Yankees wouldn’t pay top dollar for Yoan Moncada and fans aren’t happy
Make no mistake, there was an abundance of risk in signing Yoan Moncada, the 19-year-old Cuban phenom who reportedly agreed Monday to the join the Boston Red Sox.
He’s not major-league ready, he comes with a huge tax bill and, like any 19-year-old prospect, there’s no guarantee he’ll turn into a star.
Still, when you’re the New York Yankees, you don’t have a legacy built on prudence and being risk-averse. When you’re the Yankees, history dictates that you spend big, get the best players and win the World Series. But that’s not what happened with Moncada, a five-tool switch-hitting infielder.
The Yankees, viewed as the favorites in the race for Yoan were outbid by their biggest rivals, as Boston reportedly is giving Moncada $31.5 million and playing a dollar-for-dollar tax because it has overspent its international amateur bonus pool. The Yankees would have been charged the same tax.
Boston didn’t have a problem essentially tossing another $31.5 million into the air and letting it burn to get Moncada, but the Yankees did. The free-spending Yanks we’ve grown accustomed to over the past two decades had a ceiling with Moncada and wouldn’t go past it.
Some insight on the Yankees’ thought process from Joel Sherman of the New York Post and Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York:
As our Jeff Passan notes, the Yankees bowed out because of $13 million, which is a lot to you and me, but isn’t much in baseball currency. Remember that they paid a $20 posting fee last year to sign Masahiro Tanaka, which is in addition to his contract.
When you’re the Yankees, being cost-conscious often doesn’t compute, especially with the fans, who care more about counting World Series rings than counting how many millions are on the payroll. The Red Sox getting Moncada stung too — much more than if the Bombers had been outbid by, say, the San Diego Padres.
There was plenty of outrage to be found on Yankees Twitter after the news hit, some people using it to impugn the current leadership or play the “This would never happen under George Steinbrenner” card — since word trickled out that it was ownership not GM Brian Cashman who pumped the brakes on the Yankees’ pursuit of Moncada.
Yankees blog Pinstripe Alley even drew up a list of other things the Yankees can spend $30 million on since they’re not getting Moncada, such as: “Food for CC Sabathia, so he can maintain his new hefty figure.” Yep, it’s that kind of day in Yankeeland.
If Moncada turns into the star that many scouts and pundits are expecting, Yankees fans will be feeling the sting for years to come, because they’ll be seeing him quite often in a Red Sox uniform.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
