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need Indeed. We

1:01

are breaking down all aspects of Yankee

1:03

baseball. This is the Bronx Pinstripe Show

1:05

with your host, Andrew Rotandi and Scott

1:08

Ryan. Let's

1:10

go. What's

1:17

up everybody? Welcome to the Bronx Pinstripe

1:19

Show. Welcome to baseball season officially. The

1:22

Super Bowl is over. Spring training,

1:24

pitchers and catchers is starting today, Valentine's

1:26

Day. I guess happy Valentine's Day to

1:28

you three months. How you doing Scott?

1:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Happy Valentine's Day. Do

1:33

you celebrate Valentine's Day anymore? What do you

1:36

mean celebrate? Acknowledge

1:38

it. Yeah, I said happy Valentine's Day to

1:40

my wife this week. Did you get a card or a

1:42

gift? Nope. Does she

1:44

do the same to you? You guys, did you guys have

1:46

an understanding that like, you know what, this is one of

1:48

those ones that's no longer. She

1:50

got me a pair of ski socks. Oh,

1:53

well that's nice. Those are not cheap. The

1:55

problem is, here's the problem. Practical.

1:58

Harrison's birthday was this past week. and

2:00

we had all my family in town, we had all of

2:02

the aunt's family over. It

2:04

was a chaotic weekend. Tuesday

2:07

in New Jersey was a snow day. Daycare

2:10

was closed, everything was closed, we got a

2:12

lot of snow. I

2:14

would have tried to go out and buy

2:17

some flowers or get a card yesterday. It's

2:19

yesterday, the day before, you can't say that.

2:22

But that was the day that I had earmarked

2:24

a week ago on when I'm gonna get this

2:26

stuff done. Well that's your problem.

2:28

You can't earmark the day before and be like,

2:30

oh you know what, nothing wrong is gonna happen.

2:32

There's nothing that's gonna deter me from doing it

2:35

on the day before. If you truly were gonna

2:37

do something, you would have already done it. That's

2:39

fair enough. It's also with

2:42

my wife, we got

2:44

Christmas, obviously then her birthday's two

2:46

weeks after Christmas. Yeah. It's

2:49

like Valentine's Day's the next month. There's too many things all over.

2:51

Look, I gotta tell you. Six weeks of the year. I'll

2:53

tell you my thoughts on it. First of all, Valentine's

2:56

Day is for the unmarried.

2:59

That's what it's for, bottom line.

3:01

It's for the unmarried. If you

3:03

get married and you're still really

3:05

acknowledging and putting Valentine's Day, and

3:07

call me the opposite of a romantic,

3:10

but frankly Bevan feels

3:12

the same way, it's a dumb holiday.

3:14

It's a manufactured dumb holiday that has

3:16

put men out for years and years

3:18

and years and years and years. And

3:20

that's made women feel terrible and guilty

3:23

if there's not a significant other on

3:25

a particular day. It's a bad holiday

3:27

for everybody, unless you are in that

3:29

phase of boyfriend, girlfriend, where it's new

3:31

and you're all very happy and spontaneous

3:37

and all that stuff. And frankly, there's

3:39

just not many people who listen to our podcast

3:41

that are probably in that demographic. I was gonna

3:44

say the three women listeners right now are not

3:46

happy with you. But

3:48

it's true. I mean, it does. It makes people feel uncomfortable,

3:50

I think, if you're not, or you have to go out

3:53

and celebrate the fact that you're anti-Valentine's Day. It's

3:55

just a holiday that doesn't need to exist. And

3:58

if we're talking about, if you're in love... And

4:00

if you're happy, you should, you know,

4:02

you should profess that

4:04

love on more than once a year. And

4:07

it happens, like you said, on holidays,

4:09

it happens on, you know, different opportunities

4:12

for you to show your feelings. Doesn't

4:14

have to be on Valentine's Day. I

4:17

will say though, like my mom growing up, I always

4:19

had this like red wire basket in the shape of

4:21

a heart. Every single Valentine's Day, we would

4:23

get that, like a bunch of Hershey Kisses and that thing. And

4:26

I look forward to that, so. And

4:28

Kemp has Valentine's Day for school. And

4:30

he has like Star Wars Valentine's with

4:32

like little glow stick lightsabers, which is

4:34

awesome. And you just give them

4:36

to everybody. So. Yeah, everyone gets Valentine's Day. And

4:38

I make him feel really uncomfortable by asking him,

4:40

if there was only one, who would you give

4:42

it to? And he's, and now

4:44

we're at the point where, and dude,

4:47

you're getting close to this, cause it's, I

4:49

didn't think it was gonna happen to him, but it is.

4:52

Bruh, bruh, yo. It's

4:55

like every other word out of that,

4:57

when they're together, the kid, the boys,

4:59

bruh, bruh, bruh. Wait, wait, hold on.

5:01

I didn't know what you were, he's saying bruh? Yes.

5:05

No. And he said it to me the other day, I was like, Kemp, no.

5:07

You're not, I'm not your bruh. You're not calling me bruh.

5:10

Don't do it. Wow. It's

5:13

happening. And when they're all together, it's like,

5:15

yo, bruh, yo, bruh. It's wild.

5:17

Six. Yup. The

5:20

Valentine's Day for the entire class.

5:22

That's why Leanne was taking Harrison

5:24

to daycare this morning, because she

5:26

got little car Valentine's for his

5:28

entire 19 kid class. Anyway,

5:32

I don't think, it's

5:35

chaos. I pick him up, it's just 19

5:37

three year olds running around. It is absolute

5:40

chaos. That's my nightmare. That's

5:43

my nightmare. 19 Vegas. Vegas

5:46

was cool, man. Vegas,

5:48

it was long. I was there from Monday through

5:50

Saturday, which is entirely too long to be a

5:52

Vegas. Granted, I was doing a lot

5:54

of work, but there was definitely some extracurriculars that

5:57

you get mixed in there because for

5:59

Super Bowl, a lot of parties and

6:01

it's in Vegas. I gotta say Vegas

6:03

turned out, man, they did a really good

6:05

job. It was, it felt together as much

6:07

as of a- I've heard people

6:10

say this should just rotate between New

6:12

Orleans and Vegas from now on. New

6:15

Orleans is next year. Yeah, I

6:17

mean, it was all up and down the strip. Everything was

6:19

kinda contained in there. And because of

6:21

the way Vegas is

6:23

constructed, there are roads around the strip. So

6:26

you can get to places. I thought that

6:28

was gonna be a bigger problem, but it

6:30

really wasn't. The traffic in the middle of

6:32

it, obviously, is a disaster. But if you

6:34

start going around it, it wasn't as bad,

6:36

especially early in the

6:38

mornings and later in the evenings. But yeah, we were at

6:41

the media center on Radio Row and

6:44

just had a great time and turned out, we had a

6:46

lot of really fun guests and it was

6:48

cool. It was a good week. I

6:50

mean, the game itself was kind of a dud in the

6:52

first half, I'd say. And then the second half picked up.

6:56

Yeah, it was a little- It was a good enough

6:58

game for a Super Bowl. It

7:00

was an overall enjoyable watch. All

7:03

right, that's enough bullshit. Let's talk some Yankees now.

7:05

Last week when you were out, we had Andy

7:07

Martino on. It was a really great interview. I

7:10

saw a lot of good insights and a

7:12

lot of good comments and feedback from people.

7:14

So I appreciate the support there. He

7:17

said a few interesting things. One

7:19

thing I noticed, people were like, why

7:22

Andy Martino is just defending Brian Cashman.

7:24

And I didn't take

7:26

it as him defending Brian Cashman at all. He

7:29

wrote a book about the inner workings of

7:31

the Yankees. Cashman's probably gonna be, definitely gonna

7:33

be the centerpiece of that. So he talked

7:35

to so many people in the organization, including

7:37

Brian Cashman himself. He's not defending him. He's

7:39

just telling us how it is from what

7:42

he's learned. I just think

7:45

a lot of people didn't like that. One

7:47

of the things that I saw the biggest negative

7:50

feedback on and I

7:52

wanna get your take on this, Scott, is that Martino

7:55

said Brian Cashman makes every move

7:57

in a vacuum. He's

7:59

never thinking about... the big picture, he's looking

8:01

at, for example, the Juan Soto trade or

8:03

the signing of a relief pitcher or the

8:05

signing of a big free agent, all in

8:08

a vacuum. Is that the right

8:10

decision for the team? Is that

8:12

good or bad for the organization? And then he

8:14

moves on to the next thing. And

8:17

while I said that probably makes

8:20

sense from a long-term

8:22

organizational perspective, because you

8:25

don't want to ever get yourself in a situation

8:27

where you make a move because you made a

8:29

move prior to that that didn't work out. So

8:31

you're like doubling down on things. As

8:34

a general manager of a team,

8:37

there has to be go-for-it

8:40

moments and go-for-it seasons or

8:42

pull back seasons. And so

8:44

you make moves based

8:47

on those decisions and those moves

8:49

can inform other moves. For example,

8:51

when he traded away players at

8:54

the 2016 trade deadline,

8:56

those moves happen because they

8:59

made a decision, we need to

9:01

rebuild, retool a little bit. And

9:03

so he made multiple moves with

9:05

that in mind. Or in

9:09

the 2008-2009 offseason, when he signed

9:11

all of those free agents, he

9:14

made moves based on this is

9:17

our opportunity to add a bunch of

9:19

missing pieces to this roster to quote,

9:21

go-for-it this coming year. So

9:23

the fact that that I think rubbed people the wrong

9:25

way, and I know it rubbed me the wrong way

9:27

because I called this offseason, you have to push all

9:29

your chips into the middle of the table if you're

9:31

trading for Juan Soto. Don't go

9:33

into the season with question marks in

9:36

the rotation or the pitching depth or

9:38

question marks in the infield or anything like that.

9:40

You should try and clean up as many question

9:42

marks as you possibly can. And so I think

9:44

that annoyed some people that

9:48

they think Brian Cashman isn't looking at

9:50

the big picture of things. Well, I'm

9:52

sure a lot of people also agree with that, to be honest. But

9:54

if you go back, if

9:57

you're in that mindset, you're thinking of that, who's

9:59

the... the number

10:01

one acquisition that you think of is

10:03

Stanton, I would assume. Like, that puts

10:05

you in a position now with

10:08

a log jam in a particular position,

10:10

but you're being opportunistic about a guy

10:12

and not looking at like, what's

10:15

the rest of that plan? And to

10:17

his point, I don't know if I would

10:20

position it as he does look at everything

10:22

in a vacuum because like Soto, you got

10:24

to be opportunistic when you

10:26

have the availability to be opportunistic.

10:28

And you could say

10:31

that some of these vacuum

10:33

type moves are reactions

10:35

to what they did

10:38

poorly or planned poorly. So I

10:40

think it's just poor planning in a

10:42

lot of cases rather than moves in

10:44

a vacuum. I think moves in a

10:46

vacuum are reactions to poor planning because

10:48

you have to kind of pivot from

10:51

whatever your strategy and plan was that

10:53

wasn't working. So I don't

10:55

know if I necessarily buy the

10:57

comment where he's in a vacuum, but I mean, I understand

10:59

what he's saying. The sentiment I think is

11:02

real to a point because when

11:05

Stanton signed that's what

11:07

everybody points back to. Like that's when

11:09

you're looking at roster construction and how they

11:11

moved forward with a lot of things. It

11:13

starts with Stanton, you know, coming onto this

11:15

team and the fact that they didn't go

11:17

and sign certain people that may have been

11:19

better fit for what they wanted

11:22

to accomplish in the years forward. So they

11:24

didn't execute said plan, whatever it was on

11:26

that. And then you have these isolated moves

11:29

where you're trying to like catch up and

11:31

be competitive. And this year,

11:33

of course, they had to do it. They had to do something

11:35

this year. So they were opportunistic with

11:37

what was in front of them. And Juan Soto clearly

11:39

was the number one piece

11:41

there. But to his point,

11:44

to Cashbud's credit, he's a good

11:46

fit. He's a good fit for what they need. So

11:48

offense has been an

11:50

issue dating back to, you know, the playoff

11:52

exits. Like offense was the reason why they

11:55

have gone out. So I think

11:58

we're seeing the context of it. The

12:00

context of it was you trade for Soto, but

12:02

Yamamoto was your number one off-season

12:11

free agent target, and that didn't work

12:13

out. So instead you pivot to Marcus

12:15

Stroman, who took a lesser deal and

12:17

lesser money. Instead of

12:20

adding another piece to the rotation,

12:22

either another big free agent or

12:24

a trade for Corbin Burns, something

12:26

like that, giving up prospects, Cashman

12:28

has decided, at least to this point

12:30

in spring training, in the spring, that

12:33

does not make sense for the organization. Don't

12:35

want to commit the financial resources to something

12:38

like Snell, or don't want to

12:40

commit the prospect capital to someone

12:42

like Corbin Burns. And my point

12:44

was, well, you're- They're different

12:46

players. You can't say that they're the same

12:49

though. Yamamoto is- No, I'm not calling them

12:51

the same. My point though is that Brian

12:53

Cashman is not looking at the off-season as

12:55

a go-for-it off-season. So since we have to

12:57

go for it, we have to make this

13:00

trade, and we have to trade, say, Spencer

13:02

Jones and a handful of other players for

13:04

Corbin Burns. Because what he's looking at

13:06

is, yeah, I already made the

13:08

Soto trade, made the Verdugo trade.

13:10

We upgraded our outfield. We brought

13:12

in Stroman to shore up the

13:15

rotation. That's not going

13:17

to impact one way or the other. What else

13:19

we do in the starting rotation in trading for

13:21

a Corbin Burns. And to me, I was like,

13:23

I don't see how that could be possible. Of

13:25

course they're related. Of course you have to look

13:27

at off-seasons based on moves

13:29

you've already made or tried to make to then

13:31

make your next move. And

13:34

so I'm sure Brian Cashman likes to say

13:36

they don't do that, but I feel

13:38

like that's human nature, right? Like

13:40

of course other things are

13:43

going to influence your decision in

13:45

future moves. Yeah,

13:47

no, for sure. And the Corbin Burns move is

13:49

one that we've been, I know you had it

13:52

in your plans. I've been

13:54

an advocate of it ever

13:56

since they

13:58

lost the Yamamoto in understanding that they they do

14:00

have expiring contracts. It makes

14:02

a lot of sense to go and do it. And now you

14:04

have a really big problem in the AO least because Burns is

14:06

on the best team in the AO least at this point. So

14:10

yes, they have to be influenced

14:12

with what's happening in the market

14:14

and what's happening on their roster.

14:16

But I don't know, I

14:19

think that the moves, it's

14:22

hard to say that it's in a vacuum because I don't

14:25

believe that it's in a vacuum. I think there were a

14:27

lot of contributing factors to what he did. And to me,

14:29

when I'm thinking about someone making a decision in a vacuum,

14:31

they're not thinking about anything else. It's just that isolated thing.

14:33

And you can do that with particular players.

14:36

Yamamoto is a different type of player, a

14:38

very different type of player than anybody else

14:40

who's on the market. You can't say that

14:43

because they didn't go after Yamamoto and Snell is still

14:45

there, then they should just do Snell for a longer

14:47

term deal. They're different players.

14:49

You cannot say that 10 years

14:52

of one guy and five years

14:54

of another guy, for that first five years

14:56

is gonna be a similar result. They're

14:59

not the same. So that part I

15:01

disagree with. Yeah, that's why

15:03

I conceded. I think it's probably a

15:06

good thing for the long-term success

15:08

of the organization and long-term sustainable success of

15:10

the organization, which despite the fact that fans

15:12

are not happy with the Yankees, that they

15:14

have not won a World Series or even

15:16

gone to the World Series since 2009, they

15:20

have been a successful organization in

15:22

that time period from just a

15:24

win-loss standpoint and a playoff appearance

15:26

standpoint. And unfortunately,

15:28

management probably views the playoffs. We know they

15:30

definitely view the playoffs as a little bit

15:32

of a luck and crap shoot. And so

15:34

their job is to get the team there.

15:37

And then if the balls bounce the right

15:39

way, then we're gonna win a championship. If

15:41

the balls bounce the wrong way, they're not

15:43

gonna win a championship. I'm not gonna

15:45

go too far down the rabbit hole on that. I

15:47

think that's bullshit, considering you

15:49

have teams who have more success than

15:51

others because of the way their teams

15:54

are constructing the players they have, but

15:56

whatever. To your point about Corbin Burns

15:58

with the Orioles, now a fraud. problem. A

16:01

couple of weeks ago, we talked about the sports

16:04

book, win totals and how the Yankees

16:06

were 93 wins or 92 and a

16:08

half wins and which was four and

16:10

a half or five games better than,

16:12

than Baltimore. Zips

16:14

projections came out

16:17

after the Corbin burns or were updated after

16:19

the Corbin burns trade and they have Baltimore

16:21

at 90 wins. The Yankees and Toronto at

16:24

88 wins Tampa 83 wins,

16:26

which on the faces of it feels

16:28

a little low and Boston at 79 wins,

16:31

which I think feels a little high based on

16:33

how they're off season and their roster is looking.

16:36

But the zip projections use Baltimore as the best

16:38

team in the league. And I think it's, you

16:40

know, Corbin burns, obviously a big factor that he's

16:42

one of the best pitchers in baseball. Yeah.

16:45

And it's, uh, for sure that's more, more

16:47

in line, I think with what we were

16:49

thinking as far as the way that

16:51

it's going to be a lot tighter, the swing

16:53

that, that was, that was there between what 94

16:55

and 86 or 87 was, it was just

16:58

too big. And yeah, I mean,

17:00

Corbin burns is a convenient way to make those

17:02

closer, but they were, they were under, I think

17:04

it was under in the, from the, from the

17:06

jump, but yeah, Corbin burns makes a massive difference

17:08

right now. Makes a massive difference to that team.

17:10

So, you know, the fact that the

17:12

Yankees and then here's the other thing, like I kind

17:14

of wish Cashman made more decisions in a vacuum for

17:17

this year, because this is the year to do that.

17:19

You need to just add pieces to, to add depth.

17:21

That's not a vacuum. That's what we're saying. A vacuum is

17:24

I'm only looking at this deal. What you're

17:26

saying, what I was saying, and then wish also happened

17:28

is no, this is our year. We just have Soto

17:30

might be the last year. It might be the only

17:32

year of Soto, depending on how the, the off season

17:34

goes. Let's do everything in our,

17:36

in our power to possibly win this year.

17:40

Also the judge, you could also add pieces that

17:42

don't make a lot of sense. I guess I'm

17:44

thinking as you can add a piece today that

17:46

doesn't, that makes you better, but

17:49

doesn't make a ton of sense for

17:51

the longterm, which if

17:53

you're looking at a vacuum, it's more for

17:55

just a year, not, not the necessarily. I'm

17:57

not suggesting. and

18:00

stupid money on Blake Snell, right? Like I'm not saying,

18:02

oh, just sign Blake Snell to nine years just because

18:04

you need him for this year, no. But

18:06

what I'm saying is be a little bit more

18:09

aggressive and a little bit more willing to make

18:11

sacrifices in the short term to win

18:13

a championship now. Because

18:16

the judge called- I mean, we've been consistent with this. This

18:19

is the year that they have the opportunity to

18:21

create depth in the starting rotation, which is a

18:23

difficult thing to do in the first place. And

18:26

they do have the opportunity this year

18:28

to do that with Clark Schmitt being that

18:31

fifth swing guy. And

18:36

I think a little bit of uncertainty in the bullpen.

18:38

They do have the opportunity or they had the opportunity

18:40

and they still do, because there

18:42

are still good pitchers on the

18:44

market to create that depth and

18:46

overload the starting rotation, which I

18:49

still think they should do. We're

18:51

driven by the search for better. But when it

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apply. Need to hire?

