Allan Kreda of The New York Times joined me to talk about the Rangers’ trade deadline options.
There are so many different ways the Rangers can approach and handle the trade deadline that there’s no way to predict exactly what the roster will look like a little over two weeks from now. But that’s not going to stop everyone from trying to predict what it will look like.
Allan Kreda of The New York Times joined me to talk about the three-goalie situation and if Henrik Lundqvist might now be the odd man out, the chances of a Chris Kreider extension, what to do with Ryan Strome, the possibility of Jacob Trouba or Brady Skjei getting traded and Vitali Kravtsov getting called up in the final month of the season.
I understand Henrik Lundqvist’s age and his salary and cap hit for 2020-21. I also recognize what he has done for the organization for nearly 15 years and I will never not feel indebted to him as a Rangers fan.
The Rangers returned from their long layoff and won three of four. It’s what they need to do keep their playoff dreams alive and prolong a third straight deadline selloff from the front office. The Rangers still have nine games left before the deadline to showcase their available players while at the same time try to prove they can make a miraculous run to the playoffs.
1. The only person who was happier for Henrik Lundqivst than Lundqvist following his 1-0 shutout on Saturday in Detroit was me. More than two years since his last shutout, a feat that used to be accomplished weekly it felt like, Lundqvist once again posted a zero. The Rangers’ defense was never anything special when it featured Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Anton Stralman, Dan Boyle, Keith Yandle or Kevin Klein as Lundqvist routinely made that group and many others appear much better than they actually were from a scoreboard standpoint. But I’m sure Lundqvist longs for the days when he had some of those names given the current state of the Rangers’ defense and what he, Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev, need to do each game to prevent lopsided results.
2. To see Lundqvist get pulled against Dallas in the game immediately following his shutout was disheartening and rather unfair, but the reason for the goals didn’t matter to many Rangers fans, just that there were goals. The franchise legend was turned on as the reason and not the unnecessary penalties, slot deflections, odd-man rushes and defensive-zone turnovers, which set up the goals. The loss was hardly Number 30’s fault.
3. The three-goalie situation has now been going on for a month. Here’s how it’s gone since Shesterkin’s debut:
Sometimes the next game’s starting goalie has been based on the previous game’s performance, sometimes it has been based on being already scheduled and sometimes it’s been based on past performance against the next game’s opponent. It’s been hard to predict who will start from game to game, but I’m going to make a prediction for the games between now and next week’s Thoughts.
Friday vs. Buffalo: Georgiev Sunday vs. Los Angeles: Shesterkin Tuesday at Winnipeg: Lundqvist
4. Toronto was seen as the favorite to land Georgiev in a pre-deadline deal and then Los Angeles had to step in and trade them Jack Campbell. After ruining Lundqvist’s chance at the elusive Cup, it might be the Kings who once again ruin his legacy. With Toronto no longer in need of a goalie, the odds on Georgiev getting traded this season take a hit and it makes it more likely Lundqvist is somehow talked into waiving his no-trade clause or is bought out in the offseason. I hate the Kings.
5. Georgiev getting moved is still the most likeliest outcome of the three-goalie issue, but with each passing day and especially with Toronto no longer a suitor, it’s not as likely as it was just a few days ago. The cold, rainy winter days coupled with all of these Lundqvist trade and buyout rumors are depressing. I understand the Rangers’ love for Georgiev and their reluctance to trade him for anything less than their seemingly over-the-top demands, but it’s still the right move. I also understand Lundqvist’s age and his salary and cap hit for 2020-21. I also recognize what he has done for the organization for nearly 15 years and I will never not feel indebted to him as a Rangers fan. An offseason buyout would be even worse.
6. On the topic of buyouts, how many buyouts are the Rangers doing to need to do? They bought out Brad Richards and Dan Girardi and Kevin Shattenkirk, and should have bought out Staal. (Maybe start rethinking the organization’s handling of contracts and when extensions should be made?) If the Rangers do decide to extend Chris Kreider, there’s a good chance I will be writing about the Rangers needing to buy him out in a few years as well. I get that Kreider makes the Rangers better right now and next season as well and the season after that, but they’re not even a playoff team this season and next season they won’t be close to contending and might still not be ready in 2021-22. Realistically, the Rangers are three years at best from possibly being one of the elite teams in the league and by then Kreider will be 31-32 and getting paid to do things he did on the other side of 30. Given the weak expected rental class for this deadline, let some team overpay for his services for two months and use the return to actually help the team win in three and four years from now.
