February 5th, 2021: Urshela, Voit, Judge, Stanton, Barraclough, Spring Training, Mailbag

PSA: Yankee Stadium is now open as a COVID-19 vaccination site for Bronx residents. Here’s where you can make an appointment. As for baseball, there’s not much going on with the Yankees right now -- there’s a reason we ran Retro Week a week or two before Spring Training -- so I went heavy on mailbag questions today. To today’s post.

1. Updates from Tampa. Pitchers and catchers report in 10 days and several Yankees are already working out in Tampa. Luke Voit told Bryan Hoch players at the complex are tested for COVID-19 once a week. I imagine they’ll be tested much more frequently once Spring Training and the regular season begin. Here are a few pre-spring notes from Tampa.

Urshela has resumed hitting and throwing

Gio Urshela has started hitting and throwing as part of his rehab from December surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow. He’ll be behind the other position players when Spring Training opens, but is expected to be ready to go for Opening Day.

“Feels really good right now,” Urshela told Brendan Kuty earlier this week. “I’ve been working a lot, trying to get the elbow healthy. Right now I’m hitting, throwing. I don’t know if it will be ready for Spring Training right on time, but looks like I’ll be ready for Opening Day.”

Spring Training is too long for position players anyway. As long as Urshela gets into Grapefruit League games by the middle of March, he should have enough time to get ready for the regular season. And, if he’s not ready in time, the Yankees can stick Miguel Andujar at third base for a bit. Not the end of the world.

Voit over his “foot stuff”

Luke Voit played through “foot stuff” that turned out to be plantar fasciitis all last season, and it sounds like he’s good to go now. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection in October and wore a boot for about a week. It seems that took care of it.

“Great. Had no problems,” Voit told Kuty when asked about the foot. “I’ve been running bases and stuff in spikes. I’m ready to go.”

The good news is Voit’s game is not built around speed, nor does his position require a ton of mobility. It’s not like he’s running around the outfield or something. Speaking from experience, plantar fasciitis absolutely stinks, and it can go away and flare back up later. If it does, Voit will have to play through it again or receive treatment. For now, everything’s a-okay.

Judge and Stanton have changed workouts

In an effort to stay on the field, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton changed up their workouts this offseason, strength and conditioning guru Eric Cressey said during a YES Network interview (video link). Ken Davidoff has a partial transcript:

“Both of those guys took a dramatically different approach this offseason from what they’ve previously done,” Cressey said. “I’d say in both cases, they lifted less than they have in the past.”

...

"Aaron in particular has taken a heavy interest in a lot of yoga. We’ve had a great instructor in Dana Santas who’s come in and helped out at our spring-training complex. Not just Aaron, but Luke [Voit] and Mike Ford and Thairo [Estrada] and Nick Nelson, a lot of those guys who are down there. So that’s something that I think is important.

...

“But also, we have to be mindful of the stresses on guys who are 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8. Big dudes who are standing around for long periods of time in cleats. Those are things that normal people don’t encounter. So I think we’ve understood their preparation has to be markedly different in terms of not just building them up as athletes, but building them up as baseball players where there is a gradual on-ramping of those specific stressors. Running the bases, changing directions, swinging. So both of those guys are in a good place.”

Judge has had six notable injuries in his five MLB seasons and three were muscle pulls. He had oblique strains in 2016 and 2019, and the calf strain in 2020. Otherwise he hurt his shoulder crashing into the wall in 2017 (and needed offseason surgery), had a pitch break his wrist in 2018, and then he broke a rib on a dive late in 2019. Not sure yoga will help with the "baseball play" type injuries, but if it helps prevent pulls and strains in the future, great.

Keeping Judge and Stanton on the field is a top priority in 2021. Those two have combined to play in 441 of 768 possible games in their three years together, or 57%. That's not nearly enough, especially because Judge and Stanton combined to hit .270/.367/.523 in those 441 games. Every year we hear so and so changed his offseason workouts and looks great. We'll see whether this makes a difference or is just the same ol' offseason optimism.

2. Yankees sign Barraclough. I had a feeling the Yankees would sign another non-roster pitcher or two at some point, and they added one earlier this week. Jon Morosi reports the Yankees have signed righty Kyle Barraclough to a minor league contract. He gets an invite to big league Spring Training.

Barraclough (pronounced “bear claw”) signed a minor league deal with the Padres last winter, then he elected free agency in July, after San Diego left him off their 60-man player pool. He was unable to hook on with another team and spent the season at home. In 2019, the 30-year-old had a 5.61 ERA (6.36 FIP) with 24.4% strikeouts in 33.2 innings with the Nationals and Giants.

Strikeouts and walks are the name of the game with Barraclough. He owns a 29.0% strikeout rate and a 14.1% walk rate in 252.1 big league innings, and he operates with a mid-90s fastball, a sweepy low-80s slider, and the occasional upper-80s changeup. The fastball and slider have pretty good spin rates. Here’s video from last spring.

At his best from 2016-18, Barraclough held hitters to a comfortably better than average 86.7 mph exit velocity, and he’s been better against lefties (.280 wOBA) than righties (.298 wOBA) in his career. It’s been a while since Barraclough was at his best though (3.21 ERA and 3.45 FIP from 2015-18), and now he’s a fairly standard journeyman middle reliever.

It’s worth noting Barraclough has an option remaining, so if the Yankees add him to the 40-man roster and call him up at some point, they can shuttle him back and forth between Triple-A and MLB. He’d also remain under team control as an arbitration-eligible player in 2022. If things click, Barraclough can give you 50 or so Adam Ottavino-esque innings. I wouldn’t say the chances that happens are particularly good though.

The Yankees have now signed 15 players to minor league deals this offseason: Barraclough, Jhoulys Chacin, Tyler Lyons, Socrates Brito, Nestor Cortes, Adam Warren, Andrew Velazquez, Matt Bowman (injured), Rob Brantly, Kellin Deglan, Luis Garcia, Ryan LaMarre, Lucas Luetge, Thomas Milone, and Asher Wojciechowski. I expect them to bring in at least one more catcher.

3. Spring training tidbits. Two quick things about Spring Training. First, pretty good chance fans will be allowed to attend Grapefruit League games at George M. Steinbrenner Field this spring (MLB has already announced workouts will be off-limits to fans). I say this because:

• The Rays will allow 7,000 fans into regular season games at Tropicana Field (so a regular crowd for them), and the Trop is about a half-hour from GMS Field.
• The Red Sox will be at 24% capacity this spring and they train two hours away from GMS Field.
• The Pirates will be at 25% capacity this spring. They’re less than an hour away.

Also, the Super Bowl will be at Raymond James Stadium this Sunday and there will be 22,000 fans in attendance. That’s about 33% capacity. Raymond James Stadium is literally across the street from GMS Field.

So yeah, count on fans being allowed into GMS Field for Grapefruit League games this spring. 25% capacity would be about 2,700 fans. Tickets are not on sale yet but I would expect an announcement fairly soon. Kinda surprised it hasn’t happened yet.

And second, MLB and the MLBPA are expected to announce modifications to Spring Training. Beyond the split MLB/Triple-A and Double-A/Single-A camps, there are rumblings spring games will be limited to seven innings, at least initially. Also, teams may only play day games or night games, not both. If you’re a day game team, you’ll only play other day game teams.

I wonder if MLB will do regional play in Spring Training? Seems like it would be easy to chop the Grapefruit League into three five-team regions (map via grativibe).

Then again, the day/night game delineation kinda sorta works as a bubble, so regional play may not be necessary. Regional play is just me thinking out loud. I know seven-inning games and the day/night game thing are being kicked around. Pitchers and catchers report in 10 days and the first exhibition games are three weeks away. We’ll get the answers to all this soon enough.

(I haven’t seen any information about Grapefruit League broadcasts yet. Teams have been cutting back in recent years because the ratings stink. I hope we aren’t completely in the dark this spring because of the pandemic and network cost-cutting.)