19:49

You need Indeed. We've

19:51

got Boone's press conference Wednesday afternoon. We're

19:54

recording this Wednesday morning. I

19:57

don't think anything's gonna be said in

19:59

that press conference. the same from Aaron Boone. Brian Cashman,

20:01

I believe, speak to the media on Thursday. Do you

20:03

think we're going to get anything interesting from that? I

20:08

mean, no,

20:10

nothing. He's

20:12

been more candid, but I don't know what more

20:14

there is to say about going

20:18

into the season beyond that. I want to know

20:20

more about what's available on the

20:22

market and if there's any thoughts there, but they're not

20:24

going to divulge any of that. Another

20:27

thing that I think you'll find interesting from that

20:29

Martino interview, there was a, I

20:32

guess probably among beat writers at that GM

20:35

meetings when, because Martino was in that group

20:38

that was interviewing Cashman, I

20:41

guess there was a conspiracy theory

20:43

among those beat writers that another

20:46

reason why Cashman was so outward,

20:48

emotional, and defensive is to deflect

20:50

from Hal Steinbrenner, who talked on

20:52

Zoom a few hours earlier and

20:54

frankly sounded like a buffoon

20:56

on Zoom talking about Aaron

20:58

Judge thinks we need to bond. Yeah,

21:01

I think that is 100% true. I

21:04

thought of that at the,

21:06

when Aaron, when, and

21:09

I think also you're getting Boone talking about

21:11

things, you're getting Judge being vocal about how

21:13

the team is being constructed or like decisions

21:15

being made behind the scenes. I think a

21:17

lot of that stuff and Hal talking, I

21:19

think a lot of that stuff kind of

21:22

pissed Cashman off. So I think he was

21:24

agitated. He was definitely

21:26

agitated. All right, a couple of news items. So we've

21:28

got Max Goodman coming up on the show. He is

21:30

going to, we're going to talk to him about a

21:33

ton of spring training news items and he's going to

21:35

join our podcast every week during spring training. So I'm

21:37

very excited about that. But first

21:39

I want to talk about Carlos Rodone shaving

21:41

the mustache and the

21:44

man listens finally. I think

21:46

this is a step in the right

21:48

direction for Carlos Rodone. It

21:50

is. It might sound stupid, but

21:53

I really do know that he's not stupid. It's not,

21:55

it's having some self-awareness on how dumb

21:57

you looked and you look in the

21:59

yeah. When you look in the mirror and you think

22:02

everything's okay when you see

22:05

the mustache and then the

22:07

performance with that mustache, then that's what's not

22:09

okay. That's what's not okay. So he did

22:11

the right thing. He got rid of the

22:13

growth that was above his lip and

22:16

he's acknowledging the

22:19

fact that everything

22:21

was bad. Everything was bad and it starts with the

22:23

mustache. So we're going to get rid of it. We're

22:25

going to get if there's some bad

22:27

juju, which there was in the mustache, it's now

22:30

gone. You got

22:32

to clean off the upper lip and

22:34

start with a new fresh face going

22:36

into spring training. The guy's been there

22:38

early, saying all the right

22:40

things. So we'll see. I'm

22:43

not going to get excited about his outward

22:45

talking anymore because I did that too

22:47

early. We

22:49

said last year when he showed up with the mustache, it's

22:52

like if you want to grow a mustache after your 12th

22:54

start of the year and you have a 2.8 ERA, I'm

22:56

all for it. You

22:58

can't do it before you even throw a pitch on

23:01

a regular season game for the Yankees. But

23:04

Radon has been in Tampa since early January.

23:07

He's been working on his throwing program. He talked to

23:09

the media recently,

23:11

said mainly just

23:14

you got to get back to what I was

23:16

in 21, 22. I believe I can do that.

23:18

That's why I'm here so early, blah, blah, blah,

23:20

all of that kind of stuff. Again,

23:23

like you said, let's not

23:25

get overly excited about Radon and

23:27

how he's talking because

23:31

that didn't work out last year. It's

23:34

really going to be, has

23:36

he actually learned from the mistakes that

23:38

he made last year? Not

23:40

talking pitching wise, I'm talking more emotions

23:44

wise. I want him to learn from

23:46

the pitching mistakes. I just want him to learn from the

23:48

pitching mistakes because if he learns from the pitching mistakes, all

23:50

the other things are going to take care of itself. I

23:53

don't care what he does emotionally. If he's pitching well, fix

23:55

the pitching shit. Yeah, but he's when

23:57

he blew off Matt Blake at the end of the

23:59

season. I don't

24:01

even care if you're pitching well, I could give a

24:03

rat's ass what you do I really I don't care

24:05

just pitch well because the rest of the shit will

24:07

take care of itself When you're making that much money

24:09

coming into New York and you have that mustache and

24:11

you're not pitching well Bad is

24:13

bad bad stuff is gonna happen bad reactions are

24:16

gonna happen Your body language is gonna be bad

24:18

and especially if you're a guy that wears emotions

24:20

on your sleeve not gonna be a good thing

24:22

So, you know just fix the one thing that

24:24

anybody cares about and that's pitching just pitch Well,

24:26

if you pitch well, you can that you could

24:28

be you could be the biggest asshole in the

24:31

world. Just pitch. Well, that's it That's all we

24:33

ask After the end

24:35

of the season last year didn't he say

24:37

like I'm gonna go on a beach vacation

24:39

with without my family Yeah, that's yeah being

24:42

like solitary confinement. It was it was solitary confinement.

24:44

Yeah He's gonna take some time away from everybody

24:47

and just figure it out. Maybe that's where the

24:49

must out He's like, you know what? This means

24:51

maybe Maybe when saw the

24:53

eye himself in the mirror I had a buddy

24:55

in college one day who just like came out

24:57

and said he saw demons I'm like, all right,

25:00

then you got to do what you gotta do.

25:02

I guess he was over and thought demons or

25:04

he was any But that's all demons, you know

25:08

One way or another it's he was what he was

25:10

in some some kind of state But he saw demons

25:12

and and it changed his life. So and

25:14

he's now he's the model citizen now. Oh Yeah

25:20

Definitely the model citizen It

25:22

worked out perfectly. It worked out a lot a

25:24

lot of your don't know the earrings left though.

25:26

That's good Your

25:29

buddy his yeah, the earrings left the building

25:31

there were a lot of earrings no longer

25:33

and they've stayed away That's that's like equivalent

25:35

of a mustache shape. Yeah but

25:37

don't also lost some weight and It

25:40

seems to be in much better shape and I

25:42

don't want to say he was out of shape

25:44

last year But he was definitely on the bigger

25:46

side. I think I He

25:48

just comes across as one of those guys that can carry that though

25:50

and be okay with that. I'm not and Maybe

25:53

not maybe it maybe it affected his way. He

25:55

had all those back. He had back problems. And

25:57

so yeah, you know Wait

26:00

be a fact. David Wells had back

26:02

problems. And I'm not saying Carlos Fredone

26:04

is overweight like David

26:06

Wells was overweight. But especially

26:09

as Wells got later in his career,

26:11

his weight, his gut did not help

26:13

his back problems. Usually your

26:15

gut doesn't help back problems if you have back

26:17

problems. Usually it's the center. Gravity

26:20

issues don't help your back. And normally that's you

26:26

know, it can get no, nor does, you

26:28

know, drinking every single day and having gout and all those

26:30

things. So there's a lot of different factors in why your

26:32

back hurts, I think. So for Fredone,

26:38

if he's in better shape, and that

26:40

allows him to throw his two pitches

26:43

in a much better fashion than

26:45

I'm all for it. I think Wells wrote

26:47

a book called like back eggs and beers or

26:50

something like that. There's like back aches, toe aches

26:52

and beers or something like that. Never

26:54

read the book. I'm sure it's a hoot. Anytime

26:57

you have gout, you got to question some lifestyle

26:59

moves, you know, I feel like

27:01

that's one of those issues

27:03

where you're like, you know what? The

27:09

Yankees also claimed infielder Jordan Groschans

27:11

from Miami and DFA'd Matt Crook.

