New York Yankees: Nolan Arenado extension caps off disappointing offseason
By Joey Brasch
If the New York Yankees won’t be getting Machado or Harper or Arenado, then who WILL they get?!
This offseason was supposed to be the one where the New York Yankees returned to their old spending habits. Manny Machado and Bryce Harper represented a rare breed: young superstars available to the highest bidder. Patrick Corbin is a front-of-the-rotation arm that could improve the relatively weak starting pitching core for the Yankees. Machado made a ton of sense for the Yankees, but he signed with the Padres without any reports of the Yankees making a serious offer. Harper remains unsigned, but it’s quite clear that the Yankees aren’t making a push for him. The Yankees made a serious run at Corbin but refused to offer him a sixth year, and he wound up with the Nationals.
There was some talk that the New York Yankees might be saving their money in order to sign Colorado Rockies’ third baseman Nolan Arenado after the 2019 season. However, those talks came to an end on Tuesday, when the Rockies extended Arenado on an eight-year, $260 million contract. This extension sent ripples down Yankees’ fans spines, as their dreams of having the star third baseman on their squad were dashed.
It should be said that the Yankees won 100 games in 2018 and did not lose any of their key pieces this offseason. They also weren’t totally inactive this offseason, as they traded for James Paxton and signed free agents J.A. Happ, DJ LeMahieu, Adam Ottavino, and Troy Tulowitzki. But it is clear that the Yankees didn’t spend like they could this offseason, and there’s reason to be disappointed about that.
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In 2018, Forbes
value of the New York Yankees to be $4.0 billion, by far the largest of any MLB team. Despite this, the Yankees 2018 payroll
, and although they are spending more in 2019, they’re still far from the top of the pack where they belong.
It’s clear that the Yankees are changing their philosophy and focusing more on developing their own talent rather than trading all of their prospects and building around high-priced free agents. But clearly, spending on auxiliary players to help their young core is certainly something the Yankees are capable of doing and something that would lead to more wins.
The New York Yankees dynasty of the late-1990s is a great example of what the current Yankees should be doing now. The 1998 Yankees were one of the greatest teams of all time, and they followed this formula. Homegrown players such as Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettitte were fantastic, but acquiring players like Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, David Cone, and David Wells truly took that team to the next level.
Next. Revisiting Murphy/Hicks trade. dark
The New York Yankees have a very good team right now, and it’s quite possible that they end up being the best team in baseball in 2019. And even with Nolan Arenado off the table for the Yankees, there are still some great free agents in the upcoming years that they can sign. But if the Yankees truly want to return to their dynastic ways, they need to start spending more and stop pocketing so much of their incomparable revenue.