4. Rapid fire thoughts. The Gleyber Torres winter ball mystery has been solved. A reader passed along word that Torres joining Leones del Caracas was a joke. Dec. 28th, the day it was announced Torres would join the team, is Dia de los Inocentes, which is similar to April Fool’s Day in Latin America. I got April Fool’sed in December. My bad. Leones del Caracas announced Torres, Carlos Carrasco, and Eugenio Suarez would be joining the team on Dec. 28th, then later revealed the gag. A veteran dude like Carrasco playing winter ball should’ve been a dead giveaway … Double-A Somerset announced Phase I of their ballpark renovations earlier this week. Here’s the press release. Among other things, they’re expanding the home clubhouse and building a new 3,100 square foot workout facility with indoor batting cages, and upgrading the playing surface. Phase I will be ready for the 2021 season. Phase II will begin after the season and includes upgrades to the road clubhouse and executive offices. I imagine Somerset’s enthusiasm and willingness to upgrade the ballpark played a role in them landing an affiliation with the Yankees ... And finally, the MLB average salary dropped for the third straight year in 2020. Ron Blum says the average salary was $3.89M prior to proration, down from $4.05M in 2019, $4.09M in 2018, and the record $4.1M in 2017. Before the pandemic, MLB revenues were over $10 billion and steadily climbing, yet less and less is going to the players, who actually generate the revenue. Not hard to understand why the MLBPA distrusts the owners so much.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Jon asks: What should/will the Yankees do if Gary Sanchez isn't hitting at all after a month or so into the season?

I don’t think the Yankees kept Sanchez this offseason and answered all these questions about him only to pull the plug one month into 2021. He’s got some rope. The team’s performance will factor into this too. If they’re winning, it’ll be easier to stick with a slumping Sanchez than it’ll be if they’re losing a bunch early. The Yankees are nothing if not patient.

If it gets to the point where Sanchez isn’t hitting at all and there’s little reason to think he’s going to snap out of it at some point, the Yankees would have to make a trade for a new catcher. Kyle Higashioka is a cool guy and all but I have zero interest in seeing him take over as the starting catcher. I’m not 100% sold on him as a backup. As a starter? No way.

Ideally, the Yankees would bring in a veteran who could start, but also not someone they’re unwilling to push aside if Gary gets on track. Trading for a catcher in-season is not easy -- good catchers are hard to find and teams fret about them learning the pitching staff on the fly -- but sometimes it’s necessary. Tucker Barnhart jumps to mind as a possible trade target.

John asks: Do you think the reason the Yankees are trying to get under the threshold before a new CBA is negotiated is because they have inside info that it will be raised to 240 or so // or that the benefits will be removed from it? Say hypothetically the first tier gets moved to 230 + the player benefits are no longer a part of the CBT, that would give them a ton of wiggle room to extend players on the roster and address the rotation.

I have gotten a lot of versions of this question over the years, dating back to the 2014 austerity plan, and folks, you’re overthinking it. The Yankees are trying to get under the threshold to save money, plain and simple. Hal Steinbrenner has not hid that fact at all. From David Waldstein in 2013:

“My firmly held belief is that you don’t have to have a $200 million payroll to be world champion,” he said last week in the team’s plush conference room at the spring training complex here. “And the historical data that led me to that conclusion is rock solid.”

At first I thought he was posturing, but the actions in the years since match the words, so Hal told us everything we need to know. These days the Yankees’ philosophy is “be good enough to get to the postseason every year and hope we run into a title,” and Steinbrenner won’t spend more than what he deems necessary to do that. The luxury tax plan is not about inside info regarding future thresholds or other benefits. It’s about limiting spending and redirecting money from players to ownership, full stop.

Steve asks: Regarding salary cap. It's obviously bad for lots of reasons, but since the owners are enacting their own cap anyway, wouldn't there be some benefit to the players accepting a cap in exchange for a salary floor? It sucks giving the owners what they want, but they're just taking what they want anyway, no?