7. Given Artemi Panarin’s recent drop in even-strength production, I gladly welcomed Ryan Strome being removed from his line. It didn’t last long though as David Quinn put the two back together during Wednesday’s win over Toronto. One day I will get my dream of a Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Kaapo Kakko line. One day.
8. I was a fan of the trade for Jacob Trouba and still am, but I completely understand why he is a potential trade asset. He’s signed long-term at a solid number and he’s now a luxury for the Rangers. Given the abundnace of young defense and the eventual need to pay that young defense, Trouba isn’t needed the way he was when they traded for him. I will still happily have him as a Ranger, but I now almost expect him to be traded before his no-trade kicks in this offseason. When it comes to trading young defensemen with long-term deals, how about Brady Skjei? There has to be a landing spot for Skjei is his $5.25M cap hit through 2023-24. After Georgiev (because it helps Lundqvist remain a Ranger) and Kreider (because extending would be a mistake for when the team is ready to contend), I most want Skjei to be traded.
9. The best day of the season will be the day the day Greg McKegg, Brendan Smith and Micheal Haley no longer play. We’re getting closer to that day. With the deadline approaching and the Rangers’ playoff odds on the brink, it’s only a matter of time until the Rangers start to implement more young players into the NHL lineup and stop wasting valuable regular-season minutes and icetime on three players who should have never been a part of this season’s roster.
10. The Rangers came out of their 10-day layoff needing to win 75 percent of their remaining 34 games, and they have done that so far, going 3-1 against Detroit, Dallas and Toronto. They are now on pace for 88 points, and the second wild card is on pace for 99 points. That’s a lot of points to make up and every projection I have seen gives the Rangers a single-digit percentage of reaching the playoffs. The Rangers are going to need a 21-6-3 finish to play an 83rd game.
Unfortunately, the Yankees will no longer have the luxury of seeing David Price multiple times during the regular season. There won’t be anymore video game-related injury excuses or last-minute scratches or early exits for the $217 million pitcher against the Yankees.
Early in the 2018 season, David Price was scheduled to start against the Yankees before being mysteriously scratched. The reasons for the surprise missed scheduled start varied from wrist tightness to hand numbness to tenderness, but when Price was able to return to the mound and start just a few days later, it was obvious what the reason for him being scratched was: the Yankees.
Not even a month prior to his scratch on April 11, Price lasted only an inning against the Yankees, and not even two months after the scratch, Price would have his worst performance against the Yankees on July 1 on Sunday Night Baseball. Price’s line from that July 1 start: 3.1 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 5 HR. The Yankees produced five home runs without Gary Sanchez, who has hit Price better than any other major leaguer. Price would pick up a no-decision against the Yankees on Aug. 5 and then was embarrassed once more by them on Sept. 19 (5.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 3 HR).
That season, his miserable history against the Yankees culminated in Game 2 of the ALDS when he was once again lit up. Ten pitches into the game Aaron Judge sent a 1-2 pitch high over the Green Monster in left-center where few have ever hit a ball, and then leading off the second, Sanchez crushed the third pitch of the inning over the Monster as well. Price didn’t make it through the second inning as he was pulled after recording only five outs (1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 2 HR), leaving the game with two runners. After his departure, Judge barreled up Joe Kelly, but the 109.8 mph line drive was hit directly at Betts otherwise Price’s final line would have been much worse than it already was.
The last time the Yankees got to face Price as a Red Sox was on Aug. 4 of this past season, and he put together his usual performance, unable to last three innings at Yankee Stadium (2.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR).
Price leaves Boston and the American League with the current Yankees roster having a .317/.383/.639 line against him in 231 plate appearances. That’s a 1.022 OPS. Within the overall performance are some memorable individual performances:
(Aaron Hicks, Gleyber Torres, Gio Urshela Miguela Andujar and Kyle Higashioka have also homered off Price.)
Unfortunately, the Yankees will no longer have the luxury of seeing Price multiple times during the regular season. There won’t be anymore video game-related injury excuses or last-minute scratches or early exits for the $217 million pitcher against the Yankees.
