To the Yankee Faithful!
I hope everyone is doing well! Let's get to it.
Many moving parts in the offseason. Overall, it is very hard to analyze because of the nuance, but I am "paid" to give you me opinion, so here goes. (this was written before the 1st two games)
The big trade sending Sanchez and Urshela for Donaldson, Falefa and Ben Rortvedt was the main move as it was intended to impact 3 positions. I am fine with Sanchez going as he was nothing but a DH and an emergency catcher for me. His offense could be a difference maker behind the plate, but his defense was worse on the negative side. At 29, it was a good time to get some value for him. Urshela, is a different story. I loved his defense. I am not convinced with the pundits that say that Donaldson is his equal at 3rd base; in fact I think they are wrong. Predicting who will do better offensively is a hard one because Urshela was a weak hitter (.600 OPS) before two great offensive years with us (.870 OPS) followed by a mediocre .720 OPS last year. Urshela is the wild card (maybe guess at a .785 OPS?) and Donaldson is 36 years old coming off a .900, .842 and .827 OPS years over the last 3. While an uptick for a year is very possible for a career .871 OPS guy, an .810 OPS or so is probably a reasonable expectation as he is at the age of expected decline. Paying him 23 mil for that performance is not good use of funds IMO. But, the deal was also for our starting SS and what better be our starting catcher. I am not sold on Falefa as our starting SS. His defense is much better at 3rd base and he is a pretty weak hitter. I see him as a stop gap for our younger guys, but while I hope I am wrong, I don't see him being our SS for the year. The key to this trade IMO is Rortvedt. A lefty swinging catcher in Yankee stadium would be a huge plus if he is solid. He is supposed to be a good defensive catcher and that by itself would be big, but giving us a lefty also is needed in our lineup. I have never seen him swing or field, but from what I see, he needs to be a platoon starter at the worst for this trade to make sense. I say that because of the 23 mil for Donaldson is about 10 mil more than Sanchez and Gio.
I really like Rizzo as a person and the way he plays. I also believe that at 32 (not too old by todays standards), he could have a solid full year in the pinstripes with that short porch. That being said, he has had two straight years of avg production (about .775 OPS combined) for a 1B. Further, I was surprised that his defense did not even come close to living up to the hype. The contract we ended up signing with him at $32 mil for 2 years (he can opt out after the 1st year) was a reasonable one for us and definitely needed based on the need for a solid lefty in the lineup and what should be good defense. Hopefully he can give us a .840 + year with solid D and then he can decide what he wants or we can extend.
I think we offered Judge a more than fair offer and as much as I hate to lose our best player, at the age of 30 next year, the signing of guys until they are 37/38 just doesn't make much sense to me (even if the age seems to be getting older). Because of his size, I don't see him aging great (this is pure speculation). My understanding was that the Yankees offer 30.5 mil a year for the next 7 years (until he is 37). They also were going top give him an extra 7 mil this year. These long term deals are rarely great.
I have a lot more to write, but don't have time now.
