Stop trying to create a Yankees super-team

Please Yankees fans, stop it.  The Yankees aren’t going to sign both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.  They aren’t going to be able to sign James Paxton, Dallas Keuchel, Patrick Corbin, J.A. Happ, and every other good left-handed pitcher on Earth.  They aren’t going to have eight All-Stars on their team.

It hasn’t worked in the past (minus 2009) and it’s not going to work going forward.  There’s too much parity in baseball and having a team of bloated contracts and underachieving superstars is not how you should build a team.

The 2018 Red Sox are a testament to that.  While they signed plenty of big free agents, they also have a great core of homegrown talent.  Their biggest postseason stars were Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi.  They didn’t rely on their heavy hitters during the postseason and instead played baseball the way it’s supposed to be played.

The Yankees don’t NEED any of these free agents.  There’s no point of giving $300M to Bryce Harper to have him bat .215 and be a black hole in the middle of their lineup.  There’s no reason to have Manny Machado come in and be lazy just like Gary Sanchez, disrupt the locker room when Didi Gregorius comes back, and underperform when he’s needed most.

As a Yankee fan, it’s safe to say that Yankee fans are absolutely delusional.  These super-teams rarely work out.  The way to build a team in baseball now is to have some key free agents signed, have a good core of homegrown talent, and good support either via trade or free agency.  The bloated contracts lead to more problem than help, and the Yankees have been through all of this before.

Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Mark Teixeira in his later years, and Alex Rodriguez in his later years all come to mind.  They were always competitive enough to make the playoffs, but never went anywhere because they were a top heavy team with no depth because of their big contracts.

Will the Yankees learn their lesson?  I certainly hope so but they are the Yankees after all.  If not, let’s just hope that this All-Star team can catch lightning in a bottle just like the 2009 team did.  If not, it’s going to be another ten years of mediocrity.