New York Yankees

I would like to say that I came into this project with some sort of grand design in place.  A blue print including mega trades and George Steinbrenneresque free agent signings galore.  But the fact of the matter  is that I inherited as bleak a roster as any Yankees GM in a generation.  While no one would sympathize with my $217 million payroll, $169 million was already spent on just ten players and one of them was coming back from a year long suspension and hip replacement surgery.  My initial strategy was to keep the pitching staff largely intact due to the fact that it was our biggest strength in 2014.  This meant trying to resign free agent closer David Robertson (I’m among the minority of Yankees fans who don’t feel Betances is ready to have the closer role thrust upon him) and starter Brandon McCarthy.  I would try to address our anemic lineup with whatever was left of my budget after these two signings.

On the opening day of the project, my colleague from Denver blew my plans out of the water by offering me Troy Tulowitzki to replace Derek Jeter.  I had long coveted Tulo but was afraid to ask about him due to my very limited supply of desirable trade bait.  The asking price, starting pitcher Miguel Pineda plus more, was steep and required some thinking.  The only knock on Tulo was his injury history but the same could be said of Pineda.  In the end the allure of Tulo’s offense and the belief that the rotation could absorb the loss of Pineda led me to take the deal.  I was able to include Martin Prado to offset some of the cost but this trade made me realize that resigning both Robertson and McCarthy was probably not going to be doable.  I chose to go after Robertson because he is a known commodity and has been successful in NY for several seasons.  McCarthy, while successful since arriving in the Bronx, is less of a sure thing.  I would now be relying heavily on Chase Whitley to hold down the back end of the rotation until Ivan Nova comes off the disabled list in mid-season.

The real game changer for me was the surprise offer of Matt Kemp for Alex Rodriguez.  Truth be told I had given considerable thought to just cutting A-Rod and eating his salary.  That’s what I would do if I were the real world multi-billionaire owner of the Yankees.  It would benefit the team by eliminating the media circus that will follow A-Rod around everywhere this season.  Plus it would send a message to the fans that ownership was serious about doing what is best for the team , regardless of cost.  I did not do that because I thought it would violate the spirit of the contest.  Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity to rid myself of this albatross even if it did also cost me a serviceable bullpen arm.  In turn I received a guy who put good power and production numbers playing the vast majority of his games in pitcher friendly NL West ball parks.  I’ll gladly take that over the unknown production that A-Rod will provide.  This trade however necessitated that I resign Chase Headley to be my everyday third baseman.

I was very fortunate to get my three top targets in the blind free agent process (Robertson, Headley and Phil Coke as an extra arm out of the pen).  This enabled me to back fill my 25 man roster with a couple of minor leaguers, give well deserved raises to pre-arbitration guys Betances and Green and still have $2 million left in my budget to pick up guys as needed due to injuries once the season begins.  The team I have put together may not be pennant winning caliber but the offense should be much more watchable than last season and if the pitching performs as they did last year I like our chances in a weakened AL East.  The key will be avoiding the rash of big injuries which have snake bitten us each of the last two seasons.  In that regard I just have to hope that our luck will change.  And did I mention that I was able to get rid of A-Rod?  Never before in human history has the phrase “addition by subtraction” been more true and accurate.

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New York Yankees