About Spring Training: Character Matters

About Spring Training: Character Matters

By Tim Kabel

March 25, 2024

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The Yankees’ starting shortstop is Anthony Volpe. He won the Gold Glove last year. Yet many fans and media members are concerned about his hitting and the fact that he strikes out too much and sometimes seems to be obsessed with hitting home runs, instead of concentrating on slashing line drives and getting on base, which seems to be more suited to his abilities. Last year, the starting shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays was Wander Franco, who became an All-Star. The Rays signed him to an 11-year $182 million contract in 2021. He was recently arrested in his native Dominican Republic and is facing charges regarding an improper relationship with a 14-year-old girl. He will most likely be removed from the Rays’ roster before Opening Day and may never play in the Major Leagues again. By all metrics, Franco is a better all-around baseball player than Volpe.       

Trevor Bauer won the 2020 National League Cy Young award with the Cincinnati Reds. He signed a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in February of 2021. He was leading the league in both strikeouts and innings pitched on July 2 of that year, but was placed on administrative leave for the rest of the season as MLB investigated sexual assault and domestic violence charges against him. On April 29th, 2022, Bauer was suspended for 324 games, which was later reduced to 194. He was subsequently released by the Dodgers in January of 2023. When the Yankees play an exhibition game against the Diablos Rojos in Mexico this week, Bauer will be pitching against them. Bauer desperately wants to return to MLB. Bauer was a college teammate of Gerrit Cole, and actually won a Cy Young award before Cole did.

Shohei Ohtani is an incredibly talented two-way baseball player, although he will only be a designated hitter this season, due to injury. He was the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year, a three-time All-Star and the American League MVP in 2021 and 2023.  He is widely considered to be the best all around player in baseball. He just signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is the largest contract in the history of professional sports. Earlier this week, Major League Baseball opened an investigation regarding Ohtani and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, (who was fired by the Dodgers on March 20th). The investigation surrounds $4.5 million in wire payments that were made from Ohtani's bank account to a Southern California bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation. At this point, it is totally unclear as to what Ohtani's role is and whether he is a victim or a culprit in the scandal. Regardless, being under investigation is never a good thing. In 2022, Aaron Judge beat out Ohtani for the MVP, although many felt Ohtani should have won the award.

The point is that the Yankees are far better off with Volpe instead of Franco, Cole instead of Bauer, and quite possibly, Judge instead of Ohtani. I felt that the Yankees were better off with Judge over Ohtani before this incident even occurred. 

Character matters. It is better to have players on the team who are less likely to be involved in some type of scandal. Now, these things cannot always be predicted. The Yankees are not immune to having bad apples on their team. They had both Aroldis Chapman and Domingo German on their roster. Mel Hall, Chad Curtis, and John Wetteland all wore the Yankees’ uniform at one point or another.

The purpose of this article is not to point fingers and it is not to say that the Yankees are a better-run organization than the Dodgers or the Rays. The Yankees could turn around and shock us all by signing Trevor Bauer after he pitches against them this week. I for one would be greatly disappointed if they did.

The point is that we, as Yankees’ fans, should take a moment to recognize players such as Cole, Judge, and Volpe and be thankful that they are on our team. Also, if you do have a youngster who watches the games with you, you can point to those players with pride and say, “that's the way you go about things."

Character matters.