By TARIQ KENDALL
Staff Writer
On Thursday, the Yankees nabbed up highly touted Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, signing him to a seven-year, $155 million contract. It appears the Yankees are up to their old tricks, patching their holes with money and sailing to a championship.
Same dance, different ballroom.
Unfortunately, for you Yankee fans out there the front office forgot one small detail: They still have holes in their team.
The patented ‘fix your problems with money’ move only works when you actually fix your problems. Coming into this offseason, the Yankees had to deal with starting pitching that performed below par, an infield that couldn’t buy a run, and a newly created void in the closer spot.
What does Brian Cashman do to address these issues? He picks up two outfielders and a catcher.
Okay, Brain McCann is a solid acquisition when you have Chris Stewart starting the majority of games at catcher with a batting average of .211. Anyone is an upgrade.
Their next move was Jacoby Ellsbury. All right, you let Curtis Granderson walk; you have to fill that gap. Well played Cashman.
This next move has me scratching my head.
Carlos Beltran, who had a 2013 season that saw him bat .296 and knock in 84 RBIs. Take into account the Yankees already sank $153 million into Ellsbury, and they’ve already got Ichiro, Soriano, and Gardner on the roster. Oh yeah, and Beltran will be 37 in April. Seriously, did they Yankees owe him a favor? They dropped $45 million for what is the equivalent of a rundown Lexus, when they have four Mercedes in garage.
Cashman rounded out his spending spree with Tanaka’s massive $155 million, which somewhat patches their starting pitching woes.
Now, assuming that Girardi can make the five outfielder situation work, and the starting pitching holds up, the Yankees still have one huge problem:Â their infield.
You’ve addressed the catcher problem with McCann, assuming he doesn’t get hurt. You get back Mark Teixeira who’s a run producer, but outside of that what can you really expect from this infield? Jeter’s at the tail-end of his career and provided the duck tape that keeps his ankle together, he’s really good for no more than 60 RBIs, 15 stolen bags, and at most a .300 average. There’s no more Robinson Cano, and in his place you have Brian Roberts, Dean Anna, or Kelly Johnson. Roberts, who is the only one of those three who’s played a full season in the MLB did so in 2009 when he batted .283, and drove in 79 RBIs and whiffed 112 times. With all these problems, I still haven’t come around to biggest of them all: third base
In Alex Rodriguez’ absence, the Yankees have been pitiful at third. They rotated eight guys in at that position and they combined to drive in 63 runs. Eight people, one less than a full lineup, tallied 63 RBIs. Needless to say all of those players except one, Mark Reynolds, are currently looking for work. With that being said, the Yankees have made little effort to try and sign a third baseman.
With all this being said, the Yankees grabbing Tanaka is great, but how much is he really going to do?
Yes, last year he had a 1.27 ERA, and struck out 183, and yes he won 24 times while losing none. He’ll be a great addition and the combination of him, Sabathia, and Kuroda should be enough to solidify the Yankee rotation.
However, in his seven years in Japan he had a batting average of .081 and hasn’t played any other position than pitcher. Tanaka is great but he can’t cover the other deficiencies within the Yankees.
You can’t expect to get by on a roster packed with minor leaguers. A lineup that has players like Dean Anna, and Eduardo Nunez sandwiched in with relics like Derek Jeter and Carlos Beltran can’t be projected by management to win. Unless you assume that Texieira will go ahead drive in 100 runs, that McCann a)survives the work load and b)puts together another silver slugger worthy season, which is plausible, and that nobody gets hurt. Because if someone sustains an injury that causes them to miss more than a couple games, it all falls apart.
In closing, the Yankees acquisition of Masahiro Tanaka is great but won’t win them a title. He could throw 20 perfect games and the Yankees could still end up in last place.
