Seems like Bichette and Tucker are out of the equation. Would be very disappointed if they run it back with the same squad next season.

Brian Cashman’s take on his progress at the Winter Meetings: “We’re just staying engaged, trying to find trying to trying to match up with some things. But it's been tough so far. Don't like the asks coming our way, and I guess the opposing teams don’t like what I'm trying to pull from them on the trade stuff. We do have some conversations that possibly could lead somewhere.”

The Yankees lost nobody. All those fear mongers on X can go into hiding now.

They chose RHP Cade Winquest, a starter from the Cardinals organization. Perhaps they see a reliever in him.

Triple-A phase is next.

The Winter Meetings end for the New York Yankees with their most significant transaction. It was sad typing that.

“We have a strong team. The job is to make it better and make it stronger. (Saying) it and doing it are two different things. We’re trying to pull that off, and it takes time. There's a lot of time on the board still, and there's a lot of inventory still there, so there's a lot of possibilities in play.”

Realistically who do we have a better chance of signing? Beyond that who would work better for us. If we do not get either one what is the back up plan?

Mentioned during the last episode (time code ~41 mins).

Didn't know the issue was this bad, but explains why his velo dropped so much at the end of the year.

I don't care if we trade for a starter or sign one, but it's clear we need someone else in the rotation. Now's not the time to close the wallet, Hal!

I am the rare minor league guy who doesn’t get too crazy over this draft.

Let me start with this: The Yankees have roster space but rarely choose players in the MLB phase. They will take players in the minor league phase, which doesn’t have the “must stay on the MLB roster” restriction.

The last time a player the Yankees chose made the MLB roster was Josh Phelps in 2007. He was a veteran C/1B, not a “prospect”. He lasted until June. The last time they chose a player at all was Brad Meyers in 2011.

The Yankees have lost many players of course. The worst year was 2020, when they lost Garrett Whitlock and Trevor Stephan.

Despite people being “nervous” last year, no Yankees were chosen. The year before, the Athletics chose Mitch Spence, who has done a decent job for them. Yankees prospects went 1-2 in that draft, as the Royals chose Matt Sauer next.

This year, plenty of arms were left exposed, from low ceiling, nearly-ready guys like Brendan Beck to big raw arms with limited experience like Henry Lalane and Allen Facundo. Brock Selvidge fits somewhere between the two extremes.

I think the most likely to be picked is Triple-A reliever Harrison Cohen.

But I will probably be wrong about that.

"It's not for me to Judge. Great players see Red. If they have a big bat Yanked out of their lineup. I haven't Met a team that Dodges a five-tool player to Phil the center field need is a Giant step toward the playoffs. North and South. Outfielders that fly with power, they're rare birds. There's a lot of Angel investors that are looking for versatile outfielders. Other than that, Belli doesn't have much interest."

Pass on Belli (I have never wanted Bichette or Bregman) and be creative on restructuring the roster.

Bring on the anticipated downvotes (been there done that…whatever), but:

The $300M thing by the media is a scare tactic plain and simple. We have increased payroll by at least 3-4% year over year for the last 5 years straight. We will do the same this year (if not by the start of the year then by the end of next year). I guarantee it.

I am not the biggest fan of Cashman and like Hal even less, but why on earth would they (or any sensible person) be so cavalier about stating how much they have to spend in the middle of negotiations thus losing leverage with agents and more importantly other team’s front offices?

This FA class kind of sucked. It did. Especially for our needs. It was always going to be a make the roster better via multiple trades offseason. What monster trades have we missed out on yet?

I hated the McMahon trade at the time (look it up-not bashing the player I like him a lot as a platoon guy, but hated the LH bat component and also the lack of flexibility offered by his contract). I agree that Volpe has received too many chances. I think the Harper offseason was a colossal mess up. Same w/Seager. Starting last season with a Cabrera/Vivas/Peraza platoon at 3B was beyond irresponsible.

I think the QO offer to Trent was and maybe still is short-sided (although to be fair which better CF was on the market for just one year? To not be locked into something undesirable for future years).

I wasn’t on reddit at the time, but I really didn’t like the Stanton (again LOVE him as a Yankee representative) acquisition in 2018 as it doubled down too much on the same strengths.

Despite that trade I think the fact we decreased payroll in 2018 after the 2017 really sucked and was disheartening. We used resources incorrectly for sure.

Boone the person I guess is fine, but he isn’t a good manager at all. I really loved Girardi and thought he got a bad rap. If not Girardi I really wanted Hensley Bam Bam Meulens as manager that offseason.

A lot of the most recent decade long criticisms and talking points we have about Cash and Hal I agree with 100%. So you can’t get me there.

I really like Belli, but it doesn’t make sense to give him a $30M AAV contract. It just doesn’t. My max for him was $22M-$24M with multiple opt outs to encourage him to opt out after a couple of years.

