October 16th, 2020: Payroll, Ottavino, Qualifying Offers, Mailbag

Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman held their annual end-of-season press conferences earlier this week and, as usual, Cashman’s comments boiled down to “we’re going to evaluate our options.” Gary Sanchez at catcher next year? We’re going to evaluate our options. Gleyber Torres moving off shortstop? We’re going to evaluate our options. Bring in pitching? We’re going to evaluate our options. Business as usual. Cashman has perfected the art of saying a lot of words without saying much at all. Here are today’s thoughts.

1. 2021 payroll situation. Like it or not, payroll limitations will shape the offseason. The Yankees have lost untold revenue to the pandemic and there is zero chance revenue streams will be back to normal next year. Maybe not even the year after that. It's best not to count on things getting better anytime soon. The last eight months have made that clear.

The Yankees have a lot of money coming off the books this offseason. More accurately, the Yankees are clearing a lot of luxury tax payroll space. Most notably, Jacoby Ellsbury's contract is up, and that's $21.9M that no longer counts against the luxury tax. The Yankees withheld the $26M they owed Ellsbury this year and the grievance is still pending, but he still counted against the luxury tax payroll. Now he’s completely off the books.

Masahiro Tanaka ($22.1M), James Paxton ($12.5M), and DJ LeMahieu ($12M) are also off the books. Those three plus Ellsbury equal $68.5M in luxury tax payroll relief. The final luxury tax payroll was $268M or so this past season, well over all three thresholds ($208M, $228M, and $248M). Next year’s luxury tax threshold is $210M and the Yankees could conceivably come in under that. It’s doable. It might also be an ownership mandate.

“We’ll see,” Hal Steinbrenner said during a recent radio interview (video link) when asked about next year’s budget. “It depends what kind of money is going to be required to be spent based on what we look at and decide needs change. But look, there’s no doubt we sustained significant losses this year, more so than any other team in baseball. We’re going to have to see what we really feel we need and what that’s going to cost, and we’ll go from there, the way we do every year.”

With that in mind, let’s take some time to sort through the Yankees’ contract commitments, and figure out what the payroll looks like heading into next season. In the past, we could reasonably assume the Yankees would spend X on the coming year’s payroll. We can’t really do that now, but we can figure out how much they have on the books. Let’s get to it.

Guaranteed Contracts ($104.467M)

• Gerrit Cole: $36M
• Giancarlo Stanton: $22M (he’s not opting out)
• Aroldis Chapman: $17.467M
• Luis Severino: $10M
• Aaron Hicks: $10M
• Adam Ottavino: $9M

The Yankees have nearly half their payroll space under the $210M  luxury tax threshold tied up in six players, one of whom will be a non-factor until at least the middle of the season. Ottavino stands out as a trade candidate given his inability to hold runners and issues with lefties in the three-batter minimum era, though he would have to be replaced in the bullpen. I reckon the Yankees could do that for less than $9M. Chapman, Cole, Hicks, and Stanton are all centerpiece players and not going anywhere.

Pending Options

• J.A. Happ: $17M vesting option
• Zack Britton: 2-year, $27M club option or 1-year, $13M player option
• Brett Gardner: $10M club option

Happ didn’t reach the prorated criteria to trigger his vesting option (10 starts or 61.1 innings) but his option is eligible for arbitration, and I guess that means a panel could lower the thresholds. I have no idea when a hearing could happen, though it has to be soon. This is a time sensitive matter that will determine Happ’s 2021 employment. There’s no chance the Yankees want him back at $17M next season and they’re not stupid. They knew exactly what they were doing with those skipped starts. I’m comfortable assuming the Yankees avoided the vesting option, arbitration hearing be damned. Happ’s off the books.

As recently as last month I thought the most likely outcome with Britton was the Yankees declining their two-year club option and Britton picking up his one-year player option. Is there really going to be $13M available to a 33-year-old reliever this offseason, even one as good as Britton? Do the Yankees really want to lock him in at $14M for his age 34 season in 2022 right now? It all seemed unlikely to me.

Now I think it’s more likely the Yankees pick up the two-year club option. They’re built to win right now and replacing Britton would be much more difficult than replacing, say, Ottavino. I think Britton is back one way or the other, so it's either a $13M luxury tax hit (player option) or a $13.5M luxury tax hit (club option). Small difference, but let’s be conservative and assume the latter.