27:13

Matt Crook was you know, potential

27:15

slot in the bullpen. We're going

27:17

to talk to Max Goodman in

27:19

a few minutes about the

27:22

19-month-ending pitchers from the bullpen that can- Spring

27:24

training battles, which is how it doesn't seem

27:27

like there's any spring training battles. And

27:31

so adding an infield depth in this

27:33

move. And they

27:35

also, they've made a lot of these moves

27:37

over the past couple of weeks, just like

27:39

picking up guys off waivers, DFA and guys

27:42

seems to happen every four

27:44

or five days. Sorry, anything else

27:46

you want to touch on before we talk to Max? No,

27:49

let's bring on, bring on Max. All

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29:13

You nailed it. Let's talk to Max. Okay,

29:16

joining us on the podcast now is Max

29:18

Goodman covers the Yankees for New Jersey, AdvancedMedia,

29:21

nj.com and the Star Ledger. Max, welcome to

29:23

the show. Thank you for joining us. Thanks

29:26

for having me, guys. You're all doing well. We

29:28

know you're going to be down in Tampa

29:30

starting for the whole month of March. We'll

29:33

be able to get your take on things from

29:35

the ground level once you're there. Right now, you're

29:38

stuck in the Northeast for

29:40

the next couple weeks. Want to

29:42

get your opinion on the off season and the

29:44

moves that the Yankees have made so far and

29:47

pictures and catches reporting this week. Do

29:49

you think that the off season is complete? I

29:53

think if I had to give them a grade, it would be between a B

29:56

plus and an A minus. I think

29:58

you can't ignore just how much they've been. how much

30:00

better this roster is, but it

30:02

does feel just a little incomplete.

30:05

When you look at the pitching staff, they

30:07

obviously did a couple, you

30:10

know, opportunistic moves to improve the bullpen. And

30:12

I think you can trust Matt

30:14

Blake and company to bring the best out of the

30:17

relievers that they have, the guys they brought in, some

30:20

of the young folks that are unproven right now, but

30:22

the depth and the rotation. When

30:24

you consider the injury concerns dating back

30:26

to last year with Rodin

30:28

Cortez and now Stroman as

30:31

well, that group with Garakol

30:33

has immense upside, top five

30:35

rotation in the league upside,

30:38

but the floor is

30:41

pretty darn low. And I

30:43

think those guys have to prove, everyone except Cole,

30:46

they have to prove that they're able to play a

30:48

full season, that they're able to be effective, consistently

30:50

take the ball every five days and get the

30:52

job done. So who's gonna

30:54

step in when inevitably someone gets hurt in

30:57

that staff? And Clark Schmidt being the number

30:59

five, how's he gonna handle his first year

31:01

after the biggest workload of his big league

31:04

career as well? So is it

31:06

gonna be a Luke Weaver as your number six,

31:08

or are prospects Will Warren,

31:10

Clayton Beter, maybe Chase Hampton gonna

31:12

fill that void? I think

31:14

that one more veteran

31:16

reliable and proven piece maybe would

31:19

have eased the anxiety of the

31:21

fan base a little bit there. But again,

31:23

when you go one of the worst

31:25

outfields in the league to now one of the best with

31:28

Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo, I think

31:30

Trent Grisham is a valuable piece for

31:32

them. You're still relying a little

31:34

bit on the veterans that showed some signs

31:36

of decline last year in terms of the

31:38

offense and the lineup. But on

31:41

paper, I know the game's not played on paper,

31:43

but on paper, this offense can be very, very

31:45

good, the pitching staff too, but you

31:47

gotta stay healthy, gotta prove that last

31:49

year was an anomaly for a lot of these guys. Max,

31:53

I'm glad you brought up, and we're gonna talk

31:55

about some quote position battles. There aren't a ton

31:57

of them this year, but I think.

32:00

something that you said is, you know,

32:02

we just got finished with

32:04

the first part of the show. And this

32:06

has been a consistent thread of our conversations

32:09

through the off season is creating depth in

32:11

the starting rotation. And normally,

32:13

that's a very difficult thing to do. You

32:15

know, when you're trying to get major league talent

32:18

on a roster

32:20

where you only have five slots

32:23

to fill and you don't

32:25

have the ability to add additional

32:27

major league talent to a roster so

32:30

that you can create that depth. The Yankees, though,

32:32

I think are in a position of strength in

32:35

that regard with Clark Schmidt being their number

32:37

five. They do have

32:39

the ability, I believe this year, and they've

32:42

had the ability to create that depth with

32:44

another solid major league pitcher. And I'm not

32:46

even saying like the fact that Luke Weaver

32:48

is a number six, like makes me cringe

32:51

hearing that because that is

32:54

the inevitable thing. Like someone will go down,

32:56

someone will go down. And I feel like

32:58

it's a missed opportunity. And I understand that

33:00

there are still, you know, a couple

33:02

of guys out there that have

33:04

the ability to change this narrative.

33:06

But, you know, creating that depth

33:08

in the starting rotation is such

33:11

an important piece. And the Yankees have the ability

33:14

and they have to win this year. Everybody

33:16

looks at that. There's expiring contracts across the

33:18

board now. And this

33:21

is the year that they're going in. They only have

33:23

one Soto for one year, guaranteed, right? We don't know

33:25

what's going to happen. Create that depth. They have the

33:27

opportunity to do it. And that

33:29

is where I think you're right. I think

33:31

Yankee fans looking around the uncertainty potentially in

33:33

the starting pitching rotation, and frankly, like the

33:36

bullpen, not a lot of big names out there, not

33:38

a lot of proven guys that have shown career stats and doing

33:41

it. And if you needed to

33:43

use a Clark Schmidt in more of a

33:46

swing man role or an opportunity to create

33:48

out of the bullpen by

33:51

adding someone who has a proven

33:53

track record in the starting rotation, I think you got

33:55

to do it. So curious your thoughts

33:57

on that, because to me, that's the biggest glare.