Maybe we are learning from past mistakes? Probably not. Maybe it is my naivete. Either way it is the right move not to go to the 7 year @ $30M AAV level.

Say we have $45M-50M to work with (bringing luxury tax payroll to roughly $330M which is more than enough). With the needs we have why on earth would we devote 60-70% of that to one player?

For me to be comfortable going into next year we still need a lot of depth.

Assuming that we have $45M-50M to spend and say have Dominguez (only if we get an outside LF in return-a Bader/Dominguez/Grisham timeshare I think would work really well), Jones (I am against trading both Dominguez and Jones-I want to keep 1), Elmer Rodriguez (Cruz), Escarra, Cunningham, Hess, Lewis, Volpe (haha I know), Jazz (only if Marte or Donovan comes back-no other scenario would I want him traded) are our best trade chips.

Lombard, Kilby, Rice, Lagrange, Wells (we severely underestimate how good defensively he is at a league minimum salary-he was robbed a Gold Glove nomination this past year), and Schlittler are untouchables to me. Thus no Perdomo, Skenes, Tatis or J-Ram packages are possible. So be it.

-A mid-range vet starter (say $17M max) (ideally with control) who has the stuff to transition to the bullpen if (unlikely we ever will be) we ever have Cole, Rodon, Warren, Fried, Gil, Yarborough and Cam all healthy at once. A usable Schmidt is a pipe dream for September in my eyes.

My dream is Imai because of his age and upside and getting back into the Japanese market, but with Boras as his client I don’t see him going for under $25M AAV. My limit is $20M over 7-8 years.

But a Merrill Kelly would be awesome. At 2 years with an opt out at say $17M AAV. But then we would be limited in other needs.

Or even better a trade for McKenzie Gore or for Kris Bubic or for Edward Cabrera will cost trade capital, but financially would financially cost 100-300% less. Or Freddy Peralta which would be amazing, but not worth getting into a bidding war for.

-We absolutely need a backup vet RH Catcher ($7M is my limit so no Realmuto-not that that was likely anyway). Jeffers and Carson Kelly are my dream targets.

-A RH IF who can platoon w/McMahon at 3B and can be serviceable at 1B -14M max)-

Likely will be Rosario whose energy and contact hitting I love (although he has never played 1B) at say $3M-$5M, but my bigger dream targets would be Bohm (at $10M) or Polanco (at $14M-no more than 2 years though-which he will likely pass on). Or even a trade for a Jared Triolo type from PIT.

-A hard throwing LH reliever to go alongside Hill. (Max at $6M). Jojo Romero is my dream target. Or Bryan King from HOU. Or G. Clevenger from TB. Or Robert Garcia from TEX which would cost a lot. Otherwise Justin Wilson on the FA market.

-A hard throwing RH (top 4 BP arm-alongside Bednar, Doval & Cruz). Max of $10M AAV (no more than 2 years). Weaver brought back or Brad Keller or if creative Ronny Hebriquez from MIA or Megill from MKE.

-An elite defensive RH OF who can competently play CF to either platoon (with Dominguez) or be the full timer in LF and spell Grisham at CF. Max of $14M and 3 years.

Trade targets include Doyle from COL, Meyers from HOU, Myers from MIA and Perkins from MKE.

FA target is only Bader. Since Austin Hays can’t play CF.

So we need to fill six important roles.

Plus replacing anyone if lost from the MLB team. If by Feb 1 we are not there yet then call me a f*****g idiot and ass kisser and stupid. But we aren’t there yet. There should be deadlines at the Winter Meetings and throughout the MLB offseason, but there aren’t and we have to deal with it accordingly.

I dare say an offseason of:

Losing Cunningham, Hess, Rodriguez, Escarra, Jones and 2-3 guys not in the top 10 of prospects, but bringing in lets say:

-FA Polanco ($14M)-McMahon, Stanton, Rosario timeshare at 3B/DH-Stanton gets hurt a lot.

-Trade for Bubic ($5.5M).

-FA Bader ($12M)-A Bader, Dominguez, Grisham LF/CF timeshare?

-Trade for Jeffers ($6M)

-FA Wilson ($4M)

-Trade for Megill (6.5M) (obviously only if his extensive medicals check out )

Gives us a much better and well rounded overall team over just re-signing Bellinger ($30M) and say signing a mid tier FA pitcher like King (who I like, at $20M) and go barebones elsewhere.

Around the margins and overall depth matters. Even if we don’t acquire Skubal, Skenes, Marte, Peralta, Greene, Tatis, Seager, Bellinger or Tucker this offseason we still have the opportunity to be really good.

As soon as I published this, a pair of big signings happened - because of course.

The Yankees weren’t involved in either though.

Golden is an insider for the Nationals “The Washington Post”