“As I understand the contract, the Yankees have until the third day following the end of the World Series to extend my contract for $27 million. If they decline to extend, I can either choose to extend the contract for 2021 or opt out of the contract,” Britton told George King recently. “I have until the fifth day following the World Series to make my (decision). Yankees have the first crack. I have not had any discussions regarding my contract with the Yankees. I will connect with Scott Boras in the coming days and talk about all the possible scenarios.”

Gardner’s option comes with a $2.5M buyout, so it’s a $7.5M decision, both in terms of real dollars and the luxury tax. I think we’re in for a repeat of 2018, when the Yankees declined their $12.5M club option on Gardner, paid him a $2M buyout, then re-signed him to a $7.5M deal and saved $3M in the process. I expect the Yankees to decline the option and try to re-sign Gardner to a lower salary. One year and $5M maybe? That saves $2.5M against the luxury tax.

The $2.5M buyout is guaranteed money and was thus applied to the 2020 luxury tax payroll. It has no impact on the 2021 luxury tax. We’ll worry about re-signing Gardner at another time. Right now, we’re just figuring out what the Yankees currently have on the books for next season, and how much payroll space they’re taking in the offseason. I’m assuming Happ is gone, Gardner’s option is declined, and Britton stays. $104.467M in guaranteed contracts plus $13.5M for Britton equals $117.967M tied up in seven players. Onward.

Arbitration-Eligibles

• Tommy Kahnle (fourth time as Super Two)
• Luis Cessa (second time as Super Two)
• Jonathan Holder (second time as Super Two)
• Jordan Montgomery (second time as Super Two)
• Gio Urshela (second time as Super Two)
• Chad Green (second time)
• Aaron Judge (second time)
• Gary Sanchez (second time)
• Clint Frazier (first time as Super Two)
• Gleyber Torres (first time as Super Two)
• Luke Voit (first time as Super Two)
• Ben Heller (first time)

Miguel Andujar is right on the Super Two bubble. My unofficial tally has him at two years and 110 days of service time (2.110). The Super Two cutoff fluctuates each year -- the cutoff is set at the top 22% of players between two and three years of service time -- and is typically around 2.120. Last year it was 2.115. A matter of days potentially equals a good chunk of change for Andujar given his Rookie of the Year runner-up. That’s valuable in arbitration.

Anyway, the Yankees have a huge arbitration class this offseason with some very prominent first-timers. Torres is taking two All-Star Games and a 38-homer season into arbitration. Voit led baseball in home runs this year. They’re going to get paid. Their full seasons salaries were roughly $1.4M combined in 2020. In 2021, it could be 6-8 times that.

Judge and Sanchez are the big earners, though Judge’s injuries and Sanchez’s terrible season will keep their raises down. Still, they earned $13.5M in full season salary this year. Next year it’ll be comfortably north of that given their All-Star Games and other accomplishments. Cessa, Frazier, Green, Heller, Holder, and Montgomery won’t move the needle much. Urshela will get a nice raise on this year’s $2.475M full season salary but nothing that’ll break the bank.

Kahnle is a non-tender candidate. In fact, he might not even make it to the Dec. 2nd non-tender deadline. He figures to be the first to go when a 40-man roster spot is needed. Kahnle will spend next year rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and there’s no way the Yankees will pay him to rehab next year when he’ll become a free agent after the season. Kahnle is in the same situation as Nathan Eovaldi in 2016. Tommy John surgery one year prior to free agency. Eovaldi was non-tendered then and Kahnle will be non-tendered now. Sucks, but it’s what it is.

Cessa, Holder, and Heller are fringy non-tender candidates. They won’t make much next year, but the Yankees could draw a real hard line with them. “Either take this below projections salary or we’ll non-tender you and you’ll get stuck looking for work in a flooded, depressed market.” That kinda thing. Heller finished the year hurt. I wonder if the Yankees will non-tender him and re-sign him to a minor league contract to get him off the 40-man roster? Seems possible. (Mike Ford might be in the same boat, though he’s not yet arbitration-eligible.)