No. The salary cap and floor would presumably be set at some percentage of league revenues (similar to other major sports), and the owners will never ever ever give an honest accounting of revenue. For example, do the hotels the Braves and Cubs built outside their stadiums count as baseball revenue? They exist and they sell out because baseball fans stay there so they can go watch baseball, so they should count as baseball revenue, but the owners will say they’re separate businesses, and legally, they’re probably right.

I’m not even sure what a fair salary floor would be. Using full season payrolls, 15 teams had a $150M+ payroll in 2020 and 23 had a $100M+ payroll. Only three teams (Orioles, Pirates, Rays) were under $70M. The floor would have to be something like $175M to be worth a cap in the $220M range, and I’m not sure MLB would go for that. The owners have been pushing for a salary cap forever and it’s not because it’s fair. It’s because it’s favorable to them. The MLBPA shouldn’t cave.

Eliminating the luxury tax entirely is a pipe dream. To me, the solution is pushing back on the threshold and getting it raised, and creating an artificial salary floor through a higher minimum salary and perhaps earlier arbitration rights. The best thing the MLBPA can do is get more money into the pockets of players early in their careers because the majority of them don’t make it to free agency. Getting players paid earlier helps everyone. Do that, then worry about free agency.

Baseball is barrelling toward a work stoppage because one side wants a fair share of the revenue they generate, and the other side wants to crush them and take every last dime. The owners have decided winning and appeasing fans is unimportant, and I honestly have no idea how baseball can come back from that. MLB and the owners operate in bad faith. Giving them what they want and hoping they don’t ask for more is not a solution, because they’ll never stop trying to take more. The MLBPA has to stand their ground.

Brad asks: Like you, I'm a huge Tanaka fan and I am very sad to see him go. I understand the financial aspect and the possible ticking time bomb that is his elbow, but regardless I really wanted Tanaka back. Now that he's going back to Japan, do you know how we can watch his games? Is there a Japan baseball package? How come MLB Network has not made a deal with international leagues to air games? I would much rather watch a Rakuten game at 5 AM than the third screening of MLB Tonight or a rerun of a Rockies-D'backs game.

The Rakuten Golden Eagles are in NPB’s Pacific League and you can watch their games online with Pacific League TV. It’s about $14 a month and you get access to all six Pacific League teams: Rakuten, Chiba Lotte Marines, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Orix Buffaloes, Nippon Ham Fighters, and Seibu Lions. Tanaka plays for Rakuten, former Yankee Brandon Laird plays for the Marines, Adam Jones plays for the Buffaloes, and the Hawks are in the middle of an incredible dynasty. Four straight Japan Series titles and seven in the last 10 years. If you love baseball and are willing/able to cope with the time difference, it’s a worthwhile investment.

Chris asks: Have there been any updates on the World Baseball Classic? It was supposed to happen in March 2021 before, well, ya know…

The 2021 WBC was canceled last May. They pulled the plug early because it’s a collectively bargaining event, and MLB and the MLBPA prioritized getting the MLB season up and running amid the pandemic. Makes sense, but it’s also a bummer. The WBC is incredibly fun and I don’t understand why so many people knock it. It’s a cool thing to hate, I guess.

Anyway, the WBC is not expected to return until 2023, mostly because there are a few qualifying tournaments that must take place to set the however-many-team field, and they won’t be played this year. Also, the Collective Bargaining Agreement is up this offseason, and the two sides have to agree to the WBC particulars (in addition to a million other things). It’s not a priority and there’s not enough time to get everything in place for 2022.

2023 is a long way away in baseball years and several prominent Yankees may not be Yankees when the 2023 WBC rolls around. Aaron Judge, Gary, Sanchez, and Luis Severino can become free agents after 2022, for example. Among players under contract or team control in 2023, here are the Yankees who could participate in the WBC:

• USA: Gerrit Cole, Clint Frazier, Aaron Hicks, DJ LeMahieu, Jordan Montgomery, Giancarlo Stanton, Luke Voit
• Dominican Republic: Miguel Andujar, Domingo German
• Venezuela: Gleyber Torres
• Colombia: Gio Urshela
• Nicaragua: Jonathan Loaisiga
• Mexico: Luis Cessa

I listed 13 players. How many do you think will still be Yankees come 2023? I’ll say Cole, Hicks, LeMahieu, Stanton, and Torres for sure. I think everyone else is a maybe at best and I say that only because two years is a long time in this game. Two years is plenty of opportunity for roster turnover.

