00:00It's a drive on Derby Dosey. It is a slam!
00:09Joel Sherman here from Las Vegas. On Wednesday, the last full day of the general managers meetings,
00:16most of the GMs will be escaping from this city today, going back home,
00:22debriefing with their folks to figure out where they're heading.
00:26I'll offer one large viewpoint from talking to so many executives from so many different teams and a bunch of
00:36agents as well.
00:37There is a real expectation that the trade deadline, that the trade market is very much jammed up.
00:43Just because of where we are with labor, we are almost certainly going to have a lockout at midnight as
00:49December 1st turns into December 2nd.
00:52Who knows how long we'll miss? But without knowing how long is going to be missed and without knowing what
00:58the rules are coming back,
01:00there is real concern about how do I make a trade?
01:03If you trade, for example, Luis Garcia Jr., which the Yankees would definitely consider doing, how does a team value
01:12him?
01:12He's in his walk year coming up in 2027. Is he somebody, are we going to come back and play
01:18162 games,
01:19in which case we know what the value of that kind of player is from history for a full season
01:24before he becomes a free agent?
01:26What if we only play 100 games? What if we play no games and he just becomes a free agent
01:31after the year and you've traded stuff?
01:32Then you have four-year players who are right now two years away from free agency.
01:40You have the problem of what if the rules become it's five-year free agency because MLB is willing to
01:46do anything to get a cap
01:47and they lower completely the free agent standard.
01:51They're already offering free agency after five years of service if a player is 30 or over.
01:57They could do that just for five years.
01:59So the trade market to me is not non-existent.
02:04I think there'll be trades by the end of the month, but I think there'll be few.
02:08And I think more likely what you're going to have is teams setting up trades with contingencies.
02:14And when we get back, they'll make the trades in March, April, May, June.
02:21Whenever it is we come back if the trades are still relevant to make
02:24and they know the full rules and implications.
02:27So that means there's going to be a load of free agency done this month.
02:31Obviously, Scooble is going to get done at the top.
02:34There's a couple of Japanese players of some high-level talent who have to get done
02:38because their posting period is going to expire by the end of this month.
02:46It's supposed to be 45 days, but it won't be a full 45 days because December 1st will come.
02:51On the free agent front with the Yankees, John Heyman and I, my colleague John Heyman and I both heard
02:56the Yankees had some interest in Alec Boehm, who has played his whole career with the Phillies.
03:03He's a free agent.
03:05The Yankees also have trade interest in several players at third base.
03:11I believe they would rather spend to solve a lot of their issues because they, again,
03:18when it comes to trades, if it's maybe someone like Casey Schmidt from San Francisco
03:22or Royce Lewis from Minnesota, John Heyman has mentioned a couple of times,
03:27Corey Seager, who's owed $155 million for the next five years.
03:31I wonder if that would work with where the Yankees believe their finances should go.
03:35But I think they'd rather buy some answers here.
03:40How would Boehm fit?
03:41Well, the Yankees were willing to deal with some bad defense at third base with Ahmad Rosario
03:45in exchange for Rosario hitting left-hand pitching well, which he had done his whole career.
03:50He did not do that well in 2026.
03:54It was part of the reason the Yankee offense went down a grade or two last year.
04:00And then you got the bad defense with him also.
04:04Boehm, throughout his career, has hit lefty pitching well, including in 2026.
04:08He is not a good third baseman.
04:11And when the Phillies acquired Luis Arraz, they ended up Arraz at second, moving Bryson Stott to third.
04:19And they moved Boehm across the infield to first base and Bryce Harper to the outfield.
04:25And Boehm was pretty good at first base.
04:27And I think he would be, if he signed with the Yankees, I think he'd be part of a first
04:31base.
04:31You know, the Yankees aren't probably going to bring back Paul Goldschmidt, the righty part of any kind of platoon
04:37there.
04:38So I think it would be that.
04:40And I think would they consider living with what the defense of Boehm is at third base
04:44and maybe keeping someone like Ryan McMahon as a defensive caddy to play for him late in games they lead
04:51or Jose Caballero to play for him at third base in games they lead.
04:55I think that's it.
04:56I think he is in play.
04:57There's no sure things.
04:59I'm sure that there's a lot of people interested.
05:02Right-hand bats are very hard to find.
