It was fairly surprising to see the Blue Jays essentially dump outfielder Alex Rios and the remaining 6.5 years of his 7 year contract on the White Sox. The Blue Jays ended up saving about $60 million on this deal, and the White Sox got a relatively young productive player. Some people wonder if the Yankees missed a golden opportunity to upgrade over either Melky or Swisher. The answer is not really.
Over the last two seasons I would have told you that Alex Rios was a great addition to our outfield, and that at his price tag, the Yankees would be crazy not to take him. This was back when Abreu was getting paid $16 million to botch plays in the rightfield, Damon was habitually injured, and Melky was little more than a 4th outfielder about to give way to Brett Gardner. This season Rios stands at .264 with 14 homeruns, .317 OBP, and 19 stolen bases (his stolen base game is highly underrated). In 2007, he was at .294 with 24 homeruns 85 RBI's and a .354 OBP. This was when he looked to be a breakout player. Homeruns, RBI's and OBP were all career highs for him that year. His 2008 year wasn't bad, but with the exception of his base stealing (32 that year) he didn't build upon what he did the season before.
Right now, Rios looks to me like Cano did last season. A lot of potential and natural ability, but fails to put it all together. Rios could one day be a .300 hitter with 25+ homeruns, but you never pay now for what could potentially happen in the future, which brings us to the original question. Did the Yankees miss an opportunity with Rios? Not really. With roughly $60 million left on a back loaded contract, the Yankees would have effectively replaced Melky (whose having his best season), or Swisher (whose signed through 3 more seasons at an average price of $8.67 million). Not to mention that although Swisher's batting average is lower than Rios', Swisher is hitting for more power, and getting on base more often. Basically put, I don't think he'd be that big of an upgrade, and for $3 million more per year on average, I just don't see it worth our while. It could turn out that Rios reaches his potential down the line, but its too risky an investment, and the players he'd be replacing have been very valuable to this team.
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9 comments:
I agree with your opinion. In addition, I think Swish and the Melk Man fit in better with the club. I don't like Rios and I could see him clashing in the dugout. Search Youtube.com for his profanity-filled exit after a rough night. The Yanks are in a good spot right now, and as they say, don't mess with a good thing.
I remember that exit, that's generally how I leave McDonald's.
Roberto, how can you leave McDonald's that way when they now serve the Shamrock shake it's not the month of March???
Rios is having a bad year, but even his numbers last year were worse than the year before. I think his lack of slugging numbers isn't worth the money he's owed in the coming years. There are better outfielders on the verge of free agency, should the Yanks choose to spend on a guy like Holliday or Crawford. Then again, it seems like Hal is pinching his wallet pretty hard now. Might as well save the money for Halladay. I'm not a Rios fan to begin with, and I'd rather see what Austin Jackson can offer in CF and let Melky and Gardner get in the mix for LF.
Rios is decent and would be a fine arm for RF, but I never got the feeling that we just missed out on a nice addition when Chicago claimed him.
This is an academic discussion though, with a better record then Chicago, the Yanks would have never won the waiver claim. The only way they would have gotten Rios was if they traded for him prior to the deadline and I wouldn't have given up prospects in addition to the 60mil.
That's true SA Yankee Fan, though it sounds like if Toronto had traded him, they would have been willing to trade him for very little.
He did have that outburst, but I don't think thats a regular occurence. He messed up. I think he'd fit in fine in the clubhouse.
BigJF, Crawford would be an amazing addition. Is he up for free agency this year?
I wonder if they were even shopping him though? It looks to me like they put him on waivers as part of their standard process and just got lucky.
Crawford has a club option for 10mil for next year. It should be picked up although there is a chance the Rays pick it up and then trade him (think Gary Sheffield).
That wouldn't be a bad idea for the Rays seeing as they probably won't be able to afford Crawford past free agency. The Yankees should ask about Kazmir too. Even though he's had a rough year, I think he could still be good. Plus we'd be buying low in that case.
If they picked either one up I'd be thrilled but I doubt the Rays would trade either to the Yankees.
I think they are heading for a 2-3 year period where they can really make a run at a world series. After that their star players will start hitting free agency and high arb raises. Once that happens they'll have to break it down and start again. Given that fact I don't see them making any trades that strengthen competition in their division.
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