The Vazquez Trade: The Day After

It's the day after the Yankees traded for Javier Vazquez and the fans are split.  I've heard and read a lot of different opinions over the last two days about this trade and thought it was worth addressing a few of them. 1. Melky Cabrera. A lot of people are treating Melky Cabrera like the centerpiece of this trade.  Not so.  In fact, Melky will most likely be a fourth outfielder for the Braves.  Not many fourth outfielders are the centerpiece of trades for a pitcher who received Cy Young votes. I get that people are sad to see Melky go.  He came up with the organization, giving some the feeling that they've watched him grow up. What he has grown to, though, is an average ballplayer at best.  Remember, the Yankees went into 2009 with Melky on the bench and Brett Gardner starting in centerfield.  Gardner got off to a slow start and Melky showed some life off the bench and the roles were reversed. Neither player is suited well for left field from on offensive point of view.  Gardner plays the superior defense which meant he was probably going to get more playing time (that and his higher OBP). In short, the Yankees didn't look at Melky as being an everyday player.  Being arbitration eligible this season meant he would be making more than they thought he was worth while Gardner is still under salary control.  As we'll discuss in a moment, get used to this type of thinking from Brian Cashman. 2. "Vazquez stunk in 2004."  He stunk the second half.  He was an All Star the first half until shoulder problems wore him down, possibly the result of a heavy workload in Montreal. We all remember the collapse in the 2004 ALCS which seemed to be finalized on Johnny Damon's grand slam off of Javier Vazquez.  In some ways, fans seem to be pinning the entire collapse directly on Vazquez which isn't really fair.  He's been a good to great pitcher since then and the Yankees didn''t acquire him to be an ace.  He's a fourth starter with the potential to put up great numbers.  If he pitches like a fourth starter and gives the Yankees 200 innings, mission accomplished. That's the problem with how people are judging this trade.  They hear Vazquez and hear about Cy Young votes and think the Yankees are acquiring him to be C.C. Sabathia part two.  Melky Cabrera, a reliever prospect, and a 19 year old kid who hasn't hit A ball yet will not get you an ace, not even in this baseball economy.  But Vazquez is a very capable pitcher who figures to be a solid back of the rotation guy. A lot of people will tell you that Vazquez has no guts because he's failed in the big game.  Vazquez has started in two postseason games, one for the Yankees while injured and one for the White Sox in 2008.  Not much to go on.  People also told you that C.C. Sabathia couldn't pitch in big games before coming to the Yankees.  How did that work out? Fans place a lot of credence in the concept of "guts," but what does that really mean?  Kenny Rogers used to have no guts.  From ages 31 through 34, Rogers was not a good postseason pitcher.  Yankee fans remember how terrible he was in the 1996 playoffs, which the Yankees somehow won out despite Rogers giving up five runs early in game four of the World Series.  At age 41, Rogers lead the Tigers to the World Series with a stellar postseason. What happened in those seven years that gave Rogers "guts?"  Was he now and even more grizzled veteran that wasn't afraid of the postseason?  Maybe he was just pitching well at the time. We watch players go through streaks all year.  Look at Mark Teixeira this season.  At points, you couldn't get him out.  At other points, he couldn't hit a lick.  Was it pressure?  Was it guts?  Or was it just how things even out? .300 hitters don't hit exactly .300 from April 1st to October 31st.  Their average goes up and down just like the rest of us.  We all have our good weeks and bad weeks.  Sometimes, your good week falls at the right time.  Sometimes it doesn't. It's difficult to think that a player could make it all the way to the major leagues and not be able to handle pressure.  The amount of pressure just to get yourself to the majors must be intense.  Every day in the minor leagues, you're playing to show what you could be in the future with every day having an influence on whether you will continue in the league.  That's pressure. If the Yankees make the postseason with Javier Vazquez next season, there is every reason to believe Javy will perform at the same level he has all season.  Hopefully that level will prove to be pretty good. 3. Cashman is changing the rules. We saw this start when Cash refused to give in for Johan Santana.  Cashman held onto his chips, waited for Sabathia, and the Yankees won a World Series.  The Yankees could easily afford Matt Holliday for left field, but he's not the guy they want.  The Yankees think the 2010 free agent class has better long term options. Options are what Brian Cashman is all about right now.  There are a few reasons why the Yankees decided to trade for a starting pitcher rather than go after John Lackey, Randy Wolf, or a gamble like Ben Sheets: they didn't like the pitchers for the money.  John Lackey is a nice pitcher but the Red Sox probably overpaid him in years and in dollars.  They had to because they needed another quality starter. The Yankees won 103 games last year with a rotation that was unchanged before they acquired Javier Vazquez.  Any adjustments to that rotation would have to fill certain needs, specifically a strike out pitcher to minimize reliance on the defense and throw 200+ innings to help spell the overworked rotation from 2009.  Vazquez fits both those descriptions. If Cashman thought he could get that from a free agent pitcher, he would have gone that direction.  Cashman is treating free agency differently these days.  Despite having signed Sabathia and Teixeira to long term contracts, Cashman has been steadily avoiding signing older veterans to longer term deals. A few seasons ago, Johnny Damon might have gotten three years from the Yankees coming off his 2009 season.  Not this year.  Cashman is avoiding the collection of "old farts" on this team in favor of flexibility, signing older veterans to one year deal to fill holes in hopes of improving those positions later in the season or the following winter.  In the case of Sabathia and Teixeira, both players were still young and in their prime and filled the Yankees exact needs.  Teixeira also came with a good defensive reputation, a characteristic Cashman is giving more and more attention. The Yankees would have settled for Johnny Damon for two years at $7 million per season.  That's the money they had ear-marked for a designated hitter and, at this stage, that's all Damon really is.  When Nick Johnson materialized at a cheaper cost and some defensive flexibility at first base, Damon was no longer needed. Cold-hearted?  Maybe.  But definitely realistic.  There is no glory to be found in over-paying players, not even in the Yankees budget.  Cashman has been treading water, waiting for the contracts of Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, and Jason Giambi to come off the books.  Now that he is finally clear of those contracts, he's able to shape the team based on the type of player he wants rather than the best player available.  Sometimes that will mean leaving Brett Gardner or a cheap one year replacement in left field until a Carl Crawford type becomes available.  Sometimes it will also mean cutting loose a guy like Melky Cabrera who's salary will start to outweigh his value on the field. There will be exceptions.  I'll bet Cashman is cursing the four year deal he gave Jorge Posada before the 2008 season.  No one doubts that Jorge can hit, but his catching days are dwindling.  Guys like Posada, Mariano Rivera, and soon Derek Jeter are going to get overpaid because of their service time to the organization and what they mean to the team.  I don't buy into the second half of that statement as much as most do, but it goes without saying that seeing Posada, Rivera, or Jeter in another uniform would be a bad day for the Yankees. Cashman is running the Yankees like a business.  If it were your money, you'd be kissing his feet.  In Cash You Should Trust.