November 3, 2009

Getting Younger

Rob Neyer argues that the Yankees will cut ties with Hideki Matsui in an effort to get younger:

Well, yes … but there’s something else, too, that Kepner touches on just tangentially: the Yankees are old. Now it seems that their American League pennant was inevitable, but was it really? Three of their best players were 35, and Jorge Posada was 37. All of them were better in 2009 than they’d been in 2008, and Posada was the only one who missed significant time because of injuries.

That’s not typically a recipe for success. Last winter, Brian Cashman’s No. 1 mission was adding strikeout pitchers to his rotation (his No. 2 mission was signing the best-hitting free agent). This winter, I’ll bet you a box of Cracker Jack that his No. 1 million will be getting younger in the lineup, however slightly. The Yankees will not be a young team in 2010. But they won’t be quite as old, either, and that means one of the old-timers has to go.

I will not be surprised if both Matsui and Damon go. That’s $26 million off the books, more than enough to sign Matt Holliday, who is six years younger than Damon and better offensively and defensively at this point. Then the Yankees could just let Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli develop some more as Posada and A-Rod move in and out of the designated hitter spot.

The real trick, of course, is eventually moving Jeter off shortstop. He’s doing a good job right now of fighting aging, but this would be a great time to start developing a replacement.

5 thoughts on “Getting Younger

  1. tarik

    As good as he was this year, Damon was still not as good as Jeter, and I agree, it can’t continue, for either of them, but especially damon… If they got rid of both Damno and matsui, I would be pleased. Maybe matsui can go and replace JR in seattle as DH/team elder and Damon will land somewhere so he can continue his quest for 3000 hits if his production continues.

    I think they are stuck with Jeter at SS until 3000 hits overall and 3000 hits as a short stop. So two more years Hopefully they can move him then. but where? Hopefully they have a plan.

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  2. Jesse R

    Do you really think Jeter would ever agree to move from SS? I can’t see it happening.

    Posada being the DH next year would be nice– Cervelli was impressive this year (though I’ll admit that may have been a lucky first year).

    Matsui is definitely out performance-wise, but perhaps his marketability changes things. Losing that might affect advertising.

    Damon might have bought himself another year with his performance towards the end of the season and postseason.

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  3. y81

    The problem is, the Yankees have failed to develop any marquee quality position players for a while (since Cano). So they can’t get really young, since free agents are by nature not too young. The team therefore seems destined to get on the free agent merry-go-round they got onto in the late 80s. The result will be a perpetually aging, good-but-not-great team.

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  4. James

    Jesse, I think of Cervelli as a kind of marking-time back-up to Posada. The premier talent at catcher is in the pipeline (most likely Austin Romine or Jesus Montero), but despite Montero’s spectacular MiL performance is very doubtful that he could be ready to be a *catcher* in the Majors next year, and Romine is still developing.
    It will be interesting to see, about 14 months from now, whether the Yankees even enter the Mauer sweepstakes. If they do, I bet it’s just in order to drive up the price. I can’t see Cashman wanting to block the best position prospects in the system (I count Austin Jackson a cut below Montero, at least in upside).

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  5. dch

    Let Matsui go, keep Damon for 1 more, bring up Austin Jackson-Damon/Jeter/Posada/Arod-take turns at DH.

    We worry about Jeter when we have to

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