HAVE THE YANKEES RE-KINDLED THE EVIL EMPIRE CONVERSATION?

As Gerrit Cole claimed his pot of gold, Brian Cashman found himself defending the Yankees lack of spending in previous years saying that they always had the ability to lay down the hammer.  The perspective across the country is quickly mounting as naysayers see the Yankees' force rekindled but that force has been more of a dark, evil side force, from a certain point of view.

Source: Howard Simmon

“I always thought that was a false narrative,” Cashman said. “We have been a very aggressive franchise forever, it seems, under the Steinbrenner family. We’ve been at the highest-level payrolls on a year-in, year-out basis and one of the best teams year-in, year out, competing for a championship, so all those boxes get checked. We’ve been acting Yankee-like despite people speaking to the contrary," reported Newsday.

The Yankees have appeared frugal over the last several years, but what Cashman is saying is that the Yankees always had the money to spend, they just chose to be selective.  In many ways, the Death Star attack across the league is not something unexpected and the possibility of these kinds of attacks were eminent.  

Source: USA Today

“A lot of things in this game have been set up to prevent the Yankees from being what they were under George Steinbrenner,” Cashman said. “George Steinbrenner couldn’t be George Steinbrenner in this existence as he did in the ‘70s and into the ‘80s," reported Newsday.  Cashman added, "They’re (Hal and company) putting a team together that contends for a championship on a year-in, year-out basis, at super-deluxe salary levels. That can’t be ignored. Those are facts that are real.”

The Yankees have been contending but as we have experienced as fans, fallen short for one reason or another over the last decade since our last championship in 2009.  You can include the Houston Astros cheating citations as one of the reasons, but the fans that have watched the games saw the deficiencies and most of those fall in the starting pitching category.  Having a starting rotation at full strength, will be interesting to see, at least for the first month or so of the season.  Many debate that if the bats were at full strength in the playoffs of late, the Yankees would have their championship.  I have to disagree on this one point: if the starting pitching were doing their job, across the board, giving the Yankees a good opportunity to put runs on the board early without having to come back again and again and again, the pendulum might have swung differently in the 2017 and 2019.  

Source: AP/Gregory Bull

It is as important to note regarding the rekindling of the Evil Empire...is it the Yankees who should hold that distinction or the agents, like Scott Boras, who's pay day is closing fast on $1 billion?  The Yankees are paying for the right players at the right time to close the loop.  The asking price of these players are astronomical.  But when in Rome...The Yankees have to be in it.  And for the last few years, they have been unwilling to jump at players whose asking price was above what they were willing to pay, even though they could have paid it.  "The Yankees made no secret of their goal to get below the $197 million luxury-tax threshold for the 2018 season in an effort to reset their rate after paying a total of $341 million over 15 straight years," reported Newsday.  

Let's hope that the chemistry in starting pitching headed by a new pitching coach in Matt Blake gels, that the absence of CC Sabathia, Didi Gregorius and Austin Romine do not hurt the Yankees in their quest for gold in October and that the defense is solid and bats hot against opponents seeking the same prize.  The force is definitely with the Yankees, now let's start the battle and take it to the bitter end.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof