December 21, 2024

69 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Yankees decline Rizzo’s option, making slugger free agent”

  1. The right move was made. Sad how it ended for Rizzo, but e looks done since the concussion.

    Now, the BIG decision, to use their option on Cole by adding an extra year to his deal, or let him walk.

    1. I really agree with Cronin here.
      I estimate the chances of them NOT picking up Cole as somewhere between 0 percent and 1/infinity percent.

  2. Sign Corbin Burnes, let Cole walk. Burnes is about 4-years younger. They pick up the Cole option it will cost 180/5, Burnes should be around 125-150/5, if I am right that is a savings of between 30 and 55 million over 5-years. Cole turns 35 in 2025, meaning keeping him through age 39, a huge question mark for a pitcher.

    1. I don’t disagree with you on those parameters, but I disagree that Burnes will be any cheaper than 6 years/$180 million.

      And Cole locked in at 5 years/$180 as opposed to MAYBE Burnes at 6 years/$180 seems fair enough to me.

    2. Burnes is 4-years younger. The Cole deal has him pitching ages 38 and 39, and I don’t believe he [Cole] is another Verlander.

    3. Yeah, unless there’s another few options on that level, the maybe’s a major problem.

    4. If I thought that they could definitely get Burnes at 6/$180 million (and he wanted to come here), then sure, swapping him and Cole would make sense, but I think 6/$180 million is pretty much the FLOOR for Burnes, and when you add in the uncertainty of whether he even WANTS to come here, I don’t think you can pass up the certainty of Cole.

      And I think Cole is pretty much the only current pitcher in his 30s that I think projecting a Verlander-esque late 30s actually IS pretty reasonable (I agree that most pitchers I assume will suck in their late 30s).

    5. And more, with Judge, the next few years are a key window.
      What other pitcher is available who projects comparably for the next 3 years?
      No one. If they push to be great over the next three years, we’ll deal with some bad years on the end of Cole’s contract. But they can’t keep being cheap around the edges.

    6. The problem with letting Cole go to sign Burnes, is that Cole is a sure thing and the Yankees are not guaranteed to sign Burnes.

      If the Yankees are VERY confident they can successfully make the swap, it makes a ton of sense, but there’s definitely risk of significantly weakening the team for several years if they can’t.

      They don’t even really need to save money for it to make sense, as the next 5 years of Burnes are likely overall better than the next 5 years of Cole.

    1. Apparently Sunday. I’d give it its own article if I thought they were really considering passing on the extra year, but I really think it’s a fait accompli, so I think the Rizzo news is more notable.

    4. That they have to decide before Burnes can even talk numbers with other teams makes it as clear as rain that they are going to pick up the option year.

  4. Ha-Seong Kim just opted out. I would love him as a target for the IF.

    High end defense with a solid OBP focused bat.

    He will miss the beginning of the season though.

    1. Beyond just the lost time from the surgery, it was on his throwing shoulder, so there’s always the chance his arm strength is diminished when he returns, perhaps enough to move him off shortstop — which was the case with Profar many moons ago, although his shoulder injury was different. A healthy Kim would be in line for a huge deal, maybe six years and $30 million per year given the paucity of shortstops on the market this winter, but if he’s really going to miss half of the 2025 season, perhaps he should sign a make-good deal somewhere for a year to re-enter the market next autumn.

      https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5874781/2024/11/01/mlb-top-50-free-agent-ranking-keith-law/

    3. Kim has also played plenty of 2B and 3B. With his shoulder injury, I would guess that they would target him for 2B, at least initially.

    1. Wait, this isn’t clear to me.
      So… they have three options, do they? Letting him opt out and walk; giving him 1 year at 36; or giving him 5 years at 180?
      So they could, potentially, keep Cole for ONE season, and then they have two seasons of free-agent pitchers to consider going forward? Because Cole’s 5 at 180 seems pretty market accurate, not a huge savings. They could try to get Burnes for 5 or 6, and have both on an overpay for the one year the contracts overlap, which sounds like a great idea. And actually have a real chance to grab a WS while they’re at it. And if they don’t get him, they still have next year’s FA’s to try for, and the option to keep talking to Cole.

    2. The third option is technically there, but if they let Cole hit the open market, they risk losing him, or even paying him more if the market pushes them into a bidding war. I think IF they let him walk (unlikely) it wouldn’t be to pursue a smaller contract, but to go after Burnes (or a lesser pitcher).

  7. Pinstripe Alley “the fact Cole exercised this opt-out is actually great news for the Yankees, as it indicates little to no immediate concern from Cole’s camp regarding the elbow issues that affected his availability during the 2024 regular season. One would be pretty justified in assuming that if there was any lingering issue, Cole would just stick with the current contract, in which he is owed a rather hefty sum.”

  12. Figured Rizzo would be declined and I expect him to announce a retirement. Does he sign with the Cubs for 1-day and retire with them? Yankees first base next season, the options look not great Bob. Rice? Sign Alonso if Soto goes to Mets? Not much else. The Yankees had three right fielders this season: one can’t play the OF, one isn’t good at it, and the third is playing CF. I don’t know how confident they are in Dominguez to play LF or CF. They still have Grisham under contract. They don’t have a third baseman or a second baseman, but they do have a guy who can fake both.

    I think the Yankees pick up Cole’s option, easy decision. The starting staff should be fine. The bullpen will need restoration, but that should be easier with Blake.

    The Dodgers scouting report on the Yankees from Sherman was a good, but sad, read. Hopefully Cashman read it too.

    1. Eh. If cousins/boone don’t blow game 1 and the defense doesn’t play Bad News Bears (before they got fixed), they win the WS.

    2. You’re both right. This team could easily have won, and the Dodgers aren’t that great.
      But this team also could be made so much better at so many positions, in so many ways.
      That might actually be an amazingly good thing… if they actually begin to act on it.

    3. I’m not thrilled by his age, but I still like Christian Walker as a good defensive 1b who can hit. He also probably won’t be prohibitively expensive in years or aav.

  13. Sherman “What the Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings was the Yankees were talent over fundamentals. That if you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees will self-inflict harm as was exposed by Betts, Tommy Edman, Freddie Freeman. They mentioned that the Yankees were not just the majors’ worst baserunning team by every metric, but the difference was vast.
    They were thrilled at how short Yankee leads were at first base to potentially be less of a threat on pivots at second, where Gavin Lux does not excel. They said their metrics had the Yankees as the worst positioned outfield. They were amazed how many times relay throws came skittering through the infield with no one taking charge and how often Jazz Chisholm Jr., for example, was out of place or just standing still when a play was in action.”

    IN OTHER WORDS BOONE IS NOT JUST BAD TACTICALLYAND SHOULD BE FIRED.
    https://nypost.com/2024/10/31/sports/yankees-world-series-failure-started-with-fundamental-issues/

    1. In all fairness, we should remember his tactical badness is historic and more than enough by itself to demand his firing.

    2. Boone is an idiot, but he hasn’t been helped by having idiots for bench coaches.
      How many rings did Torre win without Zimmer?
      … Does a manager choose his own bench coach, or does the FO?

      As Steve Jobs used to say, “A players hire A players. B players hire C players.”

    3. Other teams have been calling out clear Yankees weaknesses for years, beating them based on those weaknesses and nothing changes. This FO is all group think and no accountability.

      Every move they make is “backed up by the numbers,” which don’t appear to be the underlying OR outcome based numbers that everyone else has access to. They continue to make the team very hard to root for when they treat EVERYONE else like idiots and don’t do anything to back their attitude up.

    2. i agree it’s a ridiculous take. but, we have seen for years that boone does not hold anyone accountable. now we have seen it in the world series. it is devastating to learn in october that your team does not know how to play baseball. at all.

    3. Joe Kelly is a notorious shit-talker, a former Red Sox, and didn’t even make the Dodgers post season roster.

  15. i’m pretty sure that Santana’s guitar skills should stay pretty good for three years but i’m not sure about his ability to hit going forward.

    1. A one-year deal should do. Not only can he give them deluxe first base defense, he can platoon with Ben Rice and work with Rice at first to really learn the position.

  16. How can 2025 be better? Signing Soto is a stay in place move. Gotta figure Jason is better than vertugo.
    So they need a 1b and 2b (or 3b) better than Gleyber and the pile of junk that played 1b this year. I guess that’s possible. But without Soto? They are a 500 team again.

    1. Hal needs to finally become proactive, this leaked report makes him [Hal] look like a big fool after 2023 when he originally said he was going to have outsiders go over the organization with a fine tooth comb. Then Hal didn’t, and had Cashman do it, and Cashman lied to him [Hal].

      Clean house! Hal.

  17. Hal fixed that after the 2023 season when he hired outsiders to look into things, only he really didn’t, and had Cashman look into Cashman, and Cashman gave Cashman a big thumb’s up.

    Hal, you have been embarrassed big time.

  18. If I’m Soto, I’m not only asking Hal for all the money, I’m also asking him to axe Cashman and Boone; to hire a manager and bench coach who will teach the players to pay attention and keep their head in the game as much as I (Soto) do; and to revamp the farm system to do the same at every level. So many prospects who came up in the Baby Bomber era have lacked either fundamentals or hustle, or both. The exceptions are Judge and perhaps Waldo.
    (Someone needs to teach Spencer Jones to play baseball before it’s too late.)

    Meanwhile, if they can actually sign Soto:

    Start Dominguez in LF.
    Move Jazz to CF.
    Move Judge to 1B (that is, if you can sign Soto; otherwise move him back to RF).
    Give Volpe a weekly day off and a commandment to keep it holy.
    Start Waldo 5-6 days a week. Use him to spell Volpe and veterans.
    Find a BUC who can give Wells two days off a week.
    And perhaps more controversially, consider signing Bregman. Former Astro or not, he hustles and was a passable (ie Gold Glove) third baseman this year.

    This doesn’t seem like a terrible lineup:

    Dominguez 7
    Judge 3
    Soto 9
    Stanton DH
    Bregman 5
    Chisholm 8
    Volpe 6
    Wells 2
    Cabrera 4

    Subtract Soto, of course, and it’s a lot shorter…

  19. We all know Cash is signing Paul Goldschmidt to try and wring a few league average seasons out of a former MVP as he ages out of the league. It’s way easier than developing an internal replacement.

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