The New York Yankees also get an F for the offseason
What did the New York Yankees do this offseason? Traded for Josh Donaldson, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, and Ben Rortvedt in exchange for Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez while taking on all of Donaldson’s salary from the Minnesota Twins so they could sign Carlos Correa, they re-signed Anthony Rizzo, and they traded Luke Voit to San Diego.
That’s it. The New York Yankees were outfoxed by the Minnesota Twins. That says a lot.
They didn’t get better at third base and got a light hitting shortstop. They, somehow, got worse at catcher and didn’t address their pitching staff. Oh, and they also haven’t extended Aaron Judge.
This all happened when the Rays are the Rays (a better and healthier team), the Blue Jays got better with Matt Chapman, Yusei Kikuchi, and Kevin Gausman, and the Red Sox got Trevor Story.
With the exception of taking on Donaldson’s salary, the New York Yankees are operating like they are the Cleveland Guardians. Speaking of them …
The Cleveland Guardians receive an F for the offseason
The Cleveland Guardians never, ever trade their best players when they should. Francisco Lindor, Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger, Trevor Bauer, and the list goes on and on. The chance that they can extend José Ramírez is negligible at best … yet they won’t trade him.
Don’t trade him? Fine. Then spend money on the team? No. That’s too much of an ask.
The team has, virtually, decided to forego a team with an outfield because they have Triple-A and Double-A outfielders at the MLB level (with the exception of Myles Straw) and a spotty bullpen.
Their offseason additions? Signing catcher Luke Maile for less than $1 million. That’s it. That’s their entire offseason.
Even with arbitration players, they will have a payroll of around $50 million. They had a payroll of $76 million in 2000. Talk about an embarrassing ownership group … who have more money than the Yankees owners.