The Brian Cashman Free Agent Reliever Train
Posted by Steve L. on January 13th, 2011 · Comments (12)
Steve Karsay, Juan Acevedo, Chris Hammond, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, Kyle Farnsworth, LaTroy Hawkins, Chan Ho Park…Rafael Soriano.
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!
Well, like Karsay and Gordon, as opposed to most of the others, Soriano can actually pitch well, when healthy.
Still, I don’t like this move, I think it’s a waste of resources.
Which means it’ll probably work out splendidly.
I’m in no mood to defend Cashman tonight but, as usual Steve, you’re overreaching here. Karsay and Gordon were good signings and Hawkins and Park were one year deals with no risk or harm to the team.
If you want to make valid criticisms, I’m all ears. But don’t conflate signings; they’re not all the same.
Genevieve Goings… mmmmmm
For what it’s worth, Buster Olney is reporting:
“Looks like there was a split in Yankees’ org. over this — since it took place just days after Cashman said he wouldn’t give up No. 1 pick.
Which raises the possibility that Cashman got overruled, but by whom?
Hal? Probably not. Hank? Possible. Combination of Hank and Trost? Is it possible people higher up than Cashman were panicked by the Sox’ moves?
I dunno; maybe it’s all Cashman, but this goes against everything he’s been doing since 2007.
Evan3457 wrote:
Not really. Farnsworth’s and Marte’s contracts were all Cashman.
Wait, I thought Steve wanted Soriano to be signed?
gphunt wrote:
Show me where I said that here:
http://waswatching.com/2011/01/07/yanks-not-interested-in-rafael-soriano/
MJ Recanati wrote:
Farnsworth was pre-2007.
Marte is a valid example.
This contract has more a ARod/Sabathia feel to it than Marte. Marte’s $6M option was declined and they agreed to a 3/$12M deal. This was just an overpay across the board; years, dollars & contract terms.
Evan3457 wrote:
2006 or 2007 is a fairly arbitrary line in the sand for me. He got full autonomy starting in the 2006 season and he’s made this same mistake nearly once per off-season. It’s ludicrous that he can’t learn from previous failures.
Raf wrote:
Perhaps, but the principle of signing relievers to multi-year deals (3 or more) is just a bad one in my opinion. So Marte still counts for me.
As to the ARod/CC comparison…at least those guys are All-Star/Hall of Fame types. Soriano isn’t, in book, anyway.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Yeah, you’re right. I skimmed through a previous post about whether to give up a first round draft pick when signing a reliever and some of the comments made it seem like the Yankees were stupid for holding on to their draft picks instead of signing Soriano.