Heck, I could be the best student the Yankees ever had. I can strike out every time and drop every fly ball to the outfield. Embrace the stink.
I don't know where this guy's career is headed, but he just strikes me as another player who never bothered to learn the craft and take care of the easy parts.
No, not that.
Or that.
No. I had forgotten about that, but that's not it.
I mean his five o'clock shadow:
"In 1991, club legend Don Mattingly, frustrated with ownership’s lackadaisical attitude toward improving the roster, grew his curls out to his shoulders. He was punished with a one-game benching before he agreed to a haircut. Hall of Famer CC Sabathia and seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens, both of whom were in Tampa with beards as guest instructors on Friday, were infamous for showing a good deal of 5 o’clock shadow.
...
Steinbrenner’s willingness to adapt to the shifting sands is a recognition of reality. Times have changed. The Yankees can no longer rely on their aura, their tradition of excellence and their bottomless caches of cash to nab top free agents. Every advantage — and disadvantage — matters.
In other words: Players care about tradition, but they care about winning more, much more."
I mean, sure.
Times have changed.
I'd go even further and say players don't care one bit about tradition.
The Yankees don't rely on tradition or aura, they rely on big bucks. In certain circumstances, they can appeal to a free agent who wants access to a big market, but that's not going to matter to Devin Williams, much less the catcher Austin What's-His-Name.
The Yankees have lost their intimidation factor and aura because they have just one championship since 2000.
The Yankees' lack of world championships in recent years has much more to do with the expanded playoffs than anything else.
No one likes it when Cashman correctly points out it's a crap shoot, but it's a crap shoot.
Players like money and they also like winning. The two things are correlated somewhat, but not too much. One thing that is not correlated to either of these things is facial hair. There are quite a few mediocre free agents with beards who signed with mediocre teams.
Alex Rodriguez is very tan in February.
Alex Rodriguez can also find $10k in between his couch cushions if he really feels the need to give money to college students.
I am not saying Williams is lying.
I also think the facial hair policy was outdated.
Yankees have an uptight corporate image before, during, and after this particular policy.
In some instances, it's conceivable that a corporate culture or clubhouse cohesion could influence a player's decision. They're in for a rude awakening if they sign long-term with a team because they enjoy the Spring Training camaraderie, just to find that all of their best bid whist partners were traded to Oakland before the season even begins.
As for Williams's free agency, let's play one regular season game first.
He might win the Cy Young Award and World Series MVP and ask for a lot of money.
That would be a high-demand scenario.
Or the opposite may occur.
In any case, the size and grooming of his beard will be about 100th on his priority list.
I saw the headline at MLB.com and knew it was Lupica.
The following is Mike Lupica praising the 2025 Yankees.
Which is something he will never do in the Daily News:
"The Yankees have reigning MVP Aaron Judge, who hit 58 home runs last season and came that close to being the first New York slugger in history to hit 60 homers in a season twice. They have Gerrit Cole, who finally won a Cy Young Award the season before last, and has been one of the true aces in the sport for a long time. They just signed free [sic] Max Fried to the biggest free-agent contract any left-handed pitcher has ever signed.
In addition, the Yankees now have one of the game’s star closers in Devin Williams -- Williams now getting the chance to bring that Airbenddre pitch of his from Milwaukee to Yankee Stadium, and perhaps give the Yankees their best 9th-inning option since Mariano Rivera.
The Yankees also will have two other former MVPs in their regular lineup in addition to Judge with Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, both veterans showing up at The Stadium with much to prove. They have lost a lot in losing Soto, of course, but may come out of that an even more complete team. And maybe this is the season when The Martian, Jasson Domínguez, becomes the hot kid people have been expecting him to be for a while, even though he is still just 22."
This isn't difficult to figure out.
To the New York audience, he's trolling Yankee fans.
To the national audience, he's trolling Dodgers fans:
"The Dodgers are loaded again, absolutely, having now added former Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a world championship team, and Japanese star Roki Sasaki to a team that at some point will get Shohei Ohtani back as a starter. It still won’t make LA any more of a star town in baseball than New York. Sound the trumpets and play the season. The Yankees and Mets will worry about the Dodgers later."
The whole premise is weird.
It's a shot across the bow to all the people who are saying ... ummm ... what are they saying?
They're saying that the LA is more of a star town in baseball than New York! They're wrong! LA is not more of a star town in baseball than New York!
I actually thinks he says the right thing at all times:
"Judge dropped Tommy Edman's routine fly to center in World Series Game 5 for his first error of the year as the Yankees blew a 5-0 lead and were eliminated with a 7-6 loss. Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly said his team had anticipated defensive mistakes by the Yankees.
'We heard that, but there's nothing you can do besides you have to beat them,' Judge said. 'They won. They can say whatever they want. So if you don't like it, you got to play better.' "
A young player in his prime.
The Yankees tried to match the Mets' offer, so it's disingenuous to act like the Yankees dodged a bullet.
I don't even think this is that complicated.
Of course the Yankees can thrive without Juan Soto. Their Plan B has been pretty good, actually.
But it's still Plan B.
Plan A was signing Juan Soto long-term, a decade of Judge/Soto probably drawing comparisons to the greatest MLB duos of all time, and cashing in with multiple rings.