3 Ways NYY Can Spend New Money Adam Ottavino

The New York Yankees now have over $ 8 million in extra cash after trading Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox. Let’s spend it for them!

The Yankees completed their “final” offseason goal of exiling Adam Ottavino’s salary elsewhere during the offseason.

Every fan saw this maneuver coming, but no fan on Earth seen the Red Sox take the plunge and add more than $ 8 million to the remaining $ 9 million owed to Otto this year.

Boston will absorb most of the $ 11 million total, which will run until next year, and the Yankees should see this as a champagne-worthy giveaway, though they’ll likely see their right-handed lineup chopped up by Ottavino’s slider all summer (unless it’s traded to another competitor).

Saying goodbye to a Brooklyn Bomber boy is depressing, but it was inevitable, and we shouldn’t let the scarlet B distract us from what inevitably was solid Brian Cashman finesse.

So what’s the next step? Where is the money going? One point is obvious, and we’ll get to that in a second, but as far as we can tell, there are three routes the Yankees can take now.

We are extremely probable, we are truly a pipe dream, and we fall somewhere in the middle. The first step – arguably the hardest part – is now complete.

3. Help from Brett Gardner + Bullpen

The Yankees are obviously going to sign Brett Gardner now, but there better be more.

We would rate this as the most likely outcome by far.

The Brett Gardner element of this sliding budget scale seems almost assured. With $ 10-13 million left to play and some cash needed for in-season adjustments, the Yankees will likely give Gardner between $ 2.5 million and $ 3 million and call their need for an officially satisfied southpaw. .

So, will they use the rest of the surplus to replace Ottavino’s innings and knock down Luis Cessa and Jonathan Loaisiga in the pecking order? Can they? Please?

The Super Bullpens, once totally in vogue after the Kansas City Royals’ World Series victory in 2015, now seem to be a thing of the past – everyone, including the Yankees, is now pursuing the plug-and-play rotation strategy of the Rays. But four trusted back-end relievers always seem like a more magical number, and the Yankees could easily add someone like Trevor Rosenthal or Shane Greene to the mix at $ 4-5 million in just one year.

In fact, if they don’t, it would be disappointing and weak. There is no problem with the use some of that new fortune to bring back Gardner, who had a 131 wRC + against righties in 2019 and a mark of 124 in the shortened 2020 season. It is always good for Something.

But if they don’t supplement this addition with a pain reliever, that would be a mistake.