by Paul Semendinger
January 28, 2005
***
Well, the Yankees have done it again. I guess they can't help themselves - and I guess I shouldn't have been so optimistic and actually believed (or hoped) they'd operate differently.
After some moves, and always, with more promised, to start the offseason, the Yankees just stopped making moves. They do this every year. As much as winning World Series used to be their mark, the last many years, the Yankees make a few moves and then ride out the rest of the off-season as players who could help them sign with other teams and the Yankees are left with big holes to fill.
The 2025 Yankees do not have a left-handed relief pitcher.
The 2025 Yankees do not have a lead off hitter.
The 2025 Yankees do not have a third basman.
(I have explained a gazillion times that Jazz Chisholm will be adequate there, but in no way will he be a great defensive third baseman. Players spend their lives honing the craft of playing a position. One cannot simply master it, to become MLB average, in just an off-season. To think that they can is to deny and ignore the tremendous work others put into their craft - decades of repetitions and such. The Yankees should be striving for excellence, not just looking to have an adequate (or good enough) third baseman.)
***
When I see the Dodgers, and I have been saying this for years, I see a team that operates the way the Yankees used to. Winning is what matters to the Dodgers. Building the best team is what mattered, at one time, to the Yankees.
The Yankees are like a tired old prize fighter who goes through the motions at training camp, but no longer has the desire to do all that is necessary for greatness.
Sure, sometimes that fighter will get a title shot, mostly because the other opponents at that time are also weak (as the American League was last year), but when he goes against the champ, the tired old fighter has no real chance.
***
When I used to bring up the Dodgers as the model, people would comment, "Well, they haven't won a real World Series. 2020 doesn't count."
Well, 2024 certainly counted. And the Dodgers have followed that up by bringing in more top players. The Yankees are cutting payroll after losing in the World Series.
In no way, with their approach, or their success, are the Yankees in the same discussion with the Dodgers.
The frustrating thing is it doesn't have to be this way. If I was a fan of the Orioles, I'd have to say that that's the way things are.
But I'm a fan of the Yankees who can and should do better.
***
The Yankees talking about cutting payroll before they make another move is just more of the same.
I talked a lot about getting a small season ticket package for the 2025 season, but, as I have noted before, if Hal Steinbrenner is going to count his dollars, so am I.
Maybe next year...
***
I keep seeing articles in all sorts of places on the ways for MLB to "get" the Dodgers - to penalize them for their smart baseball decisions.
To me, that is the wrong approach. Completely. The Dodgers are focusing on doing whatever they can do within the rules to win. Other teams should be using their formula rather than looking for ways to punish them. Fans of all teams, or at least all big market teams should be demanding that their teams operate like the Dodgers.
We don't root for the Yankees to watch them fall short every season - as they have now done for fifteen consecutive years.
***
One other thought on the Dodgers and the desire of some fans to hope that Major League Baseball finds ways to punish them and make things more difficult for them - such as establishing a salary cap.
Doesn't the NFL have a salary cap?
There are far more times in the NFL in the last many years where we see the same teams year after year being successful than in baseball.
There is no parody in the NFL. Or very little at best. Most of the history of that sport sees them dominated for years on end by a very few teams.
***
Speaking of the NFL...
What's worse, being a fan of the Jets, who are always horrible, and most years never have a chance and who kill the enthusiasm of their fans by October, or being a fan of the Bills, who, so often get to the big game, and lose in hearbreaking fashion?
***
Derek McAdam wrote a great article the other day noting that the Yankees are bringing back the same coaches for 2025.
It seems that the GM and the owner were pleased with the team's approach, then. That's a mistake as the Yankees have been a terrible team fundamentally for the entirety of the Boone Era.
***
Many disagreed with me the other day with my take on the non-vote for Ichiro, but on this, I have been proven correct. I am a million times correct in this.
Derek Jeter and Ichiro will be asked about the one vote forever. And it's not fair to them. It's not something they did - it was someone else (maybe the same person?) who will not take any accountability for the vote after expecting, as a reporter, others to take accountability for their actions. It's the writer remaining in the shadows that is the problem.
My point was driven home very clearly at Ichiro's HOF press conference. A time that should have focused on so much, saw the question asked about the one non-vote.
Then, very soon after, another article pops-up. It tuns out that Derek Jeter is tired of being asked about this. Of course he is. He stated, "“The only thing I do think is fair is that I think a lot of members of the media want athletes to be responsible and accountable; I think they should do the same thing. I get asked this question, I get tired of being asked this question, and I think they should answer it.”
This is exactly what I have been saying.
Baseball writers expect others to go on the record with their decisions. That's how they make a living. But the writers who didn't vote for Ichiro or Jeter remain unwilling when their being asked, to step up.
Want to ask Aaron Judge about the flyball he dropped? That's fair.
Want to ask Gerrit Cole about not covering first? That's fair.
But it wasn't Jeter or Ichiro who didn't vote. It was a writer. A writer who refuses to explain the way he or she voted. It's unfair to those great players. And it's something they have to continually answer to. It's wrong. It's unfair.
And, again, I am a gazillion times right on this no matter how much others wish to argue it.
The people asking about it are sewage stirrers who simply want to manufacture outrage, controversy and clicks, and then decent people like you resonate it in an echo chamber. If everyone ignored the sewage stirrers, they'd go away.
I wish Jeter and Ichiro weren't so gentlemanly in their responses. I'd say: "That's a stupid $%(^$&* question. I'm a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. What have you ever done in your life that is even remotely comparable? Your entire existence is something any decent person would have to scrape off the bottom of his shoe. Get the &^*% out of here. Go peddle your imbecility elsewhere. You get no answers, no respect from me, you rhymes-with-glass-bowl."
See, that's how…
NFL vs MLB has 1 major difference. In the NFL a great QB is 3/4 of the battle. 1 great player in MLB barely moves the needle for a team. Yanks wise, they do this many offseasons, just like last offseason. I give them a little break this offseason because so many foundational moves were needed.
If Hall of Fame voters have an obligation to explain the rationale for their votes to the public, where does it end? Will baseball writers be expected to explain why they left people like Carl Pavano, Jacoby Ellsbury, or Trevor Bauer off their ballots? I think you would be opening a can of worms.
it wasn't a writer who failed o vote for Ichiro's inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
it was a voter.
I wasn't even surprised when the Yankees stopped going after filling holes once they signed Goldschmidt. After that mostly reclamation projects. One by one i have watched the infielders get signed by others. The Yankees are stalled. If the infield answer is in a trade, they need to make it- Donovan, Rengiflo, Arraez, Lowe, McMahon. I am sure I am leaving some out. Stop hugging prospects. As for free agent infielders I am not impressed with Hayes, Polanco and others that are mentioned. Arenado could be good but i worry about a repeat of Donaldson. Bregman would be great for 3 or 4 years. As for the bullpen, just do it! There are several lefthanders out there. Stop pinching pennies!…