at 26, and he was coming off a Cy Young season in which he threw 268 innings with a 2.18 ERA (2.58 FIP). He was as good as it gets. Everyone involved (Maddux, Scott Boras, Gene Michael, etc.) has acknowledged the Yankees offered the most money. Perhaps everything happened in an order that makes it all true (Maddux wanted to stay in the NL, then the Yankees offered more money and he changed his mind, but he never got an official offer, etc.) and it was the pre-cell phone era, but who really knows. I mean, players agree to terms without receiving an official offer all the time. They don’t need a piece of paper in front of them to say yes. Well, anyway, Maddux went to the Braves and David Cone went to the Royals that offseason, and the Yankees pivoted to Jimmy Key. Four years later Key beat Maddux in Game 6 to clinch the 1996 World Series. It all worked out in the end.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Bill asks: I'm curious if you could find a way to show us how many flyball outs last season the Yanks hit in Camden that would now be homers. Thanks!

The Orioles moved the left field wall back, so it’s home runs that would become fly outs, not fly outs that would become home runs. The Yankees only (“only”) hit 20 home runs in Camden Yards last year (they hit 43 there in 2019), and only 12 of those 20 were hit to left field. Here are those 20 home runs:

Based on the spray chart, there was nothing particularly close to the left field wall except that one home run in the corner, and the foul pole isn’t moving. It’s still 333 down the line. The O’s moved the wall back as much as 30 feet in some places though, and Camden Yards now has the biggest straight away left field in the game.

PNC Park in Pittsburgh had the previous biggest straight away left field and, similar to the new Camden Yards dimensions, it juts back from the foul pole then has a weird triangle near the bullpens. Here are the Yankees’ 2021 Camden Yards home runs overlaid on PNC Park:

A few of those homers that look like clear home runs at Camden Yards are suddenly borderline, and remember, the new left field at Camden Yards is even further back than it is at PNC Park. Maybe those home runs don’t all turn into fly outs (they could bang off the new 12-foot wall for doubles or triples), but yeah, the new dimensions will undoubtedly turn a few homers into outs.

The flip side of this is Yankees pitchers will give up fewer homers in Camden Yards too, particularly the lefties like Jordan Montgomery and Nestor Cortes (Ryan Mountcastle can't be happy, huh? righty power is pretty much his only tool). Here are all eight home runs the Yankees gave up in Camden Yards in 2021:

Couple bombs to left field there. Not sure the new dimensions would have helped much. And of course, this isn’t any sort of analysis. Not unless the Yankees hit and allow identical batted balls again next year, these spray charts don’t matter. We’re just looking at these to guesstimate how the new dimensions would have changed things last year.

The Yankees only play 9-10 games a year in Baltimore, so it will only be a handful of fly balls to the left field that are impacted. That said, one homer can have an enormous impact in a single game! It’s a guaranteed run(s) and can change how each team uses its bullpen, which impacts availability the next day, so on and so forth. This is one of those things where, across the full 162-game season, it’ll even out, but in one game, it can be a massive swing.

Julian asks: I know finding our starting shortstop is the priority, but with the likes of Wade, Velazquez, Kyle Holder and others gone, who will be our backup shortstop? Will they really roll with Urshela and Torres? Someone who came to mind was Oswaldo Cabrera, who hit 29 HRs and stole 21 bases last year in the minors and will only be 23 next season.

The Yankees signed Jose Peraza to a minor league deal a few weeks ago, though he hasn’t played much shortstop the last few years (238 innings since 2018). I’m sure he could do it for a week or two in case of an injury, and opening a 40-man roster spot is never as difficult as it seems. There’s always maneuverability.

My guess is the Yankees are comfortable with Gio Urshela as the backup shortstop and Gleyber Torres as the emergency shortstop. They’re cool with using Gio there for a few innings or a spot start, and maybe even for a week if there’s an injury. I think the shortstop depth chart will look like this come Opening Day:

1. Shortstop yet to be acquired
2. Gio Urshela as the backup
3. Gleyber Torres as the emergency guy
4. Jose Peraza as the “ugh we have to call someone up” guy
5. Oswald Peraza as the “please force the issue” prospect
6. Oswaldo Cabrera as the “oh crap, we’re really out of options” guy

If the injuries/poor performance pile up to the point where the Yankees are looking at the older Peraza as a starter, or are considering rushing the younger Peraza, then they’ll probably go outside the organization, similar to the Cameron Maybin trade when they were short on outfielders. There’s a point where you just have to go get someone.