MLBTR released their arbitration projections earlier this week, though the weird season may make them less reliable than usual. Those 12 players above made $24.8374M in full season salary in 2020. MLBTR has them in the $33.7M to $46.2M range next year. For our purposes, let’s assume Kahnle is non-tendered, and split the middle on MLBTR’s projections and call it $37.35M for the other 11 arbitration-eligible players, bringing us to $155.317M total for 18 players. Let’s go with $156M to make the math easy.

Miscellaneous

• Dead money: None!
• Pre-arbitration-eligibles (9 players): $5.5M (estimated)
• Remaining 40-man roster (14 players): $2M (estimated)
• Benefits: $16M (estimated)

First time in a while the Yankees don’t have any dead money on the books. They’re no longer paying anyone to sit at home or play elsewhere. That could change during the offseason, but, right now, they’re responsible for zero dead money.

Anyway, filling out the 26-man roster with pre-arbitration-eligible players -- the $156M covers 18 players, but one is injured (Severino), so we need nine pre-arbitration guys to fill out the roster rather than eight -- gets us to $161.5M. Add in the rest of the 40-man roster plus the benefits package every team pays and we’re at $179.5M all-in. That’s just a ballpark number. We had to guesstimate the arbitration-eligible players and the other guys needed to fill out the roster.

On one hand, that gives the Yankees roughly $30M in wiggle room under the $210M luxury tax threshold. Hooray! On the other hand, that $179.5M covers this roster (asterisk indicates the player is out of minor league options and must pass through waivers to go to Triple-A):

(I put Heller in the bullpen because he’s arbitration-eligible and Abreu in the bullpen because he's out of options. Don’t sweat the names though. I’d bet the farm on Loaisiga having a spot in next year’s Opening Day bullpen, but he’s going to make a similar salary as Abreu, and that’s all that matters in this exercise.)

That $30M in wiggle room has to go to replacing or re-signing LeMahieu and Tanaka, first and foremost, and also possibly Gardner, Happ, and Paxton. The Yankees need at least one starting pitcher this offseason. I’d like two, personally, but one is a must. LeMahieu alone could eat up $20M of the $30M, possibly more, leaving $10M to do the non-LeMahieu stuff.

Of course, the Yankees could simply blow past the $210M luxury tax threshold and not worry about it, but I’m not going to get my hopes up. I expected payroll to come down next season anyway -- there was never a chance $268M was going to be the new normal -- and then the pandemic hit, making further cuts likely. It sucks for multiple reasons.

We have no idea what the team’s revenue projections look like nor do we know their target 2021 payroll at the moment, and they probably don’t either. Like everyone else, they’re hoping things will be better in a few months. Sounds great, except free agency is three weeks away, and the hot stove league won’t wait around for clarity on 2021 revenue. Right now, the Yankees are looking at $179.5M or so next year just for players in the organization. That doesn’t include LeMahieu, Tanaka, or other additions.

2. Ottavino trade. Even with some breathing room under the $210M luxury tax threshold, money figures to be tight this offseason, and the Yankees don’t have many avenues to clear payroll. Giancarlo Stanton isn’t going anywhere and it seems unlikely the Yankees will trade a core player like Aaron Judge or Aaron Hicks. They may have to get creative, financially.

Adam Ottavino stands out as a potential trade candidate. He has one year left on his contract at $9M -- it’s $8M salary and $1M signing bonus, which is notable these days because only his salary would be prorated should the season be shortened again, he gets the full signing bonus no matter what -- and he’s still effective, though he wasn’t as effective in 2020 as he was in 2019. The disaster outing in Buffalo really sullied his numbers …

• 2020 overall: 5.89 ERA (3.52 FIP) in 18.1 innings
• 2020 without Buffalo disaster: 2.95 ERA (2.32 FIP) in the same 18.1 innings

… but it happened and it counts. Aaron Boone doesn’t seem to trust Ottavino all that much, so much so that he never even warmed up in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series. Jonathan Holder warmed up and Jonathan Loaisiga got into the game, yet Ottavino never left his seat. Reminds me of the 2017 Wild Card Game, when the Yankees needed 8.2 innings from their bullpen yet Dellin Betances never warmed up. Chasen Shreve did, but not Dellin.

