There’s a report DJ LeMahieu is “dismayed” with the Yankees and has asked his agent to connect with other teams.
There’s a report from Yahoo! Sports that DJ LeMahieu is “dismayed” with the Yankees and has asked his agent to connect with other teams on a contract. If true, it’s not a surprise as the Yankees have yet to sign the team’s best player. They have yet to do anything this offseason.
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Because of the lack of Rangers games over the last 10 months, there hasn’t been any animosity build toward new players to make the team.
We are close to when the NHL All-Star Game would take place in a normal season. But this season hasn’t even started yet, and there won’t be an All-Star Game, so the time when I usually release the season’s All-Animosity Team won’t exist this year. Maybe it’s for the better after last year’s “All-Star Game” featured Chris Kreider, Travis Konecny, Tyler Bertuzzi, Anthony Duclair and some questionable decisions in net.
By the time the Rangers open their season on Jan. 14, 2021, they won’t have played a regular-season game in 10 months and a day. In that 10 months and a day, they will have played three total games, all in their best-of-5 series against Carolina.
Because of the lack of games, there hasn’t been any animosity build toward new players to make the team. The All-Animosity Team for this season is the same as it was last season with some updates.
FORWARDS
Matthew Barzal
We came dangerously close to Panarin and Barzal playing together for the foreseeable future. If not for Panarin taking less money (about $1 million per year less) to be a Ranger instead of an Islander, Rangers fans would have had to deal with those two flying around together for years to come. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Thankfully, it didn’t happen.
When Barzal is on the ice, I’m scared. I’m not scared at the level of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Nathan MacKinnon or Connor McDavid, but I’m still scared. He’s the one true playmaker on the Islanders and against the current state of the Rangers defense, he’s not someone I enjoy entering the offensive zone with the puck. Every time he does his patented circling of the zone with possession it feels like it will only end badly, and unfortunately, he’s not going anywhere in terms of the rivalry.
I was hoping Barzal got offer sheets this offseason, and was hoping the Rangers might have even been one of the teams to offer him one. If no offer sheets, I hoped Barzal would hold out for the season. That didn’t happen either. His deal eventually got done and he’ll be an Islander for at least the next three seasons. Good for the rivalry, bad for the Rangers.
Brad Marchand
Marchand is the ultimate player who you hate to watch your team play against, but would love if he were on your team. He’s dirty and annoying, he’s a pest and nuisance, but he’s really good. He makes up one-third of the Bruins’ “Perfection Line” and the Bruins go as that line goes, and after a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018-19 and a first-place standing in the Atlantic last season, that line has never slowed down. Now, the Rangers will have to see that line for one-seventh of their regular-season schedule. Eight games against the Bruins makes isn’t ideal.
Marchand might have been on this team solely for what he does with the puck because he’s that talented, but it’s what he does without the puck that solidified his roster spot. His lapses in judgment and total disregard for player safety whether it’s unnecessary hits to the head or irresponsible slew foots have made him universally disliked in the entire hockey world outside of Boston. I don’t envision a scenario where Marchand is in the league and isn’t on this team.
Alexander Ovechkin
In his career, Ovechkin has 35 goals in 59 regular-season games against the Rangers and another 13 goals in 33 playoff games across five postseason series, with four of those series going seven games. He’s the ultimate “When is his shift going to end?” and “Get the puck out of the zone” player there is and when he’s waiting at the top of the circles on the power play, two minutes feels like 20 minutes.
I keep waiting for Ovechkin to slow down, thinking age or games played might start to catch up to him, but in his age 34 season he led the league in scoring with 48 goals and was on a 58-goal pace before the season was shut down. I do respect his ability and do appreciate that I’m watching greatness and a generational talent and arguably the best goal scorer in the history of the game, that just doesn’t take away how I feel when he’s playing the Rangers.
DEFENSEMEN
Zdeno Chara
Chara is no longer a Bruin, but the Rangers will still see him plenty now that he’s a Capital. The animosity will only increase because of his change of teams.
It’s weird to think the Bruins will retire Chara’s number one day considering the team they were when they signed him and the team they eventually became. When Chara arrived in Boston, It felt like it would be at least another three decades until the Bruins won again, but after winning the Cup and reaching the Final two other times in a nine-year period, Chara was staple for the Bruins and an exemplary captain of the team for 15 years (though I have always felt as though Patrice Bergeron deserved to wear the “C” all those years).
Chara isn’t close to being the player he once was and appears to be a liability on the ice more times than not, but he’s not once again on this team for the player he is, but the player he was.
