Author Archives: Chris Calderon

What’s happening to the Yankee rotation?

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Cubs at Yankees

Look Ma, no pine tar. (Photo Credit: Paul J Bereswill)

Coming into the season, the Yankees pitching staff was considered the strength of the team. The rotation was planned to be CC Sabathia, the former Ace, who was transitioning from fireballer to crafty vet. Hiroki Kuroda, a seasoned veteran who carried the Yanks for the first half of 2013. Ivan Nova, the unheralded non-prospect who appeared to be the real deal at the end of last season. Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees big ticket free agent signing, a man who went 24-0 in the NPB last year. And finally, Michael Pineda, the man the Yankees traded top catching prospect Jesus Montero for, who has spent the past 2 years dealing with shoulder injuries, is just now finally making the team. This was a pitching staff with more upside then you could shake a stick at. However, currently only 2 of those 5 starters are in the rotation, so what the hell happened?

Lots of injuries, that’s what happened. The Yankees were fortunate to have some depth at starting pitching this year.  Coming out of spring training they had 7 starters, Michael Pineda made the starting 5, while David Phelps and Vidal Nuno went to the pen and/or AAA. Of course a few weeks into the season that depth was tested, Ivan Nova was bitten by the Tommy John bug that’s been going around, and was quickly out until 2015. That put Nuno into the rotation.

Shortly after Nova’s injury, Michael Pineda decided to go and do something stupid like smearing pine tar all over his neck, and earned himself a 10 game suspension. Up until this point Pineda had been one of the rocks of the rotation due to CC and Nova’s ineffectiveness. Now, the Yankees were forced to move Phelps out of the long man role and into the rotation. Interestingly enough, this paved the way for the triumphant return of certified crazy person, Alfredo Aceves! In his return he has been quite effective out of the pen, with 5 hits and 1 walk in 7.1 innings.

To top off the injury issues. CC Sabathia, who hasn’t been able to get over 1 bad inning in many of his starts, is now also on the DL with fluid in his knee. Hopefully the time off will give him a chance to reevaluate his approach. We have seen signs that the big man is getting it together, but like I said before, 1 bad inning has derailed many of his starts. This most recent injury leaves everyone wondering, who will slot into the rotation now? Will it be the a fore mentioned Alfredo Aceves? Maybe, he has been the long man with the Yanks, so he should be stretched out. How about Chase Whitley, he’s pitched to a 2.49 ERA in 6 starts with the AAA RailRiders. He was also lifted from his most recent start after 1 inning and his next turn in the rotation is now listed as TBA. No injury has been reported, this leads one to believe a call-up is imminent.

Finally we get to the healthy part of the Yankee rotation *Knock on wood*. Hiroki Kuroda has looked more like the later half of 2013 this season. The culprit here is likely shoddy infield defense, as his walks (3.9%) and his FIP(3.32) are currently at a career low, he is also striking out batters at around his normal rate of 18.3%. Kuroda has also taken 2 losses already on quality starts, he only lost 3 quality starts in all of 2013, so the infield defense has been pretty brutal to the H-Rock.

Lastly we have Masahiro Tanaka, I really don’t have much to say about him. Tanaka has been all the Yankees hoped and more. His starts are a must see, Masahiro Tanaka is the Yankee Ace.

That’s our little recap of the Yankees rotation, what looked like a strength has become a weakness. However, because baseball is a silly game where all sorts of a random things happen, the Yankee bullpen, which seemed to be the teams weakness (outside of a shitty old infield,) has looked great so far. All we can do is hope the pen keeps up it’s good work and that CC come back and be effective, oh and, Pineda maybe stop smearing pine tar all over his body, that would be nice too.

Pondering Stephen Drew

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Stephen Drew falls down, I bet he made a funny noise when this happened.(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Stephen Drew falls down, I bet he made a funny noise when this happened.           (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

As we near the start of spring training, their is one player left on the market that both the Yankees and the Mets could desperately use in the upcoming season. Stephen Drew is the best, and really only legitimate, shortstop still available. While he would be a massive upgrade for either team, there are some very good reasons why he is still available a week before pitchers and catchers report to spring training. So, lets take a look at why Stephen Drew is still available, and who his primary suitors are.