Ottavino still has value to the Yankees. He’s still effective against righties and who’s to say the Yankees won’t run into the Astros (Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa) or the Blue Jays (Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Teoscar Hernandez) or Angels (David Fletcher, Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon) in the postseason next year? Ottavino’s a really smart dude. You don’t have to try all that hard to see him having a productive 2021 with a normal Spring Training.

That said, he is a righty specialist in the three-batter minimum era, and he doesn’t hold runners at all. They went 4-for-4 stealing bases against him this year and are 43-for-47 (91%) stealing bases against him the last three years. Betances was susceptible to the stolen base as well. He was also maybe the best reliever in the sport for a four-year stretch, so you took the bad with the good. As good as Ottavino can be, he’s not peak Dellin.

In a depressed free agent market, it would seem possible to replace Ottavino at less than $9M in 2021. Tommy Hunter, who the Yankees once agreed to sign, still eats up righties and his full season salary was under $1M this past season. Trevor May is a free agent and he has the spin rates the Yankees love. There are viable alternatives out there.

There are three questions now. One, why wouldn’t a potential trade partner just sign Hunter or May or whoever for themselves rather than trade for Ottavino? Good question and I don’t have a good answer. I guess the answer is trade partners may value Ottavino higher than the available free agent relievers, and consider him the best option.

Two, who are the potential trade partners? The Athletics and White Sox immediately jump to mind. They’re both ready to win contenders that could lose serious bullpen depth this winter. The A’s may lose Liam Hendriks, Yusmeiro Petit, and Joakim Soria to free agency. The White Sox could lose Alex Colome to free agency and stud youngster Garrett Crochet to Tommy John surgery given his ongoing flexor injury. Two obvious trade partners right there.

Of course, just about every team needs bullpen help, so the market for Ottavino could be pretty big. Who saw the Marlins -- the Marlins! -- trading for one year of Jonathan Villar last season? The Angels, Astros, Phillies, Reds, and Twins are all possible trade partners. Maybe even the Mets too. Who’s to say a Yankees-Mets trade won’t be possible once new owner Steve Cohen takes over in Flushing?

And three, what is Ottavino worth? The Royals traded one year of Wade Davis for Jorge Soler a few years back, though Davis was coming off three Hall of Fame level seasons at the time. That was a special case. A few recent rental reliever trades:

• Daniel Hudson: Traded for one low-range prospect (Kyle Johnston).
• Chris Martin: Traded for one mid-to-high-range prospect (Kolby Allard)
• Drew Pomeranz: Traded for two mid-range prospects (Ray Black and Mauricio Dubon).
• Trevor Rosenthal: Traded for one mid-range prospect (Edward Olivares) and a player to be named.

Teams would be trading for a full season of Ottavino this offseason, not two months of him, but the end result is getting him for one postseason run, so I think those rental reliever trades serve as a decent guide. Archie Bradley, Shane Greene, and Ryan Pressly were all dealt for two mid-range prospects a year and a half prior to free agency. That is Ottavino's ballpark trade value.

Last offseason’s Blake Treinen situation isn’t really relevant to Ottavino. Treinen was out of this world good in 2018, then so bad in 2019 that the A’s non-tendered him. Couldn’t find any takers on the trade market. That’s because teams knew they would non-tender him, so why trade prospects when you could try to sign him for just cash in a few weeks? Ottavino is already under contract next year. There’s no waiting out the trade market until he becomes a free agent.

The Yankees shouldn’t trade Ottavino just to trade him. His 2017-18 seasons show he can go home for the winter, figure out what went wrong after a poor season, then correct it and come back very well the next year. I’m just saying, if the Yankees need to cut payroll after the shutdown, trading the righty specialist making $9M is an obvious move.

3. Qualifying offers. According to Evan Drellich, the qualifying offer will be set at $18.9M this offseason, up from $17.8M last offseason. The qualifying offer is a one-year contract at the average of the top 125 salaries in baseball and all those $33M+ average annual value free agent contracts last winter (Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, Justin Verlander's extension) helped raise the bar this offseason.

The Yankees have two qualifying offer candidates: DJ LeMahieu and Masahiro Tanaka. James Paxton could have been a qualifying offer candidate with a normal, healthy season, but that didn’t happen. The Yankees won't make Zack Britton the qualifying offer. They'd pick up the two-year, $27M club option rather than risk him accepting the one-year, $18.9M qualifying offer. The qualifying offer is a much better deal for him than his $13M player option.

