Announcement: the Yankees take on the FanSided Winter Meetings

It seems we all have ideas on how to get the Yankees over the hump. Next week, we’re gonna figure out how that might happen. Announcing the FanSided MLB Winter Meetings.

The New York Yankees fell one game shy of reaching the World Series in 2017. So although there are a number of places to improve the club, we have a lot less tinkering with the roster to do than most.

Starting on Monday morning, Mike Calendrillo, our resident Faux General Manager will be attempting to out-think/out-trade/out-maneuver his peers representing all 30 teams in a ‘simulation’ of the real Winter Meetings that will take place two weeks later in Orlando.

Here are the general ground rules that all of our GM’s will have to adhere to:

Honor the 40-man roster in its current form, as of this weekend.

Hold within 15% of last season’s opening day payroll, as reported by COTS.

Some teams will be under more or fewer restrictions on their budget based on public statements made this off-season. The Marlins, for instance, are definitely going lower.

Trades will largely target major league talent and the prospects associated with ML deals.

Our Commissioner will do a final sanity check on trades before approving them, but both sides need to come together first with terms.

The FAQ

When is this happening?

Start: Monday, November 27th at Noon EST.
End: Wednesday, November 29th at 9 PM EST.

What about free agents?

We have an ‘Uber player agent’ who will arbitrate offers and choose winning clubs among the bidders.

What about somebody like Shohei Ohtani?

As a special case, we’re going to treat him a bit differently. Bids are already being taken for his services, and a winner will be selected just prior to the official start of our event… with the announcement to be made Monday morning.

What if a real-life trade happens next week?

The GMs involved are encouraged to debate among themselves as to whether they would like to engage in the same deal. They may already have done something different that they felt was better for their club(s) and thus may choose to reject the real deal.
That said, we will take care to report ‘fake’ deals as fake and real deals as real to try and not confuse the issue!

Can we extend contracts?

Sure – they will be evaluated by ‘the agent’ as a player might do in real life and then accepted or rejected accordingly.

How about other transactions?

General Managers are free to DFA a player, release a player, claim a player that somebody released, announce tender/non-tender decisions, and just about anything else they feel is necessary. The only real restrictions (other than the rules above) are that we’re asking them to avoid minor-leaguer-for-minor-leaguer deals.

Flurries of Activity

Faux GMs all over the FanSided MLB network have already been chatting about potential deals for the past couple of weeks, so I expect that we’re going to have a bunch of transactions to announce right away on Monday afternoon.

You can certainly play along, too, with your comments about what these team reps did right, what they did wrong, and what you might have suggested instead.

But this is going to be a fun exercise – the first time we’ve done it since 2014 – and it will be good to have the participants relate their stories of deals, near deals and non-starters.

Next: Yanks could use a lefty out of the 'pen

After all, we often talk about trades… but we seldom have to actually get somebody else to agree on one. That changes on Monday… join us on the stove!

Remember this is a fantasy-based exercise, so let’s keep the comments constructive — especially if you disagree with a transaction. Start a debate and find out why your Faux GM made the moves they do. Or better yet, send them an idea to put into motion!

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