Andy Greene
To be honest, I don’t dislike Greene. In fact, I don’t have any positive or negative feelings about him. But this roster needed a representative from the Devils last season, and who was better to fill that role than their captain? Greene is no longer with the Devils, but he’s with the Islanders, and going from one Rangers rival to another made him an easy pick on this team’s blue line.
The Devils were a mess last season, and that led to them moving Greene. After winning the lottery for the second time in three years, acquiring P.K. Subban and signing Wayne Simmonds, the Devils looked at worst to be a bubble team for the postseason. The only thing they ended up on the bubble for was winning the draft lottery again. The Devils have the pieces in place to rebound in this shortened season, but let’s hope that’s not the case. The Rangers newly-aligned division is hard enough.
GOALIE
Braden Holtby
For years I only had to worry about picking the forwards and defensemen for this team because I knew Martin Brodeur would be the goalie. Holtby is in no way as easy of a choice for this spot as Brodeur was, but he has still earned it. Normally, I dislike a player because of their performance against one of my teams, but Holtby has only won 14 of 26 regular-season games against the Rangers and has lost all three postseason series to them, including three Game 7s.
The reason I have never liked him is mostly not his fault. It’s not his fault he has been perceived in past seasons to be better than Henrik Lundqvist despite having a much, much better team in front of him, and it’s not his fault that his much, much better team helped him win the Stanley Cup, while Lundqvist’s prime was wasted with a disastrous defense and poor roster construction and he will most likely retire having never won the Cup.
Holtby is now in Vancouer, so the animosity for him will go away. For now, there’s no better option, but there will be for next year.
Someone will win Super Bowl LIV, but it won’t be the Giants. Here’s the list of playoff teams in order of who I want to see win the Super Bowl to who I don’t want to see win the Super Bowl.
Someone will win Super Bowl LV, but it won’t be the Giants. Unfortunately, this blog is becoming an annual thing because of the Giants’ inability to reach the postseason.
Here’s the list of playoff teams in order of who I want to see win the Super Bowl to who I don’t want to see win the Super Bowl.
1. Bills
If you don’t have a horse in this season’s race, or if your horse drops out of the race, how can you not root for the Bills? The removal of Tom Brady from the AFC East allowed the Bills to finally reclaim the division with a 13-3 record, and were a completed Kyler Murray Hail Mary away from being 14-2. I was heartbroken for Bills fans after they fell to the Texans last year, and I truly hope I don’t have to feel that way for them again in January … or February.
2. Washington
I’m not mad at the Eagles for me having to write this blog again this season. They didn’t prevent the Giants from reaching the postseason, the Giants did that all on their own. The Eagles just did everything they could to not help them, like Jim Halpert avoiding a falling Michael Scott as he went into the koi pond in The Office. Washington has a solid defense and a formidable front four, and that’s a recipe for disaster for Brady as he have learned in all of his other postseason defeats. Washington’s chances come down to what their offense can do, and if it’s anything like it was in Philadelphia in Week 17, their postseason will last one game.
3. Tampa Bay
A year ago, I would have been disgusted at the thought of Brady winning a seventh Super Bowl. But now, he’s a Buccaneer, and the Giants were eliminated and won’t be hosting the Buccaneers this Saturday, so why not bring some joy to this postseason and have Brady win a championship in his first season on a new team, causing chaos in New England?
4. Bears
The Bears have about as good of a chance as winning the Super Bowl as the Giants do, so even having them on this list is unnecessary.
5. Titans
A year ago, after upsetting the Patriots and outsmarting Bill Belichick with his fourth-quarter rundown of the clock, I was all in on Mike Vrabel. But now after watching his defense fall apart, and his offense at times forgetting they have Derrick Henry, the Titans have been a mess this season. Yes, an 11-win mess. Their regular-season finale against the Texans summed up this Titans team as they nearly lost a game in which they led by 16 points with 4:29 left in the third quarter and led by three points with 1:50 left in the game. The Titans have cost me a good amount of money this season, but they’re still a better option to win than most other teams.
6. Chiefs
Let’s be honest, the Chiefs are winning the Super Bowl. It would take a monumental upset for them to not win the Super Bowl. It wouldn’t bother me if Patrick Mahomes were to eventually put an end to the Peyton Manning-Brady debate of who the greatest quarterback of all time is if he keeps on his current trajectory. Winning a second Super Bowl at age 25 and a second in as many years would go a long way in him eventually winning the debate.
7. Colts
I never want Eli Manning to lose his title as the best quarterback from the 2004 draft class (which he undoubtedly is or was). That means Philip Rivers never winning a Super Bowl.
8. Browns
A Browns Super Bowl would give the Giants hope since the Giants have become what the Browns used to be in recent seasons. A Browns Super Bowl would also mean the team went on to win a championship without Odell Beckham. Beckham’s lone playoff game to date remans the game he and Sterling Shepard combined to lose for the Giants with their first-quarter drops five years ago. Beckham would be the Browns’ Jeremy Shockey.