Alessandro asks: The "big" RP that everyone wants the Yankees to sign is Trevor Rosenthal. What about Tony Watson? They liked him once upon a time, and he's a lefty. His FIP wasn't great last year, but possibly worth a flier on a 1-year? I think he and Rosenthal would fill out bullpen "nicely"

I was going to include Watson in the cheap bullpen options post I was writing before the Darren O’Day signing. The Yankees tried to sign Watson during the 2017-18 offseason and he instead took a convoluted two-year contract with a series of options and escalators with the Giants. Watson, 35, allowed eight runs (five earned) in 18 innings with San Francisco last year.

In 2019, the last full season, Watson threw 54 innings with a 4.17 ERA (4.81 FIP) and middling strikeout (17.7%) and ground ball (43.9%) rates. At his best, he’s a ground ball guy -- Watson had a 50.0% ground ball rate last year and has been around 47.0% in several seasons -- who can hold his own against righties. You have to go back to 2018 for the last time he was that guy in a full season though.

Watson’s probably not a high-leverage option at this point in his career, but he could still be a solid middle reliever, and the Yankees have jobs up for grabs in the middle of the bullpen. This is the current bullpen:

• Closer: LHP Aroldis Chapman
• Setup: LHP Zack Britton, RHP Chad Green
• Other locks: RHP Luis Cessa, RHP Darren O’Day, likely RHP Jonathan Loaisiga
• Depth: RHP Albert Abreu, RHP Kyle Barraclough (non-roster), RHP Luis Garcia (non-roster), RHP Ben Heller, RHP Brooks Kriske, LHP Tyler Lyons (non-roster), RHP Nick Nelson, Adam Warren (non-roster)

Including Loaisiga, six of the eight bullpen spots are accounted for, and even if we assume the out of options Abreu has a leg up on another spot, there’s still one up for grabs. Chapman and Britton are locked into late-inning roles. Watson would give the Yankees the middle innings lefty they currently lack (and have lacked since Chasen Shreve).

It has been a quiet offseason for Watson -- his MLBTR archive is empty -- so maybe that means he’s available on a minor league deal. If so, sign me up. I don’t think carrying two ground ball lefties (Watson and Britton) would be a problem. No one says strikeout righties are redundant. Why would two ground ball lefties be bad? If you can get outs, you can get outs.

The Yankees have an ex-Pirates thing going at the moment (Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon) and Watson would fit right in. Heck, maybe Cole will give Watson a glowing review like he did Taillon. A guaranteed deal in the O’Day range (one year with a $1.575M luxury tax hit) would be fine. I wouldn’t go much more than that and I would prefer a minor league deal.

John asks (short version): The 4 bench spots start with BUC, which I assume is Higgy. I also am making the assumption that Gardner is coming back to get one of those bench spots and be somewhat of a platoon in LF. Then you need a back-up infielder which I assume is Wade. That leaves one last roster spot. The candidates seem to be Tauchman, Andujar, Estrada, Ford and Allen. What's the best fit to fill that need? What about going for more depth here by finding a cheap vet that can play all over the field like Marwin Gonzalez or Schoop or Villar?

Bringing in a veteran role player is never a bad idea. Miguel Andujar, Thairo Estrada, Mike Ford, and Tyler Wade all have at least one minor league option remaining, so the Yankees can stash them in Triple-A. Greg Allen and Mike Tauchman are out of options, though I wouldn’t sweat it too much. Fourth outfielder types aren’t that hard to replace. You needn’t look beyond how easy it was to acquire Allen and Tauchman in the first place to know that.

