Growing Everything But The Payroll: The Official 2025 New York Yankees Season Thread

[Remote]

I hate this move but I blame Cashman more for putting the offer out there. $22 million is a lot of change for a guy whose stats say he's still a platoon player.

He gambled that Grisham wouldn’t take it so the Yankees could get a compensation draft pick when he signed elsewhere.

 

[g-ice]

they're not going after Skubal.

Even if it would be cool to have Skubal, the amount of money they've put into the rotation is insane already. Going after Michael King I can see. Trading Gil/Warren for something major I can see too. But the offense is too unreliable in big spots to be cool with running it back while trying to fortify what should be our strongest team aspect.

Fair enough, but they definitely will try to use either Dominguez and Jones now to bolster their bigger needs. Maybe some BP arms or infielders.

 

[Ron Mexico]

they're not going after Skubal.

Even if it would be cool to have Skubal, the amount of money they've put into the rotation is insane already. Going after Michael King I can see. Trading Gil/Warren for something major I can see too. But the offense is too unreliable in big spots to be cool with running it back while trying to fortify what should be our strongest team aspect.

Sounds like if they go after a pitcher it'll be the Japanese guy Imai.

 

[Remote]

You can never have too much pitching but go look at the reason why the Yankees keep losing games in the postseason.

It’s because they have a roster full of players who can’t hit for shyt. They can’t run bases. I don’t mean steal. I mean they can’t run the bases. They’re slow. They don’t go 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home. And they’re shytty defensively.

Yeah they’ll homer and score 8 runs twice a week or whatever.

But there’s always that 4-6 week stretch where they can’t do shyt and the pitching staff is supposed to win off Aaron Judge’s 2 RBIs.

 

[puggle]

the problem the Yankees have is that if they could, they'd platoon everyone but Judge and Volpe because the numbers are law to them. If they can find better every day guys, that's much less of a hassle in the long run.

This development is really pissing me off, Cashman's refusal to take an L is mind boggling, why even put the offer out there in the first place. They ultimately lost the Soto deal, it happens.

Now the team has to give at bats to an underachiever who to his credit overachieved last season and trade away one or both of their so called untouchable prospects. Every team now knows they have no place in NY, what the fukk are they doing.

 

[The War Report]

*sighs*

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

He gambled that Grisham wouldn’t take it so the Yankees could get a compensation draft pick when he signed elsewhere.

Only 1 executive in professional sports who is stupid enough to try what Cashman did. Now they’ll be paying $54 million to Grisham, McMahon, and DJ next season after paying $60 million to them, Rizzo, hicks, Stroman, & Goldschmidt last year. Can Hal switch places with even John fisher or Jerry reinsdorf? I can’t imagine they’d be any worse than this.

 

[NYChase718]

Chris bassitt will be the next low risk high reward player on cashmans list

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

You can never have too much pitching but go look at the reason why the Yankees keep losing games in the postseason.

It’s because they have a roster full of players who can’t hit for shyt. They can’t run bases. I don’t mean steal. I mean they can’t run the bases. They’re slow. They don’t go 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home. And they’re shytty defensively.

Yeah they’ll homer and score 8 runs twice a week or whatever.

But there’s always that 4-6 week stretch where they can’t do shyt and the pitching staff is supposed to win off Aaron Judge’s 2 RBIs.

Same problem I pointed out to every year. Batting average, OBP, doubles, hitting with men on, stringing hits together, their approach to an at bat when there’s runners on, and a home run or bust offense that crashes and burns every October. Think about how many rallies that were killed or games that were lost (sometimes both) because wells, Volpe, or (I hate to lump him in here with these stiffs) jazz too swung for the fences when a sac fly or single would’ve tied or won the game or went after the first pitch and hit into a double play to end the inning or ended the inning with an easy pop up or groundout. Also the frequent ugly strikeout while thinking they’re gonna hit the ball 500 feet and they whiff on a pitch in the dirt or up around the letters. It’s a daily occurrence with this bunch.


I bring it up from time to time but this is a perfect example of it. Stanton in 2021, Soto in 2024, and Bellinger, Stanton, & Goldschmidt (given how bad Goldschmidt was after the break he barely counts) this past season are the only Yankees over the past 5 years besides Judge to hit .270 or better on the year. Soto at .288 was the only one of them to hit above .275 as well while Soto in 2024 & Stanton in 2021 & 2025 are the only Yankees besides Judge to post even a .350 OBP (which isn’t even that good) in the last 5 years. That is unspeakably ugly for a team that has the payroll this one does. The last Yankee besides Judge to hit .300 on a full season was DJ in 2019. That will be 7 years ago come opening day. Usually the 2nd highest OBP on this team is in the .340-345 range which is unacceptable for any team, let alone a team with a payroll this big. They remind me of the 2003-10 cavaliers where they just expected LeBron to be Superman and save every possession not realizing in a team sport, other guys on offense need to carry the load, but especially so in baseball when your best player is limited to 11% of the team at bats.