9. Saints
The Saints avenged their non-pass interference call against the Rams two years ago by losing to Kirk Cousins and the Vikings a year ago. The Saints aren’t what they were over the last two years, but they’re still capable of winning the NFC and the Super Bowl. I just don’t want them to.
10. Ravens
Two postseasons ago, I bet on the Ravens to beat the Chargers. I still have no idea how John Harbaugh sat there and let a winnable postseason game fade away as Joe Flacco stood on the sideline while Lamar Jackson couldn’t register a first down. I also have no idea Jackson went from the quarterback in that game to league MVP in a single year. But I’m still not over that loss.
11. Steelers
I can’t stand the Steelers. A fraudulent team during the Patriots’ dynasty, the Steelers’ December home loss to Washington when they were still undefeated is more to blame for Washington winning the NFC East than the Eagles throwing the Week 17 game. (But yes, it’s still really the Giants’ own fault their season is over.)
12. Packers
If the Miracle at MetLife didn’t happen and the Giants didn’t blow a 21-point lead to the Eagles with eight minutes to play now more than 10 years ago, Aaron Rodgers is this generation’s Dan Marino. That Giants collapse allowed the Packers to reach the playoffs and eventually reach the Super Bowl. Without that Giants loss, the Rodgers Packers would have endured the following postseason defeats:
51-45 overtime loss at Arizona
37-20 loss at home to Giants after going 15-1 in regular season
45-31 loss at San Francisco
23-20 loss at home to San Francisco
28-22 overtime loss at Seattle after blowing 12-point lead with 3:52 left
26-20 overtime loss at Arizona
44-21 loss at Atlanta
37-20 loss at San Francisco
One Super Bowl appearance and win (which shouldn’t have happened) for Rodgers is too much for me.
13. Rams
After the Rams’ performance in Super Bowl LIII when they scored three points despite the Patriots trying to give the game away in the first quarter, it will be a long time, if ever, that I root for the Rams.
14. Seahawks
I will never get over what Pete Carroll did in Super Bowl XLIX. Never. I will also never root for him unless I absolutely have to, but since the Eagles, Cowboys, Patriots and Jets aren’t in the postseason, there’s no potential matchup where I would have to root for him and his team.
DJ LeMahieu is still a free agent and the Yankees still haven’t improved their roster or rotation.
It’s been three days since the last podcast and DJ LeMahieu is still a free agent, and over the last three days, the Yankees haven’t improved their roster or rotation. The Yankees did finally make an offseason move, but it was nothing more than a depth move that will hopefully not have any impact on the team this season.
Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes every Monday and Thursday during the offseason.
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Once the New Year arrives, the countdown to pitchers and catchers is on. If it remains as scheduled, there’s not much time for the Yankees to improve their roster, which they drastically need to.
Once the New Year arrives, the countdown to pitchers and catchers is on. If it remains as scheduled, it’s in about six weeks, and that’s not much time for the Yankees to improve their roster, which they drastically need to.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. The Yankees finally made an offseason move. It didn’t make the team better in any way, but they made a move, so at least we know they know they’re allowed to modify their roster.
The move was to add soon-to-be-28-year-old Greg Allen, an outfielder from San Diego. Allen is a career .239/.298/.343 hitter in 221 games with Cleveland and San Diego with eight career home runs, though he has been able to steal bases (32 in 38 attempts), even if that’s something the Yankees don’t value and all of baseball no longer seems to either.
2. Clearly a depth move, Allen is now currently the team’s fifth outfielder, I guess? Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Clint Frazier then Mike Tauchman then Allen. Giancarlo Stanton is no longer an outfielder and Brett Gardner is still a free agent. Once Gardner inevitably returns, he becomes the fourth outfielder (I would hope), Tauchman becomes the fifth (I would also hope) and Allen falls to sixth.
For now, it’s a nothing move by the Yankees. But when Judge and Hicks eventually go on the injured list, Allen will likely become needed.
3. The Yankees have been connected to many free agents this offseason, like they are every offseason, because they’re the Yankees and content needs to be created and clicks need to be had, but nearly all of the rumors and reports will amount to nothing. They might not make a single move of significance other than re-signing DJ LeMahieu, and who knows if they will even do that? But the one name that has drawn a lot of attention is Yasiel Puig, though I don’t know why.
