Yankees #48: Farewell, adieu, sayonara, adios, ciao, toddle-lo, au revoir

The Yankees are holding their breath awaiting the return of their regular first baseman. And that’s because it’s become painful to watch even one more at-bat by the fill-in player Brian Cashman brought in as an insurance policy. Thankfully, there’s only time to say good-bye.

Yankees first baseman Chris Carter may be the nicest guy in the world, and he might light up the team’s clubhouse, but he stinks as a major league ballplayer.

And if Joe Girardi isn’t silently counting the days until Greg Bird is ready to step into the everyday lineup, I’m counting them out loud. And if Carter isn’t released on the very day that Bird and Tyler Austin are back, I’m calling for a directed verdict by The Judge.

In fact, why don’t we take and moment and let us count the ways that demonstrate Carter’s value to the Yankees team? If he were released today, the Yankees would have paid him $175,000 for every base hit he has collected. Or, if you want to count his value as a power hitter, that would cost the Yankees $875,000 a pop.

Meanwhile, Aaron Judge is hitting home runs a record clip at a cost to the team of $28,166.67 for each of his eighteen home runs. Okay, so Carter has somehow managed to play eight years in the big leagues, and he has earned the right to command a higher salary than Judge or Gary Sanchez.

But how can Brian Cashman justify his signing of Carter for $3.5 million when there were no other takers? And how can Cashman defend the Yankees raising such a big stink about Dellin Betances ($3 million), Adam Warren ($2.3 million),  and the most glaring discrepancy of all, Aaron Hicks ($1.35 million)?

This thing with Carter never made sense from the beginning. There were other options available at the time. Cashman could have gone, for instance, to Girardi before Spring Training asking him what he thought of having Aaron Hicks, a gifted athlete, about taking reps at first base during the preseason.

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Hicks, not knowing that he would be getting more than adequate playing time during the season and hitting over .300 at the time, would have jumped at the chance.

And by the way, that’s an option the Yankees should still pursue as a backup to the (apparently) fragile Bird.

And while Cashman has been pure genius as the Yankees General Manager, it would be nice to hear from him at some point, “You know what, you guys were right, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have spent that money in other ways.” That’s all you gotta say, Brian.

And it’s not as easy as dismissing Carter’s performance to date by the fact that his team is winning and in first place in the AL East. Because all we need to do is think back to how many games the team has lost by a score of 3-2 or 4-3. And then, put that with the fact that Carter has left 68 men on base in only 129 plate appearances. And that’s leaving his strikeouts out of the picture.

And to add insult to injury, there have been a few of those………….

So it was a failed experiment. Give Carter an A for effort, because throughout all of this debacle, no one has said that he lacks the desire or a work ethic that defines a major league ballplayer. And though it’s hard to imagine, there might be another team he can hook on with. And he’s surely the kind of ballplayer the fans in South Korea or Japan would go nuts over.

The Yankees need to pitch for the playoffs now, not later

Mysteriously, with an eye towards the playoffs, the Yankees don't seem to be concerned about the innings being logged by their starters. Big mistake!

But just as surely, when Greg Bird walks through the Yankees clubhouse door, there will be hugs all around and a smile on Girardi’s face when he tacks his lineup card on the wall with a real first baseman for the first time in too long a time.