I was a bit surprised the Yankees dumped Tyler Wade and Andrew Velazquez so early in the offseason. They’re legitimate shortstops and you could always get rid of them later. I thought the Yankees would keep at least one of those two around until they acquired a new shortstop (they have an open 40-man spot right now). Then again, those two shouldn’t be that hard to replace.

We’ll see what the Yankees do at shortstop after the lockout. My hunch is they’re comfortable leaning on Urshela as the backup, okay with Torres as an emergency option, and are counting a little too much on (Oswald) Peraza to contribute at some point, kinda like they count on Estevan Florial a little too much.

Paul asks: With Brett Gardner, at least for now, not a Yankee, who is the longest tenured Yankee currently?

We’ll look at this two different ways. First, here are the players who have been in the organization the longest. This is not necessarily when they were added to the big league roster. This is when they joined the organization, even if they originally joined as a minor leaguer (continuous tenure only, leaving and coming back resets the clock):

1. Kyle Higashioka: July 21st, 2008 (signed as 2008 seventh round pick)
2. Gary Sanchez: July 2nd, 2009 (international free agency)
3. Miguel Andujar: July 2nd, 2011 (international free agency)
4. Luis Severino: Dec. 26th, 2011 (international free agency)
5. Aaron Judge: July 12th, 2013 (signed as 2013 supplemental first round pick)

Had he not been traded, Tyler Wade would have slotted in as No. 5 on that list. He signed one month before Judge as the team’s fourth round pick in 2013. Judge did not sign until the deadline. The Yankees signed all their other picks and shoveled their remaining pool money in front of him to get it done. Judge received a $1.8M bonus (slotted for $1.68M).

No. 6 on that list is Jordan Montgomery, who signed on June 16th, 2014, as the team’s fourth round pick that year. After Montgomery, would you believe it’s Wilkerman Garcia? The Yankees re-signed him as a minor league free agent a few weeks ago, and he originally joined the organization as part of the ill-fated 2014-15 international signing class that July 2nd.

Now here are the players who have been on the MLB roster the longest. This is the date these players joined the big league roster for good (I’m not dinging them for injured list stints and minor league rehab assignments):

1. Aaron Hicks: April 5th, 2016 (Opening Day 2016)
2. Gary Sanchez: Aug. 3rd, 2016
3. Aaron Judge: Aug. 13th, 2016
4. Luis Severino: Sept. 2nd, 2016
5. Aroldis Chapman: April 2nd, 2017 (Opening Day 2017)

Giancarlo Stanton is No. 6 on that list. He made his Yankees debut on Opening Day 2018 (March 29th). How did Stanton become the sixth longest tenured Yankee? Didn’t they make that trade like last week? Goodness. Higashioka (April 10th), Montgomery (April 12th), and Andujar (June 28th) all debuted in 2017, but spent time shuttling up and down.

If you ignore minor league demotions and just look at the day the player first appeared in a game as a Yankee, Severino is the leader. He debuted on Aug. 5th, 2015, but had to go back to Triple-A in 2016 before returning for good that September. Also, Chad Green made his MLB debut on May 16th, 2016, then he started 2017 in the minors and also had a spell there early in 2019.

Gardner has been with the Yankees since signing as their third round pick on June 12th, 2005. He made his MLB debut on June 30th, 2008, and he was called up for good on July 26th, 2008. Only six active players have been with their current team longer:

1. Yadier Molina, Cardinals: Signed Sept. 2000 and debuted June 2004.
2. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals: Acquired Dec. 2003 and debuted Sept. 2005.
3. Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals: Signed June 2005 and debuted Sept. 2005.
4. Joey Votto, Reds: Signed June 2002 and debuted Sept. 2007.
5. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers: Acquired Dec. 2007 and debuted March 2008.
6. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers: Signed June 2006 and debuted May 2008.

Kershaw beat Gardner to the big leagues by 36 days. He could sign somewhere else after the lockout and fall off this list, though Kershaw leaving the Dodgers feels wrong. He’s one of those guys who should spend his entire career with one team. Zimmerman is not signed for next season, but he’s leaning toward playing. If he doesn’t, he’ll fall off the list.

Cabrera of course broke into the big leagues with the Marlins in 2003 before being traded to the Tigers. If Albert Pujols retires, Cabrera will take over as the longest tenured player in baseball. He’s been in the big leagues longer than anyone else. Wainwright was drafted by the Braves and traded as a prospect to the Cardinals in the J.D. Drew deal. Gardner will be no lower than the seventh longest tenured player with his current team if he comes back in 2022. Pretty crazy, huh?

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)