And you know, Alex Rodriguez (the man the Yankees traded Soriano for almost a decade ago) will be back soon from his “injury.” Wait. He was injured, right? Or did the Yankees’ doctors make it up after A-Rod pulled himself out of a rehab assignment? I don’t know. It gets so confusing keeping up with the he-said-they-said saga of Mr. Rodriguez. Can MLB issue him his lifetime ban already so we can all get on with our baseball-watching lives?
I also hear Jayson Nix has started his rehab assignment in Class A Tampa. If all goes well, we should have Nix and his .236 BA/.303 OBP in the lineup before you know it! Yeah, Curtis Granderson is rehabbing with him, but the way this season has gone, the outfielder will get to the Stadium only to trip down the dugout stairs and break his leg.
So, that’s it. I’m calling it. Time of death for the Yankees’ season: 3:15 p.m. EST, July 11. That would be when Derek Jeter left the first game he played all season long after recovering from his ankle injury. The Captain, who was DHing, strained his quad and got pulled before the eighth inning.
Jeter is allegedly coming back again very soon. But let’s face it. He’s 39 and hasn’t played a full nine innings of baseball in 2013, and it’s almost August. The clock is fast winding down. Not to mention that CC Sabathia is giving up runs like they’re Christmas presents, and the Yankees offense couldn’t hit the ball even if it was set up on tee.
Instead of trading for Michael Young, the Yankees should just get young. Enough of plugging up the cracks with old guys and dumpster diving for DFA players. Let’s stop pretending this team is going to be contending for anything other than tee times during the postseason.
If management is truly serious about getting under the luxury tax, be honest with the fans and call it rebuilding, and then actually rebuild. I’m tired of hearing that Yankees fans won’t accept that. Sure, the bandwagon fans who noticed there was a baseball team in the Bronx sometime in the late ’90s will lose interest. However, if management stays honest with the tried-and-true fans and has an actual plan to get the Yankees back on track in 2015, most will give them the benefit of the doubt. Have a real recipe to put together a viable team in two years and fans, both fair-weather and diehard, will return.