05:04And whatever his defensive liabilities are, Boehm is somebody who can hit and especially hit lefty pitching.
05:11As far as the Yankees are concerned, they have, again, some other more human resources issues to deal with.
05:18Brad Osmus was named the manager of the Houston Astros.
05:23Osmus has been Aaron Boone's bench coach.
05:26If this was dealt with early in the offseason, I think there is some likelihood that the Yankees would have
05:33seriously considered
05:34elevating their catching guy, Tanner Swanson, to be the bench coach.
05:39Instead, Tanner Swanson left to become the bench coach of the Mariners.
05:43I think if it happened earlier in the offseason, they would have seriously considered Carlos Mendoza,
05:49who had been the bench coach before Brad Osmus and before getting the job as Mets manager,
05:54in the position as bench coach.
05:56Instead, the job wasn't open and Mendoza went to the Phillies.
06:00Mendoza and Aaron Boone are exceedingly close, but Mendoza has a job.
06:05So they're going to have to fill this spot.
06:07They are way further down the line with their hitting group.
06:11James Rousen, who had been their hitting coach for the past three years, took a job with the Giants.
06:17The Yankees are going to have a significant shuffle with their hitting group.
06:20We knew this was coming at the end-of-year press conference.
06:24Hal Steinbrenner made it so clear how displeased he was with the hitters that you couldn't imagine that they were
06:30going to keep the same hitting coaches.
06:31I think the Yankees are pretty far down the line.
06:34The former Dodger hitting coach Aaron Bates, John Heyman and I both heard that he's in play for the Yankees.
06:40It's no sure thing.
06:41He's one of many names they're talking about.
06:44I think it's going to be significant.
06:46I wouldn't be surprised if there's some title changes along the way about how the Yankees view the role of
06:53a hitting coach.
06:54But as far as the bench coach, they're not as far down the line, and I think this is going
06:58to take a little time.
06:59Unfortunately, Aaron Boone lost his father, Bob Boone, the terrific longtime catcher who also was a major league manager.
07:06His father passed away a few days ago.
07:10Aaron is tending to a lot of stuff with his dad, obviously, in the short term here, and he has
07:14to be very involved with the bench coach process.
07:18It's going to be the guy standing next to him, offering him the most advice, the guy in every meeting
07:23with him, strategizing lineups, et cetera.
07:27And so I think that Aaron's going to have to be involved in this.
07:31The Yankees obviously have been making lists.
07:34Asmus was in play to be the general manager of the Astros earlier in the offseason when they discussed that
07:39job,
07:40and he is in play.
07:43You know, he was in play for the manager, and he ultimately got the job.
07:46So this doesn't blindside the Yankees.
07:48The Yankees have been thinking about this.
07:50And there's some people who, you know, might jump off the page.
07:54David Ross is close.
07:55The former Cubs manager and the former catcher is close with Aaron Boone.
07:59I think he could possibly be in play for this.
08:02Brandon Hyde, managed in the division with the Orioles, has been working as a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays.
08:08I wonder if he could get involved in this.
08:13And several others.
08:14These are the Yankees.
08:15I'm sure they'll have lots of people inquiring about it.
08:19There's one obvious name, and it comes with a quirk.
08:22Joe Espada worked with the Yankees for a long time before he left to become the bench coach of the
08:28Astros.
08:28He eventually became the manager of the Astros.
08:31He has kept very strong relationships with a lot of important people in the Yankee organization.
08:37He is going to, at minimum, be in the conversation.
08:41And if I were sitting here today and trying to odds this out, I would say he's the favorite to
08:49be the bench coach because of those ties.
08:52There's no sure things.
08:53Again, who knows how much Aaron Boone, you know, wants to partner with a guy like Espada.
08:58Boone is going to have a big voice here.
09:00And, you know, comfort for him is going to be part of it.
09:03But if it ended up being Espada, you'd have the interesting combination, right?
09:07You'd have that Asmus left as Yankee bench coach to become the manager of the Astros.
09:12And the guy who had been the manager of the Astros, Joe Espada, would be coming to be the bench
09:19coach of the Yankees.
09:20It would be an interesting juxtaposition.
09:22It's something to watch for in the coming weeks and something that I assume also will get done by the
09:27end of the month.
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