Should the Yankees go in full throttle on the Yu Darvish free agent scene or not? Darvish has averaged 6.1 innings in a 6 year career with a 3.42 ERA and a record of 56 wins and 42 losses. All but 9 of his starts were with a very good Rangers team. The other 9 were with the best team in the National League in 2017, the Dodgers. His K/BB ratio is still extremely good. I say still good because he is coming off of Tommy John surgery that took away all of 2015 and part of the 2016 seasons. He showed some rust in the post season last year. Whether or not that was from fatigue, or the play-off slippery slide home run ball MLB used in the post season, we will never know.
Don’t let that wins and losses record fool you, this is filet mignon we are talking about here and every team in baseball would love to have him staring down hitters. With a bullpen, the likes he has never had to work with before, the Yankees would give him an excellent chance to become a Cy Young winner at last. 18 to 22 wins are a reasonable number for him with this Yankee club. It could sway his thinking in favor of the Bronx bombers who will also be scoring a lot this year. Who ever ends up signing this ace will be getting one of the top starting pitchers in all of baseball but should the Yankees be that team? Be reminded that this is not the same Yankee organization of “The Boss” George Steinbrenner who would throw caution to the wind and spend big money to get a player like Darvish. If George were still alive, Darvish would have had an image of himself adorning One Times Square on New Years Eve this year.
Led by Brian Cashman, the Yankee brain trust has evolved into a savvy deal making organization. The trades they have made over the past two years exemplify good planning, scouting, research and creativity. In a grand swoop of late season trades in 2016, they made their farm system the best in baseball and then re-acquired some of the same players they had dealt, as in Aroldis Chapman and Adam Warren. That strong farm system has made it possible to make deals for players like David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, Sonny Gray and the block buster deal for Giancarlo Stanton.
Again I say, do they really need more filet mignon? Sometimes a good ‘Tbone’ will satisfy your hunger. As pointed out by fellow columnist Howie Karpin’s piece two weeks ago, https://www.nysportsday.com/2017/12/29/karpin-mets-need-to-haul-in-this-big-fish/ Alex Cobb would fit nicely in this Yankee rotation. Howie also pointed out that Cobb would come with a good record within the American League East division and for less money. Make the deal for Cobb. Remember the key word here is “money.”
That will be a big factor next year when Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Clayton Kershaw and Dallas Keuchel are expected to be free agents. What ever happens with Darvish, will set the stage for many of the mega money signings that could come next year. Can you even imagine what an outfield of Judge, Stanton and Harper would be like? If the new stadium had 20,000 more seats it would still be hard to get a ticket. Will we see the first $400 million dollar man next year? My guess is yes. Will he be in pinstripes?……… “To be continued.”