LeMahieu is a no-brainer. He's definitely getting a qualifying offer. Worst case scenario is he accepts and you’ve got him back on a one-year contract at a salary that is probably lower than what he’ll command on the open market. Easy decision there.

Tanaka is much less certain. Would the Yankees take him back on a one-year deal? Absolutely. A one-year deal worth $18.9M though? Eh, I think they’d sooner give him two years at $12M a year than one year at a much higher salary. Money could be that tight in 2021. The free agent starting pitching market is pretty stinky this winter -- Trevor Bauer is clearly No. 1 with Tanaka and Marcus Stroman the other notables -- so Tanaka could be in demand.

Keep in mind that, because they will pay luxury tax this year, the Yankees would only be entitled to a compensation draft pick after the fourth round should Tanaka reject the qualifying offer and sign elsewhere. That’s better than nothing, but is it worth the risk? If money really is that tight, the Yankees simply may not risk it, and let Tanaka test the market with no draft pick attached. They didn’t risk the $17.8M with Didi Gregorius last offseason, remember.

The guess here is the Yankees will not make Tanaka the qualifying offer but will make a sincere attempt to re-sign him, something they did not do with Gregorius (and Dellin Betances) last offseason. Given the shutdown and lost revenue, I don’t think the Yankees will risk the $18.9M. Not for a dinky post-fourth round draft pick. LeMahieu definitely gets a qualifying offer and it might just be him, Bauer, George Springer, and J.T. Realmuto who get them this winter.

4. Rapid fire thoughts. Brian Cashman provided a few injury updates during his end-of-season press conference. One, Luke Voit’s “foot stuff” is indeed plantar fasciitis. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection and will be in a boot a week. No biggie, though plantar fasciitis really sucks. Two, Gio Urshela was evaluated and doesn’t need surgery to take the bone spur out of his elbow. He’s asymptomatic again. That surprises me. Can’t remember the last time a guy had a bone spur act up and then have it become a non-issue with no intervention. And three, Luis Severino is on schedule with his Tommy John surgery rehab. He’s three weeks into his throwing program and is playing catch at 90 feet. His projected return date is still the middle of next season. So far, so good though … Cashman also confirmed the Yankees will not hold Instructional League this year. Every other team except the Cardinals is holding Instructs. I don’t get this at all. Maybe it’s a cost cutting thing? MLB said teams could hold Instructs as long they continued paying players the $400 weekly stipend. If this is a cost cutting thing, then shame on the Yankees. That’s a pittance -- there are only 30-something players at Instructs -- and these kids need all the work they can get after a lost season … MLB adjusted Rookie of the Year eligibility late last month. Specifically, September now counts toward the 45-day limit. Typically players who spent 45 days on the active roster outside the September roster expansion period were no longer rookie eligible. For this year, September counts toward the 45 day limit. Someone like Cleveland righty James Karinchak, who was on the active roster all season, would have retained rookie status next year prior to the rule change. Deivi Garcia spent only 21 days on the active roster this year, so he’s well under the 45-day threshold. He won’t win Rookie of the Year but he might get a few stray votes, and it’s entirely possible he’ll receive votes again next year. That’d be weird. Gregg Jefferies received Rookie of the Year votes in 1988 and 1989. Maybe Deivi will join him in the exclusive “Rookie of the Year votes in two years” club.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Isaac asks: I love watching DJ every day, and it is hard to fathom letting him walk at this point, but isn't there a scenario where investing that money somewhere else makes more sense? Trading for Lindor (and extending him) could keep the team's window open longer, improve the defense, and offer a little lineup flexibility. If it was between letting DJ walk and acquiring Lindor, (ideally they would do both) which would you choose?

In a vacuum, it has to be Francisco Lindor, and I say that as someone who loves DJ LeMahieu. The guy is a machine. These are two star level players, but one turned 32 in July and the other turns 27 next month. That makes it a pretty easy call. Lindor is going to be crazy expensive -- next year’s free agent contract might be three times what LeMahieu gets this winter -- but you’re getting so many peak years. He’ll be LeMahieu’s current age in 2026!

