A Guest Post from Alan Baumohl
November 23, 2024
***
WHAT ARE CASHMAN & HIS GUYS THINKING?
(I’d like to thank The Grand Poobah for being my editor.)
The 40 man roster decisions.
I am writing this piece before the non-tender decisions have to be made, so please bear that in mind if you read this after that time has passed. The 40 man roster during the season does get filled with guys who won't get a sniff of one of those spots in the off season, and only during the season due to guys getting put on the 60 day I.L., or, alternatively, when a guy is so bad, and a guy having a career year in the minors, has earned his chance, even as a guy who was in Spring Training on a minor league deal who played his way into the roster, like Lucas Luetge (thank you for Caleb Durbin).
The Yankees currently have 37 guys now on their 40 man roster after deciding which prospects get added to the 40 man roster, so that they are safe from being plucked by way of the Rule 5 Draft, which usually takes place the last day of the Winter Meetings. What I don’t get is how are the 40 man rosters frozen, if the non-tender date is a few days later. Most clubs are going to non-tender at least one guy, including the Yankees. So if that’s the case, why did the Yankees leave 3 open spots? The only real reason to do that is if you are 98% certain you’re going to sign someone to a MLB contract , and you are going to need the spot for him. And no, I’m not worried about signing Soto, Burnes, or Walker at the Winter Meetings, because I would dare MLB to force me to add those guys immediately to the roster as they allowed the Dodgers to sign both Joe Kelly & Shohei Ohtani to contracts and they went at least 2 weeks before they were put on the roster.
The Yankees did thin out the eligible prospects that would’ve needed to be added by trading away Jared Serna, Ben Cowles, and Jack Neely at the trade deadline. Injuries also make teams say no to certain guys, or with the Yankees penchant of keeping their IFA kids in rookie ball for at least their first 2 years, those guys are too far away to be worried about losing them in the Rule 5. Luis Torrens, about 9 years ago or so, was an exception. Some guys coming off injuries, and with the Yankees, those guys are a lot, like the year they chose not to protect Garret Whitlock & Trevor Stephan, and they both not only were taken, but stuck with their new teams (Red Sox and Cleveland).
This year The three biggest names left off were AA RHSPs Bailey Dees and Zach Messinger and AAA 1B T.J. Rumfield. Due to injury, and what he showed once he came back, they don’t think 1B/3B/DH Tyler Hardman will be taken, and even if he was, there is almost no shot of him sticking since the Yankees made him repeat AA, so he never got even a taste of AAA. It is my belief that all three of Dees, Messinger, & Rumfield will be taken, with Messinger the only one I’m above 90% sure would be returned and start the 2025 season in the Yankees organization. Lots of teams need a 1B, and he is a good glove there (2023 MILB GG winner) and has hit at the AAA level, so whatever team takes him, they will give him every opportunity to make their club. Dees was a reliever before 2024, and with his FB, and off speed stuff, I can see him sticking in someone’s bullpen.
So, I have to ask, why were the 40 man spots left open and these guys left out in the cold? It is my opinion, that Cashman does make way too many moves that analytics say yes, but they are baseball stupid, and I see these moves as just that- stupid baseball moves The only answer I can come up with, concerns Rumfield. They want him gone, and this is the easiest way to accomplish this, freeing up some 1B/DH in AAA for J.C. Escarra, Hardman, and Spencer Jones. Yes, I expect Jones & Hardman, both in AAA in 2025.
My final opinion on this, is that Brian Cashman continues to go further and further away from any real tried-n-true ‘old fashion’ baseball moves and just one more way he is out of touch, or just gone complacent in his job. Just like I say about umpires - if there is no threat about losing your job, are you really going to try to do the best job you can?