The Yankees

As has been the case for the past 18 years, Derek Jeter is penciled in to be the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees. Unfortunately, this is not the Jeter we have been used to seeing all these years, this is a 39 year old Jeter, coming back from a season that was plagued with leg injuries.  Of course the captain won’t go gently into that good night, no, he will hang on until they have tear that precious #2 off his back.

Compounding the problem of old man Jetes not wanting to move off of short is the fact that there really is no replacement waiting in the wings. Sure, they have Eduardo Nunez, but lets be real, the possibility of Eduardo Scissorhands being the future starting shortstop is terrifying to Yankee fans, and likely hilarious to all other baseball fans. The Yankees have also signed Brendan Ryan to be the back up shortstop, but he is not the future, at least he shouldn’t be. The man is a career .237/.299/.320 hitter and spent the past 2 year below the Mendoza line. Sure, defensively he’s one of the best, but his wet noodle bad is unacceptable for a starting position player on a team with hopes of contending.

So we can see how Stephen Drew would fit right into the mix with the Yanks, except for the fact that he wouldn’t. Jeter isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he is the face of the franchise, this is a man that got a raise after missing almost the entire season with serious leg injuries, he’s not moving over to third to make room for Drew. Sure the Yanks could put Drew on second or third, but he has never played there in his career. If he came to the Yankees it would be as a super utility guy, he would essentially replace Eduardo Nunez. But you don’t pay someone the money that Drew will demand to be a utility player, and everything we have heard says Drew wants to stay at short, so my guess is he won’t be coming to the Yankees this off season.

The Mets

Coming into the off season I thought it would be a no-brainer, the Mets would sign Stephen Drew. And yet here we are, a few weeks away from spring training games and once again the Mets are going into the season with Ruben Tejada and Omar Quintanilla as their starting shortstops. It really seems like Drew to the Mets would be a match made in heaven, they have an obvious need and the Mets are the only team that could guarantee he would be their starting shortstop.

So why hasn’t he signed yet? Could it be that he would be tied to a draft pick? I don’t think so, the Mets first round pick is protected, and they already gave their second rounder to the Yankees for Granderson, so they would only have to give up the 85th pick in the draft. Maybe the Mets would rather wait until next years crop of free agents? There are some good names there, Hanley Ramirez , J.J. Hardey, and Asdrubal Cabrera to name a few. Good players, but not all will reach free agency, rumor has it the Dodgers and Orioles are trying to lock up Hanley and Hardey respectively.

My guess is the Mets really do want Drew, but at their price, and their years. Its a game of chicken, they see no one else is making a move, so they feel no rush to make theirs. 2014 isn’t going to be the year they make a push; so why overpay now? If they lose out on him, oh well, there’s always next years crop, but if he gets desperate for a deal, the Mets will be their, contract in hand, just waiting for him to sign.

The Red Sox

Drew’s former team, the Red Sox offered him a qualifying offer this year, and of course he turned it down. That does tell us though, that they would consider bringing him back at their price, that price being $14.1 million for 1 year, a deal which at this point is off the table.

Boston presents and interesting playing situation for Drew, he would likely end up as a utility player, bouncing between short and third. This is because prospect Xander Bogaerts came up at the end of last season and proved he belongs in the majors. They also have Will Middlebrooks who may still prove to be a legitimate third baseman, though the jury is still out on that. My guess is that the Red Sox want to see how the kids do, rather then go out and spend on free agents.

All in all, I can’t see the Red Sox offering a deal better then the qualifying offer Drew already declined, maybe a 1 year, $12 million offer gets in done and he can go back out on the market next year, but everything we have heard says he wants a multi-year deal, with an opt out clause.

So where does Drew end up? If you put a gun to my head, I’d probably say the Mets. They have the biggest need and the clear path to playing time, which seems to be the most important thing to Drew. As for the deal? I’m thinking 3 years $36 million dollar deal with an opt out after every year, similar to the Raphael Soriano deal with the Yankees a few years ago. Drew to the Mets would make the most sense, but this is baseball so we all know that won’t happen.

The A-Rod suspension domino effect

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dominoes

Yesterday morning the news finally broke, the national mystery was solved… how long would Alex Rodriguez’s suspension be? The answer, 162 games; the entire 2014 season as well as the post season, should the Yankees make it that far. Now I’m not going to discuss whether or not the the full year suspension was warranted or not, in this article I am going to examine how this effects the Yankees and A-Rod going forward.

