New York Yankees

Will Spring Training start on time?

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

Edited 2/10/2022

The owners are set to meet up today, and hopefully, they will change their tune and come to the table with a new offer once this group of meetings is completed. We have progressed to a spot where the owners want to turn to federal mediation, yet the players are not interested in that route. The players have come down from their initial numbers a couple different times, and now it is time for the owners to come up with their offer. This has been dragged on long enough, and it is beginning to look like the 2022 season will not be starting on time.

I watched an interesting video the other day from the guys over at Talkin’ Baseball and they explained in detail why the players rejected the call for federal mediation. I’ll never be able to do their segment justice, so head on over here and watch the video.

Photo by Rachel Xiao on Pexels.com

It’s been nearly a week since the meeting between the owners and the player’s union of the MLB. There seems to be no second meeting on the calendar, and the world of baseball remains silent. The fans are beginning to get restless. Again. While we all knew the talks that began last week weren’t going to come to an immediate conclusion, I think everyone expected there to be something happening. Trades aren’t being made, players aren’t able to work out and use the sports complex athletic trainers and other staff. This entire shutdown to the world of baseball is so detrimental to the sport itself. It felt like baseball was just gaining momentum again, and here we are, putting the emergency brake on.

Generally, at this time of year, talk is ramping up with the arrival of pitchers and catchers for spring training. Fans would be getting ready to make the trek to the various sites to get the first glimpses of their team in action. Sure the preseason games don’t matter, but it’s still fun to watch baseball. It is so gross to go look for the start date for baseball and see nothing but TBAs marked by all the teams.

The fans want baseball to come back. It’s already a long enough time from the last pitch of the world series to the first one the following season. Can we please just come to an agreement already? I don’t understand why the owners want a shortened season just so they can cram the postseason full of teams, and I don’t know why the two sides want to argue over numbers. Let’s be honest, if you have enough money to buy a baseball team, you have enough money to pay the taxes too.

Finally, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

Tomorrow the MLB owners and players will be sitting down to, hopefully, hash out a deal both sides can agree to. Fans around the country are ready for the postseason to begin in earnest, and that can’t happen without an agreement made by the two competing interests. Twitter has been abuzz with the news that there will be a meeting, and there has been heavy speculation that the owners are going to ask for a shorter season, as expanded playoffs and a universal DH. I am entirely on board for the DH in the NL league. However, the first two need to be left at the door.

No one wants to see less baseball in the regular season. No one wants to see an endless number of teams in the postseason, though. It’s a conundrum that only true fans will understand. 2020 was already a strange season, and many teams getting a chance at the postseason felt even weirder.

Not only was 2020 an aberration, but there were commentators who decided we needed to campaign on keeping around the expanded postseason. People were whining during the 2021 season that teams who didn’t make the playoffs should have. That is too bad. Play harder. The divisions could always be adjusted if teams feel like they are getting the shaft, but adding more teams after the regular season is lame.

While I am optimistic to see the two sides decide to show up and talk, I am apprehensive that there will be a lot of progress made on a deal. If either side chooses to not be flexible, this could be a terse meeting.

The Case to Bring Back Gardner.

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment
Keith Allison/Brett_Gardner_leaping_catch.jpg (1259×1689) (wikimedia.org)

With the 2020 season well in the past, many Yankees fans are looking to the future; for some, that seems to include leaving Brett Gardner behind. I won’t argue with anyone that Gardner had a rather bad record last year, but we should not let that shortened, odd, season darken our view of the veteran outfielder.

Gardner is a lifer, with the Yankees bringing him up in 2008, and it has been a stellar career. He was a part of the 2009 World Series Championship team and he has contributed to the team every year since his rookie season. In 2019 when the Yankees were plagued by injuries, Gardner was one of the few consistent players on the field and he was integral in the Yankees having a 100 win season that year.

2020 was a strange year for everyone and I feel like Brett Gardner was one of the hardest hit. In a year where the team was supposed to social distance, physical interaction was to be kept to a minimum, and crowds were kept out of the stadiums, people like Gardner lost the spark that keeps the bat going. Playing games that are do-or-die become that much harder when there is no crowd to keep your head in the game. A silent stadium reflects back all the negative thoughts and it can be hard to rally a team when that sort of atmosphere has descended upon the dugout. Toward the end of the season Gardner seemed to find some of his mojo, although it was not enough to propel the Yankees past the Tampa Bay Rays during the postseason.

If the Yankees let Gardner go we have a potential hole in center field should Hicks get hurt, and Gardner will forever be a valuable asset on the bases because he has maintained his speed over the years. There are a few younger players potentially vying for a position in the outfield, but they will need to demonstrate better quality outings than the veteran that is Gardner.

There will come a day when Brett hangs up the cleats, and he (hopefully) begins a fantastic managing career, but for 2021 the Yankees must find a way to bring him back as a player.

The Machine Returns!

/ Jo Redd
(AP Photo/Corey Sipkin, File)

DJ is back!

On January 15, 2021, the Yankees and DJ LeMahieu reached an agreement on a 6 year-90 million dollar contract which has cemented LeMahieu’s role on the team. In 2019 the Yankees traded for LeMahieu and it has been magic to watch him play ever since. DJ is an extremely versatile player on the field, and he has been one of the most consistent with his approach to hitting the ball. In 2020 DJ snagged the batting title in the AL and he should have been considered MVP from the league.

Given that the Yankees have been prone to injuries over the last two years, it is nice to see them re-sign a player who managed to avoid the injury bug more than others. While DJ is already 32, and he has had a reoccurring wrist issue, this signing is going to help the Yankees attain the goal of another World Series win. What this team has been missing is cohesion. The team is filled with great players and big names, but there is still something holding them back from the ultimate prize; DJ might just be one piece to solving the puzzle.