As we all know, this past off-season, Yankees GM Brian Cashman made a choice that was inexplicable to most fans. He decided to forego signing Bryce Harper (he of the legendary talent) and Manny Machado (he of the legendary bad attitude). Instead, Cashman made a series of smaller free agent acquisitions.
Now, of course, judging a series of short term deals versus a long term deal is silly because long term deals in baseball generally work out well in the beginning and not so well at the end when the players are still getting top dollar and are not performing well (or at all). Any questions on this paragraph can be forwarded to Jacoby Ellsbury.
Still, in the spirit of ridiculousness, I propose doing just that and unfairly judging Cashman on how DJ LeMahieu, Adam Ottavino and Zach Britton are doing as compared to Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.
The Yankees Three are making $12 million, $13 million and $9 million, for a total of $34 million each year. Manny is at $30 million and Bryce Harper is at $25 million. So it’s all in the same ballpark…
I’ll be using Wins Above Replacement (WAR) as the measure:
So here we go. So far in 2019:
DJ LeMahieu: 0.6 WAR
Adam Ottavino: 0.1 WAR
Zach Britton: 0.3 WAR
Total: 1.0 WAR
Manny Machado: 0.6 WAR
Bryce Harper: 0.9 WAR
So, for the moment, the Cash-o-Meter shows that Cashman made the right choice and he should keep his job. I’m sure he will sleep better at night after reading this.
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