Maybe we’ve just misheard the Yankees lately.
I could’ve sworn they’ve been saying they intended to drop their payroll under $189 million for 2014. But is it possible we just assumed that “one” in front and it’s actually $89 million? Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and a local junior college team to plug the rest of the holes?
How else to explain the Yankees allowing themselves to get outbid by Pittsburgh — the Pirates! — for the extremely valuable and popular Russell Martin?
The Yankees, after bringing back the important triumvirate of Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, suffered their first blow of the Hot Stove campaign with the departure of Martin, whom they understandably wanted to retain, for a seemingly reasonable two-year, $16.5-million contract from the Pirates. And while you never want to react too passionately either way to winter transactions — where are you now, Miami Marlins of a year ago? — this one boggles the mind.
In his two seasons with the Yankees, Martin proved himself to be durable and conscientious, and if he didn’t like the Bronx glare, he sure hid it well, given his myriad late-inning hits and his comfort with the media.
His .211 batting average last year? Please. His .311 on-base percentage and .403 slugging percentage were more than respectable given the position he plays.
He doesn’t turn 30 until February. No, he doesn’t belong in the same catcher conversation as Joe Mauer or Yadier Molina, yet he’s not getting paid anything close to those guys’ salaries.
So what are we missing here?
Yes, the Yankees have some interesting young catchers in their farm system, but the only one possibly ready for the major leagues is Austin Romine, who missed most of the 2012 season with a back injury.
Sure, there are a couple of other interesting free-agent catchers in Mike Napoli and A.J. Pierzynski. Napoli isn’t a full-time catcher, however, and given his slugging capabilities, he’s a strong bet to surpass Martin’s deal.
Pierzynski? He turns 36 in December, making him six years older than Martin, and he’s coming off a career season. If the Bridgehampton native (he moved away when he was young) wants to come to the Yankees for a lucrative, one-year deal, that would make some sense. He surely will get multi-year offers, though.
The Yankees have been proceeding methodically this winter, focusing on the retention of their key pitchers and asking their own free-agent position players like Raul Ibanez and Ichiro Suzuki to wait patiently. Kuroda moved the quickest of the frontline pitchers on the free-agent market. Nevertheless, it would be very out of character for the Yankees to miss out on such a desired player just because he operated at a swift pace.
So we’re left scratching our heads and shrugging, wondering how in the heck the Yankees didn’t keep someone they wanted to keep and who wanted to come back. Did Martin find Pittsburgh that charming? Was a reunion with A.J. Burnett too sweet to pass up? And what secret metric did the Yankees utilize to determine that they wouldn’t commit two years and $17 million to Martin?
Brian Cashman keeps saying that if the Yankees can’t build a champion on $188 million or less, that reflects poorly on him. Consider the Martin departure the first such test of that proclamation. The obvious solution is off the board, so the Yankees’ creativity has to start now, one year before the real austerity program begins.