I’d probably go with Brad Miller as my veteran role player pickup. He stinks defensively, but I know he’ll hit righties, whereas I’m not sure guys like Marwin Gonzalez and Jonathan Villar do anything well at this point. Gonzalez can play anywhere, but who cares if his glove is slipping and he hasn’t hit since the Astros stopped banging on trash cans? Joe Panik would be the dirt cheap option as a lefty contact guy. I can’t imagine the Yankees would spend much on this roster spot.

If we assume Kyle Higashioka and the still unsigned Brett Gardner are getting two of the four bench spots, the Yankees would have to carry either Estrada or Wade as the backup shortstop (likely Wade). The final spot would almost certainly go to Allen or Tauchman, and it’ll probably end up a revolving door throughout the season. Sometimes an infielder, sometimes an outfielder, sometimes a bat-only guy. Depends what the team needs at the time, you know?

I really want the Yankees to carry Andujar on the roster this year and figure out a way to get him (at least) three or four starts a week. It’s doable between first and third bases, left field, and DH. You can pull him for defense late, but get his bat in the lineup. Andujar turns 26 in March and he is coming off two lost seasons. He was awesome as a rookie in 2018. Let’s make an effort to see whether that guy is still in there. Andujar’s my preferred bench guy.

Chris asks: I would think you'd want to get every possible start out of Cole and that there is no huge benefit to having him get an extra day of rest before every start. I've worked up a spreadsheet with a schedule, using your 7-man 6-active starters rotation that you had in your last email as a jumping off point, to show how it would work. Clearly having 4 pitchers - Kluber, Taillon, German and eventually Sevy, who faced a total of 3 batters last year, having extra rest for much of the rotation is definitely a good idea. But there's no reason to take the ball out of Cole's hands. And keeping Cole on 4-days' rest would open the door for him going on 3-days rest if necessary in the postseason, as he did last year. If he's only used to 5-days' rest, I think that's a much tougher jump to make.

The Yankees did this with Gerrit Cole last year. Their schedule was thrown out of whack several times because of COVID-19 outbreaks on other teams, and the Yankees made sure to give the ball to Cole every five days no matter what. In a short season where every game mattered that much more, it made perfect sense, and I was totally cool with it.

“Last year we had to bounce around a little bit, and you tried to get Cole the ball as much as possible,” pitching coach Matt Blake told Sweeny Murti recently. “Outside of that you were trying to give your guys a chance to pitch at their best, whether that’s matchup-related or health-related.”

My concern this season is the jump from the 91.1 innings Cole threw last year (regular season and postseason) to 200 or so innings this year. He’ll probably be fine, and keeping him on a set five-day schedule would be smart. But in Year 2 of a massive nine-year contract, do we really want to leave it up to “he’ll probably be fine?” I couldn’t blame the Yankees for being overly cautious with their $324M ace.

Here’s what Blake told Murti about the team’s plans to monitor their pitchers this year, after that short and unusual 60-game season:

“I think you just kind of add and subtract based on if they’re going deeper in games or getting out early, or if they need to skip a start or something,” Blake noted. “I think it’s just being rational and realistic about where these guys are coming from, and knowing that their most value is going to come if we can get to a point where we’re playing in October.”

…

“Are they losing range of motion? Are they losing strength? Are they losing weight? Those kind of things,” Blake said. “And then, is their stuff staying the same? Is it trending up? Is it trending down? All those give us some good data points to kind of just keep asking ourselves if these guys are able to keep taking the ball, keep taking their turn.”

…

“I think it’s just being honest with ourselves about if we need to take a turn here or there,” Blake said

I trust the Yankees will do what they believe will keep everyone healthy and productive deep into the postseason. If they think Cole can handle pitching every fifth day while others would benefit from an extra day, they’ll do that. I don’t expect them to throw caution to the wind and run Cole out there a dangerous amount. He’s too important and they have enough depth arms (Jhoulys Chacin, Deivi Garcia, Clarke Schmidt, Asher Wojciechowski, etc.) to pick up innings as necessary.

