Hal yes to more Yankee starters
ORLANDO, Fla. — Hal Steinbrenner believes the Yankees are a franchise on the rise. And despite his repeatedly stated goal of wanting to get under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold for 2018, he would like the team to focus on adding even more starting pitching.
“I think it’s been a tough five years,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday at the GM meetings. “We kept talking about the same guys at Single-A, then they were at Double-A and Triple-A, just wait, they’re coming, they’re coming, and some of them have come. They got a full year under their belt and a lot of playoff experience under their belt, which I think is going to bode very well for next year.”
The Bombers currently have four starters under contract: Masahiro Tanaka (after his opt-in), Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery and Luis Severino. They plan to seriously pursue two-way star Shohei Otani if he is posted from Japan, as expected. And they could also bring back CC Sabathia on a one-year deal, perhaps i n the $10-12 million range. Chad Green is also slated to be stretched out as a starter going into spring training, though that plan could always change.
Injuries can frequently occur with starters, so a surplus in that area would only help.
“I think you can never have enough starting pitching,” Steinbrenner said. “In our case, if there’s one area that I personally would focus on, that would be probably top of the list.”
The Yankees want to get under the luxury-tax threshold for 2018 so the penalties will reset in advance of the 2019 free-agent class, when they may spend big again on the likes of Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Clayton Kershaw (if he opts out).
“I don’t want to get into the numerous reasons, but for one, it’s going to give us more flexibility in the immediate years to come if we should decide to go over it again,” Steinbrenner said. “There’s a reset and there’s numerous other reasons, other things we can’t participate in that other clubs are, because we’ve been over every year. I’ve been saying, you can have a world championship-caliber team and not have a $200-plus million payroll.”
The Bombers could also have a competition at third base, with Chase Headley needing to “defend” the position from youngsters like MLB.com No. 1 overall prospect Gleyber Tor res a nd Miguel Andujar, who are both knocking on the door.