That is weird about Ells. Not about being released, but the money fight. Yankees ate A-Rod’s last year. I suspect the insurance company is working behind the scenes. Maybe they pulled the final year and are trying a clawback.

[1] They did eat the money for A-Rod, but not before taking an embarrassing public crusade against him. I don't know what it was that allowed them to make up as well as they did. They don't owe Ells that much regard, but it's a (typically?) dumb stunt to pull when the league and the player's union are already gearing up for a nasty work battle over a new CBA.

[2] And who's gonna wanna sign with a club that doesn't honor the final years of a contract.

The Boss must be turning over in his grave as the once free spending Yankees have turned into Rip & Gouge Associates.

Hi guys -here's hoping that the Yanks get an arm by FA or trade. Might be nice to get another guys who can just *ucking get on base for the big guys. Need to be able to manufacture runs in the playoffs. In any case, have a great Thanksgiving!!

[3] The thing about it is if the Yanks are allowed to do this, other clubs will want to do the same thing. It won’t matter who or where they sign, if the club they sign with finds an arbitrary reason to drop a player from the 40-man and save themselves some millions, they can always say “The Yankees did it with Ellsbury” and have a point. The player’s union already knows this from the first time they tried it and that’s why Tony the Tiger started snarling during the whole Harper/Machado free agency crawl at the start of this season. I think the players would be right to go on strike if it came to it; management is applying analytics in a way that cuts deep into players’ earning potential and chances to even compete for work. It’s more than just a snore.

[5] Yup. I expect a work stoppage of some sort and another cancelled WS. As the players share is below 50% of total revenue, I’ll be on their side.

PS, Freebird. Greg has elected free agency. I hope he gets at least an NRI.

[5] "management is applying analytics in a way that cuts deep into players’ earning potential and chances to even compete for work."

You hit the nail on the head. Analytics may be a valuable tool to winning games but the reason why teams have employ so many of these analysts is not because it makes a difference in the standings but rather it makes a difference in the bottom line.

Same reason why we have the opener/follower strategy. Are you telling me we can still win some games using cheap, dime a dozen, middle relievers start games instead of paying for 5 legit starters? Sign me up! It seems deep down every owner would rather be Selig, Pohlad than win championships.

[5] So true.
[6] My biggest fear (aside from claustrophobia).
[7] Interesting point. Analytics = Economics. It's all about the money.
Poor, poor owners are going broke. And what's to become of Tiny Tim? ;>)

Yanks are all I. For Cole. Maybe Boras realized last year that holding back from signing his big guys meant losing on contracts for the next tier?

It would be great to get this done early. Yanks can then concentrate on fine tuning and maybe package Andujar, Happ and Frazier for Linder?

Lindor

[10] Not sure they'd want Frazier back in that package. My guess is they'd want to swap out Frazier with Florial + King/bundle of lower level blue chips. If the idea is to dump Happ, I'd rather pay most of his salary than to give all of that up.