New York Yankees Receive Strong Offseason Grade

The New York Yankees may not have signed a free agent to a major league contract this offseason, but they still had a successful offseason in the opinion of ESPN’s Jim Bowden.

It was an unusual offseason for the New York Yankees. They were the only team in MLB to not sign a player to a major league contract, something that is hard to fathom. The Yankees are usually the big spenders during the offseason, but in recent years they have tried to scale back on money spent during free agency.

It is partly because they wanted to get younger. That is a difficult thing to do, as free agents have been in the major leagues for at least six years of service time when they hit free agency. So, that means very few players are hitting the market at an age that you would be able to make your roster more youthful.

The best way to acquire more youth is via trades. Throughout their history, the Yankees would partake in plenty of these trades, but they would usually be the one trading away the youth. They made a number of trades this offseason, but were able to add talent and youth all in one shot.

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The first trade that the Yankees made was acquiring outfielder Aaron Hicks from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for catcher John Ryan Murphy. Hicks is an excellent defender that can play all three outfield spots. He should have a prominent role with the Yankees that will only grow as long as he shows that his maturity and talent continues to head in the right direction. It was a solid trade for both teams as they each filled a hole trading from an area they had a surplus at.

The next trade that the Yankees made was to shore up their second base spot. Last season second base was a black hole, as Stephen Drew came up way short of expectations. The Yankees have in house options such as Dustin Ackley and Rob Refsnyder that could have platooned, but Ackley has been a bust thus far in his career and Refsnyder has not yet shown an ability to field the position well consistently.

So, to fix that problem the Yankees went out and traded for Starlin Castro from the Chicago Cubs. Castro will slide right into the starting spot at second base, giving the Yankees a formidable double play duo along with shortstop Didi Gregorius. Despite being only 25 years old, Castro has already played six full seasons.

Castro struggled at times last season, but when he was moved to second base full time things began to click. The Yankees are hoping that carries over to the Bronx this season.