This development is really pissing me off, Cashman's refusal to take an L is mind boggling, why even put the offer out there in the first place. They ultimately lost the Soto deal, it happens.

Now the team has to give at bats to an underachiever who to his credit overachieved last season and trade away one or both of their so called untouchable prospects. Every team now knows they have no place in NY, what the fukk are they doing.

The story of the Judge era. Cashman refuses to let prospects determine his fate but won’t spend big on stars either so it’s big short term deals he gives to journeymen after a Linsanity type season or a washed up vet who hits the wall. You’d think Hal would stop this foolishness since he wastes so much money every year, right? The 2024 squad had nearly $70 million committed to guys who didn’t play in the postseason and then also Rizzo & Verdugo just as another example.

 

[Michael's Black Son]

Same problem I pointed out to every year. Batting average, OBP, doubles, hitting with men on, stringing hits together, their approach to an at bat when there’s runners on, and a home run or bust offense that crashes and burns every October. Think about how many rallies that were killed or games that were lost (sometimes both) because wells, Volpe, or (I hate to lump him in here with these stiffs) jazz too swung for the fences when a sac fly or single would’ve tied or won the game or went after the first pitch and hit into a double play to end the inning or ended the inning with an easy pop up or groundout. Also the frequent ugly strikeout while thinking they’re gonna hit the ball 500 feet and they whiff on a pitch in the dirt or up around the letters. It’s a daily occurrence with this bunch.


I bring it up from time to time but this is a perfect example of it. Stanton in 2021, Soto in 2024, and Bellinger & Goldschmidt (given how bad Goldschmidt was after the break he barely counts) this past season are the only Yankees over the past 5 years besides Judge to hit .270 or better on the year. Soto at .288 was the only one of them to hit above .275 as well while Soto and Stanton in 2024 and 2021 are the only Yankees besides Judge to post even a .350 OBP (which isn’t even that good) in the last 5 years. That is unspeakably ugly for a team that has the payroll this one does. The last Yankee besides Judge to hit .300 on a full season was DJ in 2019. That will be 7 years ago come opening day. Usually the 2nd highest OBP on this team is in the .340-345 range which is unacceptable for any team, let alone a team with a payroll this big. They remind me of the 2003-10 cavaliers where they just expected LeBron to be Superman and save every possession not realizing in a team sport, other guys on offense need to carry the load, but especially so in baseball when your best player is limited to 11% of the team at bats.


The story of the Judge era. Cashman refuses to let prospects determine his fate but won’t spend big on stars either so it’s big short term deals he gives to journeymen after a Linsanity type season or a washed up vet who hits the wall. You’d think Hal would stop this foolishness since he wastes so much money every year, right? The 2024 squad had nearly $70 million committed to guys who didn’t play in the postseason and then also Rizzo & Verdugo just as another example.

At this point I am convinced Cashman has 5 VHS tapes of George at an Epstein freak off

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

At this point I am convinced Cashman has 5 VHS tapes of George at an Epstein freak off

Hal just doesn’t care enough. He’s a bean counter and makes it clear all the time that he doesn’t want to be like his dad was. He’s got no passion for baseball so he needs to either sell the team or let his sister take a swing at it because allowing the worst executive in professional sports to waste decade after decade is a crime against the sport itself. A competent general manager who simply doesn’t negotiate with his ego above what’s good for the team and understands how to build a pitching staff & batting order would’ve likely won an extra 4-6 championships over the last 22 years (1-2 titles between 2004-08, another 1-2 titles from 2010-12, and 2-4 titles from 2017-25). Instead, despite being top 3 in payroll every year he’s got as many pennants since 2004 as the royals who have made the playoffs 4 total times since 1986.

 

[Remote]

It took 15 years to realize your head of international scouting sucks?

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

It took 15 years to realize your head of international scouting sucks?

I don’t think Hal has hired or fired anyone in the front office since taking over day to day operations whatsoever.

 

[holidayinn21]

While I wouldn't have brought him back, and Cashman overplayed his hand(yet again) it's a one-year deal, so fukk it. His away splits tells me this season likely wasn't a fluke. If he loses some weight and becomes above-average again defensively, and posts an OPS of .740-.770, I could live with that.

The only ones crashing out over this are the Ken Griffey Dominguez fans.

I'm more concerned about the infield, and especially concerned about the pitching.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

While I wouldn't have brought him back, and Cashman overplayed his hand(yet again) it's a one-year deal, so fukk it. His away splits tells me this season likely wasn't a fluke. If he loses some weight and becomes above-average again defensively, and posts an OPS of .740-.770, I could live with that.

The only ones crashing out over this are the Ken Griffey Dominguez fans.

I'm more concerned about the infield, and especially concerned about the pitching.

Grisham hit .216 after the all star break and everyone knows that he’s not a long term solution. Bandaid fixes over trying to develop your top prospects is how we got here in the first place . On top of this, the other reason we hate this move is that they’ll use his money as an excuse to not get a guy who will be a long term solution. Next year’s team has roughly $55 million committed to Grisham, DJ, and McMahon. Hideously bad resource management.