For the short term, the Yankees need a third baseman. Sure, they have Kelly Johnson, Eduardo Nunez and Dean Anna, but none of these players are ideal. Nunez is an embarrassment defensively, Anna is a relative unknown, and at best Johnson is an average 2nd baseman, which means he will likely be a below average 3rd baseman. This means the Yanks need to go out and find themselves someone to man the hot corner, and this late in the off season the pickings are slim.

The only real options right now are Mark Reynolds and Michael Young. While neither one is going to give the Yankees an all star caliber 3rd baseman, I think the better choice is Mark Reynolds. At 30, Reynolds is 7 years younger then the aptly named Michael Young, that would make him one of the youngest members of the team. We also saw how well Reynolds performed last year in his limited time with the Yankees, hitting 6 home runs in only 120 plate appearances. As for defense, frankly neither player is very good, though at least Reynolds posted a positive dWAR with the Yankees last year (a whopping .3, but still better then Young’s -.4 with the Dodgers in a similar amount of time.)

All in all, the choices aren’t great, but Reynolds is better then anything else that is readily available, so hopefully the Yankees pick him up, I doubt he would cost more 5-6 million, that shouldn’t be an issue with the savings the Yankees are getting by not having to pay A-Rod this year.

And of course as I was writing this article the Yankees go out and sign Scott Sizemore to a minor league deal. Sizemore has had 6 plate appearances since 2011 when he tore his ACL… Twice. Defensively he should be better then most other options. But his career batting numbers (.238/.328/.381) are pretty terrible, not exactly the power hitting third baseman the Yanks need. considering his injury history, lack of recent playing time, and poor batting, I’m not wild about the move, but since its only a minor league deal i suppose there is no real harm in it.

Taking a slightly longer view of the situation, we see that the Yankees are now significantly below the $189 luxury tax threshold. Now, if they sign Tanaka they will likely be right up against it and more then likely will end up blowing past it. But what if they don’t sign Tanaka, what then?

My guess is if the Yankees are unable to land Tanaka, they will end up signing a lesser free agent pitcher for the four spot, and then going in house for the fifth starter. Now, when I say a lesser free agent starter, I’m not talking about a Santana, Jimenez, or Garza. I’m talking about a Capuano or Arroyo. These guys would let the Yankees stay under $189 million so they can reset the luxury tax.

Now this may sound like a good thing, and for the far future I’m sure it is; but this is the Yankees we’re talking about. Going with scrap heap pitchers for the back end of the rotation, a bunch of old men and stop gaps manning the left side of the infield is as close to a rebuild year as we have seen in a long time. You add in the fact that the Yanks signed three big name free agents already, and you have the recipe for a messy season. This off season may not be remembered for what they went out and acquired, but for what they lost.

The final domino in my little metaphor, is Alex’s future with the Yankees. Will he return for the 2015 season, could the courts grant him an injunction and let him play this year, does he even appear in spring training? First off, I doubt the team will want him in Tampa this spring, though I’m not sure they can keep him out, he’s on the roster, and apparently the suspension doesn’t include spring training so we may see him down there, if he is with the team I’m sure there will be a media circus around him. We all know the Yankees don’t want to deal with that, so for everyone’s sake I hope they manage to keep him out.

As for the far future, I’m not sure we have seen the last of Alex Rodriguez in pinstripes. he will still be owed $61 million for the 2015-17 seasons. That’s a lot of money to write off if the Yanks give him the boot, they may be better off keeping him around as a DH, it’s slightly better then flushing the money down the toilet. If they do cut him, some other team that doesn’t care about what they are putting on the field could pick him up (I’m looking at you Miami Marlins.) They would have to pay him the major league minimum, while the Yankees still have to shell out millions of dollars.

There is one final domino to fall in all of this (I love my little metaphor,) and that is the real future of third base for the Yankees. Internal options are lacking, we saw what David Adams could do last year, Eric Jagielo and Dante Bichette jr. are at least a year or two away, and Ronnie Mustillier may be able to hit, but he can’t field. Chase Headley is a free agent next year, and the Yankees have tried to trade for him in the past. My guess is they look into signing him next off season, though that would pretty much put the last nail in the A-Rod coffin.

With the arbitrators ruling this week the Biogenesis story comes to an end. The players have all been punished, and baseball will be steroid scandal free for at least a few years months. We have our answers, but all they have done is lead us to new questions, questions we may not know the answers to for a very long time.