The Yankees’ plan all along for a year in which ownership has claimed massive financial losses was to rely heavily on the young pitchers behind Gerrit Cole.
Jordan Montgomery, Deivi Garcia, Clarke Schmidt, Domingo German, Michael King -- this is your shot. Luis Severino, healing from Tommy John surgery, will follow a few months into the season.
In order to supplement those arms, filled with promise but almost totally unproven, the Yanks believed they needed to add veteran depth on a budget. And it was always likely to be new arrivals rather than old friends.
The team has never seriously pursued a reunion with Masahiro Tanaka, who as SNY reported is seeking $15-$20 million on a one-year deal. They also haven’t had a single substantive conversation with James Paxton’s representatives.
It’s always intriguing how a front office narrows all the available choices to fill a need. Earlier in the offseason, Brian Cashman and his group assembled a list of the high-ceiling starters who came relatively cheap. Free agent Corey Kluber was near the top of the list, as were Pirates pitchers Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon.
They had an inside track to Kluber because he trained privately with Eric Cressey, who also oversees strength and conditioning for the Yankees. According to people familiar with Kluber's thinking, the Yanks also had an advantage in that Kluber was intrigued by playing for them and had the team at the top of his own list.
Still, the bidding for Kluber became more intense than expected after he impressed in a showcase held at Cressey’s facility in Florida. The teams involved in negotiations -- the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, and Boston Red Sox among them -- suggested that Kluber had broad appeal among smart, data-centric organizations.
The Yanks only got Kluber when they pushed to $11 million. One source said that they were not even the highest bidder, though it did help that they offered guaranteed money rather than an incentive-based contract, and only asked for a year of team control.
With that done, Cashman turned back to talks with Pittsburgh. The Yanks had initially been in on Musgrove, but weren’t comfortable with the prospect cost. He went to the Padres.
But the Yanks’ evaluators had liked Taillon for years, and had more recently received a strong report on his makeup from Cole, his friend and former teammate. They also had encouraging intel on his rehabilitation from his second Tommy John surgery, which he was conducting with the type of contemporary methods that fit into Cressey’s program with the Yankees.
Data also shows that pitchers who twice undergo that reconstructive elbow procedure are often diminished. The Taillon that the Yanks are getting is not the same Taillon that their scouts have long desired.
But he is also making just $2.3 million. If he pitches well, it will be the type of Tampa Bay-level find that the Yanks know they need to pursue. As with Kluber, the division rival Rays were after Taillon, too, but the Yankees beat them to it.
For the Yanks, it’s a strategy that promises a high ceiling, but carries the risk of a low floor. Whether they look smart to their fans will depend on how the season goes. The worst-case scenario has Cole as the only experienced starter on a win-now team.
But to anyone watching the intellectual arms race in the A.L. East between Cashman’s Yankees, Erik Neander’s Rays and Chaim Bloom’s Red Sox, it’s clear that the pursuit of these pitchers in lieu of Tanaka or Paxton represents another wrinkle in their competition.