No, the lead isn't Jacoby Ellsbury

That's right Sox fans. I already bid adieu to Ellsbury in the last post, so there's no need to dwell on it other than to arch an eyebrow at the destination. So now that Cano moves to the West coast, we can review the two moves in tandem, and see how they are related.

 

Even the Yankees don't have 20 million+ for everybody

Most observers - until recently - have felt the Yankees were committed to the getting under the luxury tax threshold. When they signed Ellsbury, it was seen as a sign that they were going to go over anyway. But the press read the tea leaves wrong: It meant they knew the bidding had gotten too rich for Cano. The money and the years on both contracts is pretty silly, but the fun debate will be which contract is more of an albatross? No one will know for at least 3 or 4 years- both these players are really good and will have fine seasons for at least that long - but Seattle is paying 20+ million for Cano when he is 41. No way the back end of that contract looks good. The only comparable contract might be A-rods. I do get Seattle's point though: with a legitimate center of the diamond, middle of the order hitter, they can attract the rest of the pieces they need and build a winner in the West. Guess we'll see if they can do that.

 

Anyway, Cano was gone as soon as Ellsbury inked that deal, and that was that.

 

So the Yankees are worse off, right?

Not necessarily. If they had signed Cano, they would have little money for all of their other holes - third base (whether or not A-rod plays), second base, and first base is probably a problem, and pitching. The Yankees need a lot of pitching, that most desperate commodity, and it's not clear to me they have the money left to go get enough. They DEFINTITELY would have been strapped with a Cano signing, although it would have plugged a hole. The Yankees have to replace Hughes (won't be that hard), Pettite (hard), Kuroda (probably with Kuroda, but he's 39 I think), and Rivera (good luck with that). They've got 40-55 million I guess to do that, but when you're talking starting pitching, that doesn't go very far. Kuroda will be 14 million of that.

 

Even if they plug all those holes and stay under the threshold, they are going to be thin, thin, thin. A couple of injuries to the older guys should be expected - and will be problematic. Jeter, Texeria, Ellsbury (yeah, he's hurt a lot, maybe you've heard), A-rod (who'll be suspended anyway). But thin is better than "with holes" and that's how they would have ended up with Cano on the team. Guess they figured that out, so Sayonara Cano!

 

Not having to face Cano will be nice for the Sox, although he didn't really KILL them at the plate- just a .784 OPS over the past 3 years. Now though, they'll be able to focus on the next biggest threat (That's you Ellsbury!).

 

Other Moves of Note

I think the Yanks addressed a need of huge proprtions by getting McCann. For the Sox, I think drawing the line with Salty tells you two things - they have huge confidence that one of their three prospects will turn to gold (C'mon Lavarnway!), and that he wasn't as "irrelplaceable" as you'd like to think. I liked his power, but the strikeouts were brutal. He couldn't stop the opponents from stealing, and I still think there were a lot of questions about his game calling. So you had an average catcher with better than average power numbers. Clearly, that's not someone you need to tie yourself to for three years - so they didn't.

 

The most exciting moves are yet to come though. The Sox have a mess of trade chips, and with the winter meetings they are going to be very active, I think. The sox don't really NEED to do anything - they have six starters under contract, a closer, and all the positions on the diamond (accept first)- but deals now are usually cheaper than in July, so we'll see what happens. Myself, I'd like to see both Bradley and Boegarts on the team next year. I've seen enough of Boegarts, he's going to hit and hit for power, and Bradley has a lot of upside, with .370 OBP in his last 500 AB's at AA and AAA. He can contribute, for sure. It'll come down to how worried Cherrington is about managing the 40 man roster - he has too many good players, a nice problem to have - and may feel the need to do a deal in order to make sure no one gets exposed.

 

Stay posted!