Dan asks: Joc Pederson just signed for a one year contract at $7 Million. He seems like the perfect trade acquisition at the deadline if the Cubs are out of contention. Do you think he will be available and what would you be willing to give up?

The Nolan Arenado trade makes the Cardinals the favorites in the NL Central, I think, but it’s not crazy to think the Cubs will be right there with them. It depends on their pitching more than anything. I think it’s more likely than not the Cubs will be in the postseason race come the trade deadline and looking to add to Pederson, not trade him away.

Hypothetically though, if the Cubs are out of it, yes, Joc would be an obvious fit for the Yankees, especially if the outfield is hit hard by injuries again (or Clint Frazier falls on his face). Here are a few rental outfielders who could work as trade benchmarks for Pederson:

• Nick Castellanos: Traded for two top 15 team prospects (Alex Lange and Paul Richan).
• Corey Dickerson: Traded for an unknown sum of international bonus money.
• Kevin Pillar: Traded for a top 20 team prospect (Jacob Wallace).

Dickerson was hurt in the first half the year the Pirates traded him to the Phillies -- the “hang onto a guy and trade him at the deadline” thing has worked out horribly for Pittsburgh the last few years (Dickerson, Keone Kela, Felipe Vazquez), so I get trading Jameson Taillon without ever seeing him on a mound post-Tommy John surgery -- which dragged his value down. Castellanos and Pillar are better reference points, I think.

If the Yankees are in the race (likely) and need an outfielder (unlikely but possible), Pederson would be an obvious target, and giving up a top 20-ish prospect or two is an easy call. Of course you do that if you have a chance to win. Add in his cheap contract (make the trade right at the deadline and Joc’s luxury tax hit is about $2.3M) and it’s a no-brainer.

Stan asks: In 2017, Pirates went with Houston's package to ours that I believe included Frazier, but not also Andujar. Looking back, given that the Yanks didn't make it to the promised land either of the 2 years before we landed Cole in free agency (and Houston was directly in the way at least one of those years), do you think they should have relinquished both Frazier and Andujar for 2 years of Cole? Now that the prime years of the Yanks' young core is quickly passing by and the whole outfit is getting more expensive (and knowing that Hal has a definite budget limit), should that Yanks have pushed in their chips earlier? Personally, I think the Yanks would have done it if they knew the type of pitcher the 'Stros helped him to become, but not for the pitcher he was coming out of the Pirates system. Your thoughts?

Stan has that right. The Yankees were willing to trade Clint Frazier for Gerrit Cole in Feb. 2018, but not Miguel Andujar. Andujar, Gleyber Torres, Estevan Florial, and Justus Sheffield were said to be off-limits. The Pirates wanted Frazier and Andujar, and when the Yankees wouldn’t do that, Pittsburgh instead took an underwhelming package from the Astros that included Joe Musgrove and not much else.

I am of the belief that if the Yankees had traded for Cole in 2018, he would not have become the pitcher he is today. What he is now is basically the best case scenario. Change anything along the way, including something as significant as the organization he was in and the coaches he worked with, and odds are Cole develops along a very different path. I don’t think we can assume he becomes the pitcher he is today without the Astros. (The same applies to, say, Aaron Judge. Does he become this Aaron Judge had a different team drafted him in 2013?)

So, on one hand, make the trade and the Yankees would not have had to face Cole in the 2019 ALCS (he beat them to give Houston a 2-1 series lead), and who knows how that series (and season) plays out? On the other hand, make the trade and it’s possible the 2021 Yankees would have no left fielder, no third base or DH depth, and no legitimate ace starter because Cole doesn’t become GERRIT COLE under their watch.

In hindsight, it’s easy to say yes, the Yankees should’ve relented and traded Andujar for Cole, especially knowing what we know now (Cole became an ace, Andujar was hurt and ineffective in 2019-20, Gio Urshela came out of nowhere, etc). I complain about the Yankees not going all-in all the time, though I want them to keep the near MLB ready guys and trade the lower minors prospects. Andujar was MLB ready (he was great in 2018!) and I was cool with keeping him. I’m more mad at myself for not thinking Cole had this in him.

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