The Yankees won’t have a chance to see him until 2022 — in the last year of his contract — when the Yankees next play the NL West in the regular season, unless the Yankees and Dodgers meet in the World Series. If they do finally meet in the World Series, the Dodgers will want to begin whichever game he starts with their bullpen up.
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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!
Andrew Rotondi of Bronx Pinstripes joined me to talk about the regular season once again becoming a formality.
Next week spring training begins. Baseball is back even if it’s just beat writers live-tweeting intrasquad games and batting practice, reading about pitchers’ fielding practice and back-field infield drills and watching videos of bullpen sessions recorded on a phone through the spacing of a chain-link fence.
Andrew Rotondi of Bronx Pinstripes joined me to talk about the possibility of Nolan Arenado becoming a Yankee, how easy it will be for the Yankees to win the division and more than 102 games, the mess the Red Sox are in, staying positive with Aaron Boone’s managerial style and what Giancarlo Stanton needs to do to win back Yankees fans.
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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!
Because I’m a nice person, I’m going to give Giancarlo Stanton a clean slate for the 2020 season. I’m going to be positive when it comes to Stanton for as long as he lets me be positive.
Spring training begins next week. NEXT WEEK! The offseason is long as it is, and it’s made even longer when the postseason ends on a pennant-winning, walk-off home run. But baseball is almost here, even if it’s not real, meaningful baseball.
To follow the format of Off Day Dreaming from the actual season, I decided to do a weekly Yankees thoughts blog to lead us into the season until the first Off Day Dreaming the day after Opening Day.
1. Because I’m a nice person, I’m going to give Giancarlo Stanton a clean slate for the 2020 season. No sarcasm to start the season, no snarky comments, no “Ladies and gentlemen” tweets on Opening Day. I’m going to be positive when it comes to Stanton for as long as he lets me be positive.
The Yankees were able to win 103 regular-season games and get to within two wins of the World Series without him, so he’s almost become a luxury at this point. I don’t want to say whatever Stanton gives the Yankees is a bonus the way it is for someone like Brett Gardner, but the Yankees proved he’s not crucial to their success the way Aaron Judge is.
Even though I will try to maintain a clean slate for Stanton, he has unforunately entered A-Rod territory at the Stadium in which the cleanliness of his slate is only as good as his most recent at-bat. Once you reach that territory, there’s no going back. Stanton could have the kind of postseason A-Rod did in 2009, and it won’t matter. He just needs to realize it, and somehow “clear the mechanism” like Billy Chapel when he’s playing at home and not let the inevitable boos affect him the way they clearly have in his first two seasons as a Yankee.
2. Nolan Arenado is still on the Rockies, which means he hasn’t been traded yet, which means the Yankees can still trade for him. Rockies owner Dick Manfort tried to downplay the rift between Arenado and general manager Jeff Bridich, but the rift is real and it exists. If it weren’t, Arenado wouldn’t have said the things he said this offseason about the Rockies and rumors wouldn’t be flying around about him potentially going to the Cardinals.
Here’s what I said last week in If the Yankees Can Get Nolan Arenado, Go Get Him: When a player like Arenado is made available, you don’t let him go somewhere else. And when a player like Arenado is made available and you’re the odds-on favorite to win the World Series in the middle of a championship window in the middle of a championship drought, you make sure he doesn’t go anywhere else.
I understand it’s most likely not going to happen, but it should happen. Arenado will essentially only cost money, which incase you forgot because the Yankees sometimes forget, is the organization’s greatest resource. Any player or prospect the Yankees would have to add would either be blocked for playing time by the trade, no longer part of the team’s plans anyway, far enough away from the majors to know if they will actually reach the majors or possibly Deivi Garcia. But you don’t let Deivi Garcia prevent you from getting Nolan Arenado. (Then again, Brian Cashman let Eduardo Nunez prevent him from getting Cliff Lee.)