34:00

uh, you know issue with the roster right now Well,

34:03

look you you brought something up that I think is

34:05

going to be a storyline all year And it's the

34:07

fact that this roster has So

34:10

many guys that are on the last year of

34:12

their contracts and obviously soto is a rental but

34:14

glaber torres Clay Holmes,

34:16

Jonathan, lewezaga, verdugo There's

34:19

a significant portion and impact guys

34:21

that May not be

34:23

around next year. At least they're currently not under contract

34:25

to be Um,

34:27

maybe it's misguided for me, but

34:29

i'm not worried In

34:32

terms of the yankees being able to produce in the bullpen

34:34

um They were so good in that

34:36

way last year best bullpen in the league 334 era and

34:41

Their pitching department has proven that they can bring

34:43

the best out of all kinds of

34:45

different arms whether it's uh, The

34:48

ian hamilton's of the world. I think there will be

34:50

some non-roster guy that

34:53

Erupts on the scene this spring and ends up having an

34:55

impact 30 games Uh

34:57

sub four sub three era. I think

34:59

that's a guarantee almost which is the

35:02

biggest strength at this point, right? Yeah

35:06

Victor gonzalez and caleb ferguson might end up

35:08

being really good and and yankees fans might

35:11

not miss monday parlota at all but

35:14

I I agree with you. I think that this They

35:18

did have an all-in mentality. They had a

35:20

huge offer on the table for yamamoto They

35:23

traded a huge portion of their you

35:25

know pitching talent in the farm system

35:27

to get soto As well

35:30

as michael king obviously and they traded some arms

35:32

for um verdugo as well

35:34

So it's not like they didn't try to

35:37

Get the job done in terms of

35:39

going all in right, but like I

35:41

said in my first answer I think there is just

35:43

a little bit of a hole that they could have

35:45

addressed But maybe it just

35:47

comes down to they they really trust

35:50

those young guys that haven't had an

35:52

opportunity yet Whether it's yoandris gomez or

35:54

louise heal Uh those types

35:57

of guys in that next tier as much as

35:59

weaver is the number six as of now

36:01

that could change you know when when

36:03

Boone and Cashman speak on on Wednesday and Thursday

36:05

this week and then who knows Who's hurt who

36:07

knows whether guys they've brought in that have a

36:09

locker that we don't know about yet and The

36:14

farm system continues to replenish and churn out

36:16

quality arms So clearly they trust that talent

36:18

they trust the department to bring the best

36:20

out of those guys And also I think

36:23

the budget was a concern too. I mean

36:25

their their payroll is is

36:27

already estimated I

36:29

know but the luxury tax and it's got

36:31

to be a part of the conversation that

36:33

that it's already a high number They've

36:36

got Soto for whatever it is over 30

36:38

million for this year a lot of big

36:40

contracts that they're committed to So

36:43

these are maybe just the repercussions of other

36:45

decisions in past years So like

36:47

yeah, a big reset button coming next year too as

36:49

far as contracts as well. So if you're

36:51

gonna go go guide

36:53

you sir I Want

36:56

to respond to a couple things you said because I

36:58

think they all tie together I agree with you the

37:01

bullpen like even though there's Question marks

37:03

in the bullpen it seems to always work out

37:05

for them and they always get production You

37:08

said they were the best bullpen in the league

37:10

last year and I think that you know The

37:12

numbers look very good. I think they did have

37:14

the best ERA But first I have

37:16

the first half of the year was a big factor in

37:18

that we looked into these numbers I don't have them off

37:20

the top of my head But I know

37:22

in the second half of the year the bullpen was much less

37:24

productive than it was in the first half and it Was

37:27

probably due to the workload that they

37:29

had because the rotation did not have

37:31

consistency in it beyond Garrett

37:33

Cole and so to your point about the question

37:35

marks beyond Garrett Cole like Yeah,

37:38

the bullpen is probably gonna stand up

37:40

and pretty be pretty damn good through

37:42

call it may June Maybe even July

37:44

of this year But if they are

37:46

relied on for three plus innings every

37:48

single night because the rotation does not

37:50

have consistency In health

37:52

beyond Garrett Cole that in my opinion

37:54

is a huge miss and not adding

37:56

to the rotation depth To

37:58

help your bullpen for the

38:00

whole season. So having said all that, you're

38:03

close to obviously a lot of rumors and

38:05

stuff like that. Do you see something happening

38:07

in spring training last minute? Because

38:09

there's still some big pieces out there on the free

38:11

agent market for pitching. Maybe

38:13

in the last minute trade happens as teams

38:16

start to play some games in spring training,

38:18

maybe injuries happen, who the hell knows what

38:20

happens on March 20th if something could happen?

38:23

Right. Well, I think thinking back to

38:25

when Cashman spoke after the

38:27

Strowman signing and the Strowman signing itself is

38:30

kind of like, this is our

38:32

last effort to pivot after Yamamoto.

38:35

This is who's going to be the big addition in

38:37

the rotation. They're giving him almost 40

38:40

million for two years. That was

38:42

my interpretation of it. But when

38:44

Cashman was asked, are you now

38:47

transitioning your focus away from the starting

38:49

rotation? Not verbatim, but the

38:51

sense that I got is we're always exploring

38:53

options to get better. And

38:55

I don't know if the Yankees

38:57

are going to be willing to give up what

38:59

it'll take to get someone like Adilene Cease or

39:02

Shane Bieber. But the

39:05

way things are right now with the free

39:07

agent market, but also other teams. I mean, there

39:09

are some veteran pieces, not necessarily

39:11

number ones or number twos, but I'm sure

39:13

that there's an opportunity out there for them

39:15

to get a bottom of the rotation guy

39:18

that would, again, like I

39:20

said earlier, ease the anxiety of maybe

39:23

the organization. And again, I feel like they have

39:25

faith in what they have, or at least that's

39:27

what they've been telling us. And Boone will always

39:30

say that, you know, I asked him

39:32

at the pinstripe pride autograph event

39:34

the other weekend, like, how do you replace

39:36

Juan de Peralta on the bullpen? And he was like, guys

39:38

that you're not thinking about right now are going to have

39:41

an impact. So clearly, they know what they have. They made

39:43

some other under the

39:45

radar types of moves like Cody Morris, Cody

39:47

Poteet, those types of guys. I mean, they

39:49

have enough arms. It's just what's the quality?

39:52

What's going to be the effectiveness? Can they

39:54

rely on these guys? Like you said, the

39:56

first half of the season kind

39:59

of set the tone of the year and the

40:01

bullpen was definitely taxed. And when you have Tommy

40:03

Kainley, Jonathan LeWisega, those guys that have injury

40:05

concerns in the past in their careers, you

40:07

can't rely on them to pitch in 70

40:09

games the whole year and be lights out

40:11

the whole time. So I think

40:14

we're all on the same page. I mean, do I think they're

40:16

gonna trade for somebody? I

40:18

wouldn't count on it, but they do have

40:20

a surplus at certain positions. I mean, I

40:22

look at catcher, for instance, I

40:25

don't think Ben Roartvett has an option. And

40:27

it seems like Austin Wells is gonna make

40:29

the big league team, right? So maybe there's an avenue

40:32

there. You

40:34

bring in Luis Terenz as a non-roster guy and

40:36

you've got some other up and coming catchers. It

40:38

doesn't seem like there's a spot for Roartvett.

40:40

But famous last words, right? I mean, people

40:42

are gonna get hurt over these next couple

40:44

of weeks and you need to

40:47

have that. So I think the

40:49

Yankees will be opportunistic. If something comes up

40:51

that they're able to bring in another arm,

40:53

just somebody that's been there before, I

40:56

think they should pounce on it. I just don't know who that's gonna

40:58

be. What about Blake

41:00

Snell? Because there's still rumors. The Yankees maybe are just

41:03

thrown into the Blake Snell rumors because the Yankees seem

41:05

to be thrown into a lot of rumors. But

41:08

he's still out there on the free agent market and

41:11

we're starting spring training now. Yeah,

41:14

it's his offer coming back down to

41:16

earth, back down to the Yankees range

41:18

of feeling comfortable with

41:20

him. Because that's an interesting one

41:22

too. And it's not just a veteran depth guy.

