A number of interesting profiles of Zack Greinke have come out over the last few days, and Jon Heyman’s entry on the Brewers ace contained an interesting tidbit about Greinke’s flirtation with the Yankees:
Though he knew he wanted out of Kansas City, which has a promising future but looks like it will have a brutal present, Greinke wasn’t sure where he wanted to be. He told friends he didn’t think he could play in Boston or New York. But when he and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met clandestinely in Orlando (Greinke’s hometown) at an off-site location during the winter meetings, Greinke’s desperation not to endure yet another losing season in Kansas City was such that he is said to have tried to convince Cashman that he wanted to come to New York. And that he could actually thrive in New York.
However, people who were briefed on that meeting said Cashman ultimately decided that Greinke’s first thought about New York was probably correct — that it wasn’t the best spot for him. Greinke told people the day he accepted his Cy Young Award in New York City that he didn’t think he could ever live in New York, and kept telling friends the same. But as the days dwindled this winter, he made his surprise plea to Cashman to make him a Yankee.
The Yankees, on paper, seemed like a fit. They had Greinke’s less talented brother in their farm system and they were desperate for great pitching. But members of the organization are all believed to have sided with Cashman in a winter where he was occasionally overturned (most notably on Rafael Soriano).
There are two notable issues at hand here. The first is that Cashman met with Greinke and decided that the pitcher was not a great fit for New York. That is a determination that I have no issue with, being that the cost for Greinke was likely to be high. While I concede that I am in no position to judge Greinke’s condition, considering it a non-factor is just as ignorant as deeming it a disqualifying characteristic. As I have said before, Greinke’s social anxiety disorder should not have been the primary consideration in weighing the pros and cons of any deal, but it certainly was correct to consider it as an added risk factor, much like a history of arm trouble would be taken into account. The GM needs to balance the risk against the possible reward and determine the amount of talent that he is willing to surrender based upon that calculation.
When evaluating those risks and rewards in the Greinke situation, it is easy to see how Cashman reached the conclusion that giving up multiple top prospects for Greinke was a poor decision. When giving up elite talent such as Jesus Montero, Dellin Betances, and Manny Banuelos, you want some level of certainty that if physically healthy, the pitcher will perform at a high level. Due to Greinke’s social anxiety disorder, his projected performance was too uncertain to justify relinquishing multiple high-caliber prospects. It is also important to note that the fact that Greinke asked Cashman to trade for him does little to alter the weightiness of the risk. Zack’s evident desperation to get out of KC may have caused him to espouse a position that he was far from certain about, and his previous reluctance to play in New York carries at least as much weight as his subsequent plea to the Yankees’ GM.
The second issue that I wanted to point out is that Heyman suggests that Brian Cashman was overruled on more than one occasion this offseason. While he does not elaborate and might be referring to minor decisions with little impact on baseball operations, this is something to keep an eye on. With Cashman’s contract expiring at the end of this season, it will be interesting to see if he finds himself fighting for increased autonomy as a condition of his re-signing with the club, much like he did following the 2005 season.
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12 Responses to Greinke Pushed For New York
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TIQ IQ
Glad you didn’t take the ‘i don’t know SAD so i have no worries about it’ route.
But i can’t see Cashman leaving, he might be overruled here occasionally – but he’ll be overruled elsewhere when his owner turns down a 20m/year player or a draft pick who wants double slot
Personally, I found the whole agnostic approach toward Grienke to either be willfully blind or uninformed. It’s not as if there were just rumblings from a friend of a friend of a friend that he doesn’t want to play here, or some blowhard radio host saying he saw the guy blow up one time in a ‘big spot’ and therefore wasn’t cut out for NY. Rather, you had 1st person, direct quotes from Grienke himself saying on two occasions it wouldn’t be a good fit. How anyone could dismiss that is beyond me.
I’m glad to see Cash weight the initial comments more than anything he said while he was desperate to get out of KC. The initial comments are most likely a truer indicator of how he really feels, and once the KC problem was resolved he would go back feeling that way.
People were just trying to be PC because it’s a mental issue; yet the same people have no problem question Brett Anderson’s elbow or a prospect’s arm slot or Prince Fielder’s weight. It’s wrong to be InternetMDs for mental issue, but it’s cool to be orthapedic specialists.
Agreed with the timing of his comments; plus the whole “oh he got bored last year” excuse people used which turned me off.
The biggest difference is someone on this blog may have SAD or something along those lines so most writers won’t want to offend a reader, you can’t on the other hand offend someone by talking about someone ligaments… I guess you could, somehow, if they wanted to be offended but that’s a different issue.
I didn’t say we should mock SAD. But if someone is offended because SAD is brought up in relation to his potential performance in NY, when Greinke himself admitted so at the 2009 AS game, then I’m sorry. Are we suppose to just ignore it as a factor? Is that fair to the writer himself and to his other readers?
Maybe a person won’t be offended about ligaments. But if a prospect is 5’7 – can we not mention how he may not hold up as a SP because someone with a growth condition may take offense? (Again, I’m not mocking short people. I’m just giving a physical comparision that people don’t think twice about making.)
I’m pretty sure you missed the point of my comment so I’ll start over, my bad I should have explained better I guess.
I’m sure some writers both on blogs and papers/magazines whatever would probably rather ignore the SAD completely as a “non-issue” because they may have readers with SAD and they don’t want to come off as judgemental or uniformed and therefore offend their readers.
This is just my opinion on why I think so many writers and people who comment for that matter tend to not want to acknowldge the risk involved with the player because of the SAD.
If you followed me at all on TYU you would know I was against Greinke for this reason and I don’t believe he would be a great fit with our club, in this media market and I made sure to say so.
Again sorry I should have explained that I was talking about why people tend to dismiss it better.
We’re on the same page. I don’t write a blog but I’m sure there’s a thin line when dealing with certain issues – I just felt some places gave off a “How dare you question SAD if you’re not a doctor” vibe.
I’m an occasional reader, it’s cool I got you’re point.
How is it that Greinke met with Cashman? Isn’t there an anti-tampering rule in baseball? Or did KC consent.
KC had to consent. Strict tampering rules, as you mention.
It makes sense to consent because Cashman would’ve never done a trade without talking to him and obviously it did more to hurt him than help him.
The last thing we needed was to add someone who doesn’t believe they can handle New York but is willing to try NOW only because he would have no place to go and wants to win. Sounds like a scenario where we end up with a mediocre pitcher making ace money.
I wouldn’t take the “occasionally overturned” part too seriously, Mo.
Heyman likes to leave people with the impression he knows more than he really does.I think he was just being glib, which is another specialty of his.
Heard Cashman wanted a true winner like Eckstein, but stupid Steinbrenners force him to play Cano at second.