Can the Yankees avoid the missteps of the Red Sox and Mariners?
By Cory Claus
Up is Now Down
Their top remaining prospect is 43rd ranked LHP Jay Groome, and he is still in Single-A. The only other player of theirs in the top 100 is 93rd ranked 3B Michael Chavis, and he is at Double-A.
In 2018, the Sox will field largely the same team as they did in 2017.
Plus, there isn’t much money coming off the books next year. Price and Kimbrel will probably both be gone, but, with little help coming from the minors, Boston will need to replace them with similarly priced pitchers.
Likewise, they will have to pay a lot more to either keep or adequately replace Pomerantz, who is likely to earn around 9 million this year, according to MLB Trade Rumors. This is not meant to be doom and gloom for the near future, just a reading of what has happened so far.
We Were Young, but We Were Improving
Devers, Bogaerts, and Benintendi can all still get better. Ben, though seems less likely to take over at center. So, if Bradley is not the answer, the Sox are going to have to pay big for a better one. Do they have the resolve to get one? And how?
This team could easily put it all together in 2018 if enough young hitters and free agent pitchers produce at a high level from the first pitch of the season to the end of the World Series.
But their goal was to build a perennial playoff force and multiple World Series winners; that seems less and less likely. Soon their homegrown players will either leave or become high priced free agents, and the team will have less money to shop outside of its own clubhouse.
Two years from now, the Sox might just find themselves with no titles to show for all of their plans, and ready to take offers on Andrew Benintendi in order to start a new run.
Which brings us to the Yankees and their more recent rebuild.