Yankees: Will The Kids Curse the Day They Became A Yankee?

The Yankees have both an immediate and long-range problem in finding room for their Baby Bombers. Will some of these kids end up cursing the day they became a Yankee?

The Yankees have too much of a good thing. Their family keeps growing, but no one ever moves out of the house. They have players who have more than outstayed their welcome but they can’t get rid of them, causing a log jam at the dinner table.

But for the Yankees to remain viable with their fans, the team needs to play both ends of the stick for at least a couple of years to keep the fire burning, not only with their fans but with the players who are being caught in the spider’s web.

And earlier today, we published a piece that asks the question, Are The Yankees Unintentionally Running A Scam? And I used the word unintentionally intentionally. It would be a stretch to believe that the franchise would be that deceitful. And it’s more likely that they simply don’t know what to do at this point.

Cream rises to the top as long as you don’t put too much coffee in the cup, to begin with.

The story points out that Joe Girardi is not doing the team or the players any favors when he says that jobs, currently held by veterans, are “in jeopardy.” Because it’s misguiding and simply not true.

Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Chase Headley all have jobs with the Yankees for the next two years, and in the case of Ellsbury well beyond that. And it’s all about money that is owed to each player over that timeframe.

And there’s no point in getting into a discussion about money, Yankee finances, bad contracts, etc. It is what it is.

But a very real question that begs to ask is how many of these young players will rue the day they signed with the Yankees or arrived in trades. For them, it’s a two-edged sword because, after all, who wouldn’t want to play with the Yankees.

But the keyword in that sentence is “play” and if they are not going to play with the Yankees, then what are they doing with their careers?

If you are Gleyber Torres, of course, you don’t worry about these things. Because he’s piloting his plane and his ETA in the Bronx is being pushed up daily.

A Typical Case Of Yankees Overgrowth

But on the flip side, what can the Dustin Fowler‘s agent tell him about his future. By now, Fowler has gone through the $238,000 the Yankees gave him when they signed him as an 18th round draft selection in 2013. He is not on the team’s 40-man roster, and he is not protected with a contract this season as of yet.

What’s his agent supposed to say except, “Hang in there, Dustin.” And yet, the Yankees have not stopped themselves from heaping praise on this 22-year-old young man.

Joe Girardi, for instance, has noticed his progress, telling the New York Daily News recently:

"“He’s swung the bat well. He’s played good defense. He’s run the bases well. You kind of see a young man growing up in front of you, is what we’re seeing.”"

But that’s all Fowler is going to get from either Girardi or the Yankees at the moment. And you have to wonder how that plays on the psyche of a 22-year old.

Does he believe the hype and settle in for the long haul, or does he mail it in every day knowing that he’s stuck in the middle of a transition that never seems to end with the Yankees? Or, does he hope that another team will notice him and he’ll be included in a trade to a team where he can be a regular in their lineup?

And he’s not the only one. His competitor, Billy McKinney suits up the same way every day, as does Clint Frazier, Miguel Andujar, and you know the rest of the names.

The Key To The Yankees Season Rests In The Minors

And that’s why I wrote the other day that the most important Yankees this season are in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the name of Al Pedrique and Tony Franklin, the respective managers at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre and Double-A Trenton.

It was Yogi Berra, you’ll recall, who said that 90% of this game is mental, and the other half is physical. His words, though not necessarily his math, will ring true beyond the Bronx this season and well into 2018 as well.

Yankees: Are They Unintentionally Running A Scam?

For at least the next two seasons, the Baby Bomber Yankees are blocked everywhere they look. Are the Yankees running a scam with many of these players?

Cream rises to the top as long as you don’t put too much coffee in the cup, to begin with. And that’s the problem the Yankees are facing. There’s too much coffee in the cup and no room for the cream.