3. The pictures on social media of Gary Sanchez over the last few weeks have shown a leaner, more fit and muscular Sanchez. Without seeing his face, you would never know it’s Sanchez. I’m not sure if Sanchez started eating vegetables, went the Joe Torre route of cutting out soda or just hit the weights harder, but it’s clear he had a goal of coming to spring training with a different look, and he has it. Is this new diet or workout regimen an attempt to stay off the injured list or prevent passed balls or possibly create even more power? I have no idea, but Sanchez is currently the favorite to win the most “(Player name) came to camp in the best shape of his life” headlines over the next two weeks.
4. I was watching MLB Network on Monday and there was a discussion on the top shortstops in baseball. Gleyber Torres was ranked sixth. Most likely this list was created with the idea of creating buzz and making Yankees fans (which there are more of than any other team) upset enough to talk about or write about, kind of like what I’m doing here. I may be writing about it, but I’m not upset about it. I find it more comical than anything. At least it’s not as egregious as ESPN ranking the Yankees as having the ninth-best offense in the majors.
5. The Yankees’ No. 4 starter is Masahiro Tanaka. The first pitcher in history to allow two earned runs or less in each of his first seven postseason starts is the Yankees’ No. 4 starter.
6. The Yankees had to bring J.A. Happ back last season based on his 2018 with the team after the trade deadline and because they decided to not sign any other free-agent starter. But after last season and with no one knowing what the state of the baseball will be for this season, I’m holding out for Happ to get traded before spring training. I understand you can never have enough pitching, except when you’re talking about a 37-year-old coming off the worst season of his career and set to earn $17 million. As long as Happ is on the team, he’s going to start. It will take a long, long time for him to removed from the rotation, the way it always takes the Yankees a long, long time to make a move like that, and if he’s not starting and not doing well as a starter he has no place on the team. Pitching twice a month out of the bullpen in mop-up duty while taking home nearly $3 million a month isn’t ideal.
7. Curtis Granderson retired from baseball the other day and if you told me on the day the Yankees traded for Granderson that he wouldn’t win a World Series, I would have gladly taken that bet. The Yankees had just won the World Series when they traded for him and were essentially returning the same exact roster the following season. But as a Yankee, Granderson experienced two ALCS losses and a five-game ALDS loss, as the Yankees were eliminated twice in those series by his former team. Granderson played for a long time, played for a lot of good teams and made a lot of money, but he should have a won a ring, and he should have won it with the Yankees. If not for the aforementioned keeping of Nunez for Lee, he would have won at least one.
8. Not only do the Yankees have the best team in baseball and not only are they the favorite to win the World Series, but at the same time as the Yankees’ core is entering it’s prime, the Red Sox are holding an Everything Must Go! sale and will likely move the team’s best player before spring training begins. Not only are the big-market and rich-beyond-anyone’s-wildest-dreams Red Sox adamant about trading Mookie Betts so they don’t have to pay, they also don’t have a manager and have yet to receive the results of the commissioner’s investigation into their sign stealing under their former manager. 2020 is going to be great.
9. The Yankees rarely ever get off to a good start. It seems like every season they are around .500 a few weeks into the season before going on a run, and this isn’t a recent trend, it’s been going on for years. Last season, the Yankees opened against the Orioles and lost two of three, then went on to lose two of three to the Tigers, got swept by the Astros and lost two of three to the White Sox and were 10-10 through 20 games. The year before, they were 9-9 through 18 games. Let’s not do that again this season.
It would be good for both the Yankees and my overall health if they took advantage of their early-season schedule this year. The Yankees open the season with three games in Baltimore followed by three in Tampa Bay and then open at home with three against Toronto and four against Baltimore. You can’t ask for a better schedule to start the season than that.
10. The Yankees over/under win total right now it at 102. It’s the highest it’s been since 2009 when I believe it was at 100. Last year, it was at 96.5 following a 100-win season, and the Yankees won 103 games. Every expected starter except for Torres and DJ LeMahieu missed time last season and the team won 103 games. Expecting a team to win more than 100 games is a lot, but in the current state of baseball where spending money and trying to win isn’t on every team’s agenda, it’s easier than ever to do so.
The AL East has already been won. The Rays’ ceiling can’t compete with this Yankees team, the Red Sox are in the process of cutting payroll, the Blue Jays are still a few years away and the Orioles … well, they would be lucky to win 60 games this season. This Yankees team is better than the last two and the division is much worse than it was the last two years. The Yankees are going to win more than 102 games.
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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!
