Some time in the last few years, when no one was looking, the Yankees got cheap. Not ‘Marlins cheap’ or ‘Mets cheap,’ but cheap nonetheless. They spoke endlessly of getting under the luxury tax threshold, they let Robinson Cano walk away, they limited themselves to low-commitment trades last offseason and they declined to spend a […]
Author: Alex Putterman
Which Yankee has the worst contract?
The Yankees are, quite notably, the only Major League team without a major-league free agent signing this offseason. There are many reasons for this, including a lack of glaring needs and a desire to get younger, but the primary explanation for Brian Cashman’s silence in free agency is money. The Yankees, weary of the annual luxury tax […]
Greg Bird to miss 2016 season with torn labrum
Mere months ago, Greg Bird stole Yankees fans’ hearts, but the love affair is already on hold. Bird will miss all of the 2016 season with a torn labrum in his right shoulder, the Yankees announced Monday. According to a news release, the injury is a recurrence of an injury first sustained last May. Bird […]
How the Yankees can remain contenders through their rebuild
Last week on this site, Ben Diamond wrote that the Yankees might be approaching a brief drop in the standings as they prepare for the massive off-season in 2018 that could feature Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, Manny Machado, Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey and eleventy-seven other All-Stars. A year ago I would have wholeheartedly agreed with Ben’s […]
Who Wore It Best? The Top Yankees by Uniform Number
We all know the best Yankee ever to wear number two and number seven. But what about number 22? 48? 56? We dove into the wacky history of uniform digits to count up the best player to wear each pinstriped integer, with some fun uniform-number facts (mostly courtesy of Baseball-Reference) thrown in. 1 – Earle […]
Aroldis Chapman and the Cost of an Improved Seventh Inning
The Yankees might have the best bullpen of all-time in 2016. Between Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, and now Aroldis Chapman, manager Joe Girardi will have at his disposal a three-headed monster of fire-balling relievers to guide him through innings seven through nine. Having an incredible bullpen will obviously help the Yankees. Besides thwarting comeback attempts […]
Was the 2009 Yankees Infield the Best Infield of All-Time?
The other day I was thinking about the 2009 Yankees (because that’s what you do as a Yankee fan when you can’t really remember the late 90s) and found myself marveling for the umpteenth time at how incredible their infield was: Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez all had good years at […]
Finding the Yankees a Young Starting Pitcher
So far this offseason, the Yankees have focused on bolstering their batting order through trades for outfielder Aaron Hicks and infielder Starlin Castro. But now, with the team’s position-player alignment pretty much set (barring a trade of Brett Gardner) it is time to talk about pitching. If the season started tomorrow, the Yankees’ starting rotation […]
The Case for Trading Brett Gardner
Brett Gardner is the second-longest tenured player on the Yankees roster (after A-Rod), a fairly beloved homegrown product who has contributed to a World Series title and five playoff teams. He’s also a 31-year-old set to begin his decline phase, and for that reason, he’s recently been the subject of some trade rumors, some of […]
Revisiting the Yankees’ Tyler Clippard-for-Jonathan Albaladejo trade
The 2015 World Series featured several former Yankees: Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland, Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson, Mets infielder Kelly Johnson and Mets pitchers Bartolo Colon and Tyler Clippard. For the most part, New York can’t beat itself up much for letting these guys skip town. Eiland left of his own volition, Johnson and Colon […]