This is not a vacuum though, and acquiring Lindor requires one of two things: using your farm system to trade for him now, or waiting a year to sign him as a free agent, which doesn’t help the 2021 Yankees. The Mookie Betts trade perhaps indicates it won’t take a massive haul to get Lindor. The David Price component complicates that comparison. Getting Lindor for one top level youngster plus other stuff would be a big win, I think.

Ideally, the Yankees re-sign LeMahieu and add Lindor, either now or next year. There’s room for both on the roster and the Yankees would be a better team with both of them rather than one. I love Lindor and am totally willing to trade for him now. He’d improve the 2021 Yankees, and even if you can’t work out a long-term extension, you’d at least get a draft pick when he leaves as a free agent and recoup some prospect capital that way.

Anonymous asks: Is Stanton a DH for good now? Moving him back to LF opens up a lot of possibilities that would help balance the lineup and improve the infield defense (Voit to DH, DJ to 1B, Gleyber to 2B, new SS). You could sign Didi or move Frazier as part of a package for Lindor.

Brian Cashman made it pretty clear the Yankees are sticking with Giancarlo Stanton as the full-time designated hitter during his end-of-season press conference. Maybe that will change in a year or two, but right now, Stanton is a DH and a DH only. They want to keep him healthy.

“Given the injuries that we’ve experienced with him thus far, I think the safe bet would be to continue with him at the DH level,” Cashman said. “... The workload and maintaining his lower body injuries is obviously something that would be at risk. Our best strategy would be to deploy him at the DH role as we’ve been doing.”

If they’re not going to play him in the outfield, the Yankees really should give Stanton a first baseman’s mitt. Let him work out there over the winter and get some game reps in Spring Training, just to see whether he could handle it on occasion. He doesn’t need to be an everyday option there, but could he do it once a week? Every little bit of roster flexibility helps.

Nick asks: Are the Yankees bad at building sustainable starting rotations? It feels like every postseason the starting pitching is overmatched and it’s why they end up losing. Gerrit Cole was supposed to be the answer to that, but once again it feels like the starters will get them knocked out.

Sustainable rotations aren’t really a thing because of injuries and free agency and self-imposed austerity. The Mets looked like they were headed for a dynasty with their rotation a few years ago and it blew up quick. The Astros and Cleveland have had a ton of turnover. The Dodgers started Rich Hill in the World Series two years ago. The Rays started using the opener because they didn’t have nearly enough starting pitchers.

The last team with three or four good-to-great starters they could rely on 3-4 years in a row was who? The 2010-14 Giants? Even then, Tim Lincecum was in the bullpen in the 2012 and 2014 postseasons, and Matt Cain was left off the 2014 postseason roster entirely. The Athletics had a great run with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. They might be the last team to do it. Only five teams had at least three starters make at least 60 starts from 2018-20 and those five teams had no postseason success (1-11 in 12 postseason games) those years. A sustainable rotation isn’t really a thing.

The names are going to change regularly. That’s just baseball. It is more than fair to criticize the Yankees for not having enough starting pitching these last few years, though building a quality rotation is a never-ending endeavor. It’s hard to keep guys effective and together even 2-3 years at a time, and when you have that much turnover, you’re bound to have misses. All four LCS rotations this year have holes. This isn’t limited to the Yankees.

John asks: I can talk about pitching woes or inconsistencies but one thing that I found is the Yankees aren't half as much fun as they were in 2017 and 2018. I don't know what it is but the Yankees are not as much fun to watch. I have nostalgia about Didi cranking a three run homer against the Twins and about Bird hitting that homer off Miller. Even though they lost those years, it was a ton of fun. Now, not so much. What do you think it is because I can't put my finger on it. I think the Yankees now are just as talented (maybe more with Cole) but they just aren't as much fun to watch.

I can’t speak for how John feels, but personally, it’s the expectations. The most exciting teams are the teams that exceed expectations and have success when no one expected them to have success. 2017 was supposed to be a rebuilding year -- the Yankees called it a “transition” year -- but then Aaron Judge started socking dingers and Luis Severino turned into an ace, and it was fun as hell.

Expectations have been raised since then, understandably. The Yankees are a World Series contender and when they don’t meet those expectations -- or even when they go 5-15 in a 20-game span like they did this past season -- it’s not very fun. The pandemic certainly didn’t help matters, but the Yankees are less fun now because expectations are high and they’re not meeting them. That’s all it is, I think.

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