41:24

That's a guy that makes an impact that pushes

41:27

Nestor Cortez into a number five

41:29

role, which

41:33

now we're talking. Now we're talking like strengths

41:35

and depth, both at the same time. And

41:38

to me, that's a huge quality to have.

41:42

Right, a couple weeks ago, my coworker

41:44

Bob Plapish reported that that offer is off

41:46

the table. I'm sure that

41:48

that's gonna be a name that's discussed in

41:51

terms of the reporters that are down

41:53

there asking questions to Garakol.

41:55

Does he wanna have another ace on that

41:57

staff? Cashman, are you done

41:59

addressing? at the top of the rotation.

42:02

I think it'll just come down to the financials

42:04

there and what other teams are able to offer.

42:06

All of the big name free agents that are

42:08

still available are all Scott Boris clients, if I'm

42:10

not mistaken. So, I mean, he has a stronghold

42:13

on the market right now. Are

42:15

any of those guys gonna take a one or

42:17

two year deal to kind of reset? I don't

42:19

think Snell should do that. He just wanna sayong,

42:22

his second of his career. It would be crazy

42:24

if he did, yeah. Right, and is

42:26

there another team that's gonna, you

42:29

know, back up the truck and

42:31

suddenly offer a huge deal to convince

42:34

those guys that they're gonna be a contender, maybe

42:36

one of those wildcard teams. I

42:38

don't know if like the Giants are done now that

42:40

they got Solaire, the Phillies, I don't know. But

42:43

there are teams out there that could certainly use

42:45

a Blake Sneller or a Jordan Montgomery. The

42:48

Yankees are one of them, but I don't know based

42:50

on their activity over these last couple

42:52

of months, if that fits

42:54

their budget. But like you were

42:57

talking about earlier, I mean, you gotta go

42:59

all in, right? So if it's affordable

43:02

with what they deem Snell is

43:04

worth, then maybe

43:06

you just go for it. And you hope that

43:08

he doesn't regress because then it becomes a Rodin

43:11

situation for a scenario and that's not

43:13

what you want. Is Rodin. Yeah,

43:15

it's funny to call Blake Snell another rotation

43:17

question mark. He's a two time Cy Young

43:20

winner, but I feel like even though I

43:23

would welcome adding Snell to the rotation,

43:25

he would still be like a bit

43:27

of a question mark, which is crazy

43:29

to say. I

43:31

know it's happened before. Teams have given

43:33

big long-term contracts to guys, even after

43:35

spring training starts, even after the season

43:37

starts, we saw Craig Kimbrel with

43:40

the Cubs when he signed there. But I just

43:42

feel like if you're gonna sign a pitcher to

43:44

six, seven, eight years, you would have done that

43:46

already in December or January. And

43:48

now that spring training is starting and pitchers

43:51

and catchers are in your camp, I

43:53

would be surprised if that happens. So I'm

43:56

not ruling out a short-term deal for Blake Snell. At

43:59

least one of those options. What was Bora

44:01

calling the Cuddle Pot, something

44:03

pot? Scott Forest will trademark a new

44:06

term for whatever Blake's known for. Some

44:08

type of an option that gives him

44:10

flexibility, whereas if he comes out and

44:13

has another solid year puts up the

44:15

innings, because I think that's probably the biggest question mark with

44:18

him, puts up the innings,

44:20

has the ability to flex that into

44:22

a longer term deal. Wouldn't

44:24

be surprised if that were the case. And if that is the case, the Yankees should

44:26

100% pounce on it. Yeah,

44:29

I mean, maybe it depends on what the

44:31

market is for pitching next offseason too. We

44:33

were looking at that. So we actually pulled

44:35

that real quickly. The

44:38

free agents for next offseason, Corbin Burns,

44:40

obviously, Max Freed, Zach Wheeler, Walker Bueller,

44:42

Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer. Like those

44:44

are going to be the big names, big name

44:46

starting pitchers on the free agent market.

44:48

Yeah. I mean, that's a huge risk for

44:50

him because if he has one of his bad years, then he's not

44:54

going to get anything close to. It's

44:56

like a Harrison Bader situation, right? Where when

44:58

he came over to the Yankees and he

45:01

had that playoff series, we

45:03

were all talking about how much he's going to get in an

45:05

extension and they're going to keep him around for the rest of

45:07

his career. And then you have

45:10

an injury riddled and maybe a poor

45:12

performance and all of a

45:14

sudden you're taking a smaller contract. But then again,

45:16

like look at what Frankie Montas got from the

45:18

Reds, right? Like, I mean, the money's out there.

45:20

Pitching's at a premium right now. You got to

45:22

pay for it, whether they're healthy or not. All

45:26

right. I also want

45:28

to talk about Dominguez because it's just

45:30

me or does he had a schedule?

45:33

Like, yo, he reports he's playing catch.

45:35

He's he's throwing and he's he's looks

45:37

healthy and he's in camp. I

45:40

was not expecting to hear that on February 14th. Yeah,

45:43

I don't I don't know what his

45:46

concrete schedule was. I mean, really all we've

45:48

heard from the Yankees is that he'll be

45:50

back sometime this summer. But I

45:52

think it was always an anticipation that he'd

45:54

be capable of contributing

45:56

in a certain way this spring. I mean, he's

45:58

not going to be. out there, you know,

46:01

throwing to home plate from senior field in a

46:03

grapefruit league game. That would be silly. But

46:05

I could see him taking some at bats. And

46:07

I think that this is valuable time for him,

46:09

right? Because he's still, you know,

46:12

not of legal drinking age. And he

46:14

has eight games of MLB experience

46:16

under his belt. I mean, he has a lot of room

46:18

to develop even with how emphatic

46:21

his debut was. And that's something

46:23

to keep an eye on too. Like the

46:25

Yankees now have this surplus of outfielders in

46:29

a sense, you know, when he's ready to come

46:31

back, you've got to subtract somebody or

46:33

you're just keeping, you know,

46:36

Verdugo in a fourth outfielder spot. And

46:38

Grisham is literally just a defensive

46:40

replacement. And it's not a bad problem to have.

46:43

Because again, I think people will get injured at

46:45

some point. And that's not me being cynical

46:47

that that's that happens to every team. Yeah. So is he back

46:49

before the all

46:53

star break? I don't know. I don't think they're

46:55

going to rush him. I think that would

46:57

be a mistake quite frankly, because

46:59

they do have a quality outfield

47:02

right now. I mean, maybe if, you

47:05

know, knock on wood for the Yankees fans out there,

47:07

if a Soto or a judge goes

47:09

down and misses time and Deminguez is like

47:11

close, maybe you bring him back, but

47:14

it wouldn't be the worst thing for him, I think

47:16

to get, you know, an extended

47:18

stretch in triple A once he's like 90% healthy

47:21

just to get his legs under him and

47:24

get back to facing pitching like that every day.

47:27

But I mean, that's, that's an exciting thing for

47:29

fans to look forward to because if

47:31

his debut is any indication, he's going to

47:34

be around for a long time. And then

47:36

you you you change the conversation

47:39

to okay, the baby bombers stuff didn't

47:41

work out is the

47:43

Deminguez, Volpe, Wells, Chase

47:45

Hampton, those that next wave is

47:47

that going to get it done?