It’s not that I wouldn’t welcome Puig as an addition the Yankees. I just don’t know where he fits. The Yankees have a full outfield and they have outfield depth. It’s the one area they actually have depth. Signing Puig would mean not signing Gardner, which is a decision I highly doubt the Yankees would make. But even if they were to make that decision, does Puig play over Judge or Hicks or Frazier? I’d hope not. On top of that, you’re adding yet another right-handed bat to a team that lacks an actual left-handed bat (sorry, Hicks). I don’t see it.
4. What I do see is the Yankees signing Corey Kluber. Rather, I want them to sign Kluber. I will go pick him up if needed.
Kluber faced three batters in 2020 before going down for the season. In 2019, he only threw 35 2/3 innings because of injury. But from 2014 through 2018 he was the best pitcher in the American League, pitching to a 2.85 ERA and 1.016 WHIP, while averaging 218 innings per season and 10.1 strikeouts-per-nine innings.
If the Yankees sign Kluber and he’s his 2018 self (20-8, 2.89 ERA, 0.991 WHIP, 9.3 K/9), well then they have Gerrit Cole, Kluber and potentially Luis Severino as their 1-2-3. If the Yankees sign Kluber and he sucks or goes down with another injury, it will have only cost them money. Nothing else. Just dollars. The thing the Yankees make more of than any other team.
Signing someone of Kluber’s ability is a move the Yankees should make because of their financial resources. It doesn’t hurt their prospect pool and doesn’t hurt their bank account given the salary Kluber will sign for to prove he can still pitch.
Will the Yankees sign Kluber? Probably not. Why? Because it will cost money, and the Steinbrenners are now poor following the 2020 shortened, fan-less season.
5. I have no idea how the Yankees plan to build a rotation for 2021, and I have no idea how they think they can without re-signing Masahiro Tanaka.
Charlie Morton (Atlanta on a one-year, $15 million deal) and Mike Minor (Kansas City on a two-year, $18 million deal) are off the board. Robbie Ray re-signed with Toronto and Drew Smyly signed with Atlanta. The list of available free-agent starting pitchers not named Masahiro Tanaka is frightening.
6. Outside of Trevor Bauer, who is the best available, but the worst fit for the Yankees, the other big-name options are Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, Jordan Zimmermann, Jeff Samardzija, Cole Hamels, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Leake and Rick Porcello. The problem is that it’s 2021 and not 2016.
Tanaka makes too much sense for the Yankees. He’s consistent (3.74 ERA over seven seasons), he’s durable (at least 27 starts in all full, 162-game seasons since 2016) and he was historically great in the postseason prior to his two 2020 postseason starts. He knows New York and the Yankees and they know him.
I think the Yankees will re-sign Tanaka. I just think it won’t happen until LeMahieu signs with the Yankees or somewhere else.
7. If it’s somewhere else for LeMahieu, I don’t know if I will be writing or podcasting about it. Not re-signing LeMahieu might be the move that officially sends me off the grid, and removes Yankees baseball from my life. Because not signing LeMahieu would be so inexplicable, so irresponsible, so nonsensical and so disgusting I don’t know how I could continue to follow, root for and cover the team.
The fact it’s Jan. 7 and LeMahieu is still a free agent makes me sick. The Yankees are clearly waiting him out to save some money because they need to be financially responsible now that they’re poor, and the longer this goes, the better chance he signs with the Mets or Dodgers or Nationals are someone else.
8. Spring training begins in about six weeks and the first spring training game is scheduled for seven weeks from this Saturday. That’s not that far away. (Yes, this is under the assumption the season will start on time, and until I’m told otherwise, I will operate under that assumption). The Yankees have A LOT of work to do in not so much time. I get nauseous thinking about how little time they have to improve their roster and to stop supporting the frame keeping their window of opportunity open with duct tape.
9. Phil Hughes announced his retirement from baseball, though I think the league kind of announced that for him with the lack of offers over the last couple of seasons. Hughes never lived up the expectations of being a first-round draft pick and the team’s top prospect, but he did have his moments. He served as Mariano Rivera’s setup man in 2009 and was invincible in that role (prior to the postseason), and the following year he was an All-Star for his magnificent first-half production in his first full season as a starter.
Hughes’ Yankees career was marred by inconsistency and an inability to put away hitters and allow two-strike fouls (something I wrote about at length during his final years in New York). He had a lengthy career, made a lot of money and has a championship ring to his name, so it wasn’t like he was a bust. He just wasn’t what I thought he would be.
10. On New Year’s Day, I wrote my resolutions for 2021, and there are three of them, all regarding Aaron Boone. This week, I wrote about how LeMahieu will be a Yankee if the Yankees truly want him back, how the team lacks a rotation (which is kind of important to have) despite having the highest payroll in the league and put together a detailed history of the Yankees’ mishandling of Luis Severino’s recent injuries.
My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!