The Boston Red Sox escaped the New York Yankees shadow the hard way, coming back from a 3-0 hole to win 4 straight games in the 2004 ALCS and going on to win the World Series 4x since.
The New York Mets did it the easier way, by writing a check. Not just a check, but the biggest check in Major League Baseball history. As we predicted here, it took over $50m per year for Steve Cohen and the Mets to get Juan Soto to move from the Bronx to Queens. Does this get the Mets out of the Yankees shadows? It depends on how it plays out on the field, but Mets fans are rejoicing that they finally have the owner with the deeper pockets.
Meanwhile, back in the Bronx, you can be sure that the Yankees are about to go on a spending spree to recover from this setback and attempt to maintain New York’s baseball hierarchy. As Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman get ready to go with Plan B, we want them to remember Jacoby Ellsbury.
The last time the Yankees lost one of their own players in a free agency bidding war, was back in 2013 when the Seattle Mariners signed Robinson Cano. The Yankees immediately countered by signing injury-prone, singles hitter Jacoby Ellsbury to a 7-year, $153m deal. Ellsbury managed to play 520 forgettable games for the Yankees and finished his career on the injured list. That’s a warning that the Yankees need to walk the fine line between being aggressive and patient. They are sitting on a pile of money, but it needs to be spent wisely. In Ellsbury’s case, they spent all-star money on a player who managed one outlier all-star season in an 11-year career.
Let’s face it, there’s only one Juan Soto and no one on the market is going to have the same impact on the Yankees lineup that he would. That’s why it may be smarter for the Yankees to spread the money around by upgrading their rotation (Max Fried, Corbin Burnes), bullpen (Tanner Scott), and infield (Christian Walker, Alex Bregman) rather than overspend on outfielders Teoscar Hernandez or Anthony Santander.
What about the Polar Bear? One knee-jerk reaction would be for the Yankees to steal Pete Alonso from the Mets. We don’t agree. From the Mets perspective, Alonso is a rare homegrown star, would have less pressure on him now in a Soto-fueled lineup, and they have an open DH spot if his defense slips more as he ages. It makes sense for the Mets to bring him back.
The Yankees DH spot is still clogged up by Giancarlo Stanton (another “rebound” acquisition after the Yankees were spurned by Shohei Ohtani v1.0), so he would be a full-time first basemen. Also, the Yankees have been trying to get away from the all-or-nothing hitters that they were collecting (i.e., Joey Gallo) a few years back.
There is no quick strike for the Yankees to get back at the Mets. The Yankees and their fans need to face facts, the Mets have won the off-season, they will have bragging rights until at least opening day, and more importantly they have one of the top hitters in baseball in their lineup for at least 5, if not 15 years. The Mets are a franchise on the rise, and they have taken a huge step to reclaiming National League supremacy in New York.
But the Yankees know that winning the off-season is not the goal. We are about to see what they’ve been cooking as a plan B, and hope it doesn’t include another Jacoby Ellsbury.