47:50

Because judge and Cole aren't getting

47:52

any younger. And that window is, is starting

47:55

to close in terms of their prime and maybe

47:57

not starting to close. But but

47:59

it's not Yeah, I think that's accurate. I think

48:01

the window is is closer to the end than

48:03

it is the beginning Let's just let's just say

48:06

that on the prime of those guys careers Like

48:08

why you have to win if you're gonna win

48:10

a championship with Cole and judge as your main

48:12

contributors That has to happen very soon. It's not

48:14

gonna happen when they're both 37 years old Right

48:18

that is you've got a Spencer Jones coming too.

48:20

So if you think about it from the outfield

48:22

specifically, I mean do they want I I

48:26

think they want soda to come back. It would be silly

48:29

not to just Totally not

48:31

consider bringing him back if you can fit

48:34

that into your payroll. I mean, he's gonna be a great

48:36

fit Dominican superstar. He's a

48:38

generational talent. We don't even need to discuss

48:40

that. I mean it's obvious but

48:42

I Mean there's now field

48:44

out there where it's judge Jones and Dominguez if

48:46

those two young guys work out the fact that

48:48

they've not been trading them because of

48:51

how highly touted and Their

48:53

potential I mean that's a pretty darn

48:55

good outfield right there But if

48:57

there's a way to keep Soto in that mix to As

49:01

judge gets older I think he's gonna need to

49:03

DH more often and you can't count on Stanton

49:05

to be an outfielder as much as I'm

49:08

sure that we'll hear this spring that he's gonna be, you

49:10

know getting reps out there And that'll be playing on the

49:12

outfield a couple times a week But

49:15

yeah, I mean there are big-picture questions here, too I

49:17

mean, there's a lot to discuss this spring

49:19

which I think is exciting for the

49:22

fan base especially coming off of such

49:24

a disastrous season And

49:27

there is an avenue to them being really successful this

49:29

year. It's just it comes down to so many different

49:31

what ifs The the stand

49:33

piece to you know, you mentioning him as

49:35

a you know Counting on him in

49:37

the after it's hard to count on him and in any

49:39

capacity You don't know what you get, you know, I think

49:42

we've been talking on this show about him If

49:45

you get something from him, okay, then it's gravy

49:47

at this point, but you cannot expect it and

49:49

and you know to the point of the

49:52

Yankees not doing what they

49:54

they they had the opportunity to do

49:56

in the in the starting rotation to date I

49:59

think they did address that in the outfield

50:01

with, you know, we're not going to be rolling,

50:03

you know, the fourth and fifth guys out there

50:05

from triple A on a daily basis. Like, you

50:07

know, when Dominguez does come back, you have Grisham

50:09

as a fourth defensive outfield or a guy that

50:12

can come in and swipe some bags potentially has

50:14

some speed on the base path. Like that to

50:16

me, that's a great role for him. He's not

50:18

the greatest offensive player. He is a, you know,

50:20

a plus defender has tremendous speed. Like I like

50:23

him as a guy off the bench and they'll

50:25

figure out how to rotate four guys in. They

50:28

always, they always do. I'm not, I'm not concerned about

50:30

that, but the fact that they did create that depth on

50:32

the outfield, I think is a really important piece because the

50:34

other thing is, is like, how long do they

50:37

want judge roaming center field? You know, so I

50:39

think that's a, that's a piece having Dominguez come

50:41

back. I got June circled for him in

50:43

my head. But to

50:45

Max's point, they don't need to rush it because of the,

50:47

they don't need to rush in the outfield. And

50:49

if they, if they didn't add, say, Verdugo

50:52

this winter, then it would be

50:54

sort of like, when is Dominguez coming back?

50:56

So we can have, have a, have a

50:58

complete outfield. Now, if guys underperform or guys

51:00

get injured, maybe that conversation will still happen.

51:02

But as it stands right now in the

51:04

middle of February, they can slow play Dominguez,

51:06

which I think at his age and his

51:08

injury, he's coming off of and his in,

51:12

um, inexperience, even in triple

51:14

A, like he's absolutely the right way

51:16

to play his, his rehab. Yeah.

51:19

If they didn't acquire anybody else, it would

51:21

be so much pressure. Right. And

51:23

not only. He treated as the savior

51:25

and that's like, that's such an unfair thing

51:27

to put on a kid coming back from,

51:29

from Tommy John surgery. Yeah. Yeah.

51:32

And we want to play loose coming in with to a, to a

51:34

team that's, that's, you know, has, has a spot for him, um,

51:37

but doesn't need that spot. He needs to be playing loose.

51:40

He's, he's a center fielder, right? And he just

51:42

had major elbow surgery and he's 20, 21

51:44

years old. I mean, that's,

51:47

that's not something you want to rush someone back

51:49

from and risk him

51:52

trying to perform better right

51:54

away. And he does something

51:56

and there's a setback or there are long-term implications of

51:58

that. I mean, you don't want to put that. into

52:00

the universe for the kid because you know everyone's

52:02

rooting for him to fulfill

52:04

the expectations that he has but

52:07

the bottom line with the outfield is you go from IKF

52:10

Jake Bowers, Willie McKinney, Billy

52:14

McKinney, Willie Calhoun and mix that up. Not

52:18

that I like Willie McKinney better. I think it

52:20

improves my point a little bit and now you

52:22

have Verdugo, Soto, Grisham,

52:24

Dominguez coming back. I mean

52:26

it's Everson Pereira, maybe

52:28

he can bounce back from the year

52:30

that he had, the month that he

52:32

had. So the talent is there.

52:34

I wouldn't be surprised if Spencer Jones finishes

52:37

on a similar timeline to Dominguez and he's

52:39

able to contribute by the end of the

52:41

year but I think the Yankees

52:43

should hope that they don't need a Jones

52:46

to come up by the end, right? That they

52:48

can stow him away for another year in the

52:50

minors to have him develop because there's

52:53

no room for a prospect to

52:55

come up because of injuries. They don't need to have

52:57

that youth movement where they give the unconditional playing time

52:59

to guys like they did at the end of last

53:01

year. You hope that everybody's humming at the end of

53:04

the season and I

53:06

think it'll be a wildcard spot because the Orioles are

53:09

seemingly becoming a juggernaut here.

53:11

Anything can happen. That's

53:14

so many months away from now but as

53:16

long as they get into the playoffs, all you

53:18

need these days is a ticket to the dance

53:21

and then anything can happen. That's right.

53:23

Which is their mentality. So maybe unfortunately

53:25

that is their mentality. Kind of pisses

53:27

us off a little bit to be

53:29

honest. All right,

53:31

Max, thank you so much for joining us. We'll talk

53:33

to you next week. I'm sure there'll be actually much

53:35

more to talk about after we hear Boone and Cashman

53:37

speak and any other news items that come over come

53:39

out over the next week. Thanks again. Absolutely,

53:41

guys. Talk to you again soon. Hey

53:46

guys, thanks for listening to the Bronx Pinstrap

53:48

Show. Make sure you find us on iTunes

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