One of the greatest aspects of being a New York Yankee fan is that each and EVERY year they are all in. They go for the crown every season. We are NEVER sellers at the trade deadline. We spend to find pieces to the puzzle and try to make big trades for the guys we hope can bring us October Baseball. It is a great feeling knowing that the organization actually believes that anything sort of the title is not acceptable…but.
Yep, I tossed in a “but” at the end of that paragraph. As in, “That’s great…but is it realistic?” The truth is even the New York Yankees need to retool and rebuild. I have recently made mention that Brian Cashman has done a solid job bringing the farm system back from the dead. I still think he is too tight on the reigns letting the kids play, but that’s one man’s opinion. The issue is there are too many roadblock contracts in the way of the youth movement. And it is EXTREMELY difficult to make moves when money is jammed up in impulse buy deals (COUGH! Jacoby).
Would it be OK to take a year to rebuild if it yielded a team like 1996-2001? Would we be OK to hit the woodshed for a season to build a Six Million Dollar Man team…Faster, Stronger, Better than he ever was before? I know losing is not the Yankee Way. And it doesn’t have to be…but the 2016 Yankees will look SHOCKINGLY like the 2015 Yankees. We are old in the wrong places, expensive in the wrong places and IT WON’T GET BETTER.
So what to do? Flip a big name player? I guess, but who is taking Tex at 25 million a year, injury prone albeit sugar free? Who wants Beltran with bad knees? ARod is a new man with a new image…but still has the same contract and will be a 41-year-old DH. Anyone want Jacoby? He is still an above average player…but hasn’t shown it…and at that price? Nah. The Yankees NEED to hold on to the youngsters, so trading away Double R, The Bird, The Judge, Slade, Gary, Mason and so on is counterproductive. So what then? The answer is I don’t know the answer.
I want to believe, as Cash and Girardi pretend to, that Tex and Carlos will have more big years. I want to know in my heart that McCann and Chase will finally look at home in the Bronx and be leaders. I want to see ARod walk away after leading the Yankees back to the Promised Land one more time…but whom am I kidding. Look at the Royals. They are the epitome of today’s game, young, hungry and talented. It took patience and a bit of luck to get that club where it is. Luck we might stumble on…patience? We don’t do that in New York…and it may cause us more headaches, empty pits in our tummies and quiet Octobers.
Can we rebuild? Is that allowed?
** Love this band! Here’s The Hold Steady with CONSTRUCTIVE SUMMER. Everything great is built not bought. **
--Mike O'Hara Senior "Features" Writer
Twitter: @mikeyoh21
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