Aaron Hicks designated for assignment to end disappointing Yankees tenure

The Yankees have finally decided to eat the money and cut Aaron Hicks.

The veteran outfielder was designated for assignment Saturday, he told The Post, as the Yankees opened a roster spot for Greg Allen.

Hicks still had three years and nearly $30 million left on his contract.

In 28 games this season, Hicks hit .188 with a .524 OPS.

Twins’ Baldelli ejected after encounter between umpire, Yankees’ German

Baldelli was ejected in the fourth inning after umpire James Hoye allowed Domingo German back into the game after appearing to tell him to “wash your hands.”

Hoye had checked German for sticky substances after the right-hander mowed down the Twins in the third inning. As German was headed back onto the field to pitch the fourth, Hoye checked him again and he was allowed to continue pitching.

Baldelli then raced out of the visitor’s dugout and argued with Hoye, who tossed him.

I’m pretty sure I would have gotten tossed, too. “Wash your hands”? Really?

Yankees’ Aaron Boone addresses Aaron Hicks’ role after veteran says he has ‘no idea’ what it is

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed on Monday that outfielder Aaron Hicks has expressed frustration to him about his heretofore limited role. The switch-hitting Hicks will be making his first start of the season on Monday night, batting seventh and playing left field when the Yankees take on the Philadelphia Phillies. He had appeared in just one of the Yankees’ first three games, receiving a pinch-hit at-bat in Saturday’s loss.

Boone claimed that he’s had conversations with Hicks about his role dating back to spring training, and noted that he tries to be transparent with what he’s thinking and what matchups he’s eyeing. He added that the Yankees’ shifting roster—they’ve added two players from outside the organization to their active roster in the last week, in outfielder Franchy Cordero and pitcher Colten Brewer—have and will continue to alter the playing-time dynamic.

“The role can revolve and change,” Boone said during his pregame media session. “The biggest thing is I want him to be ready for every opportunity.”

Boone’s comments come a day after Hicks publicly expressed ignorance about his purpose on the Yankees roster. “I have no idea what my role is,” he told Brendan Kuty of The Athletic on Sunday. “It’s kind of uncertain.”

Yankees sign Franchy Cordero in Opening Day roster twist

The Yankees are bringing in an outside reinforcement to finish off their bench.

Franchy Cordero agreed to a major league split contract with the Yankees on Wednesday, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed, putting the left-handed hitting outfielder/first baseman in line to fill the final bench spot on their Opening Day roster.

The addition of Cordero, 28, could allow the Yankees to move Estevan Florial (who is out of options) in a deal for a bullpen arm, with one relief spot left up for grabs on the roster.

It’s possible the Yankees could carry both Cordero and Florial on the roster to begin the season — meaning 14 position players and only 12 pitchers, taking advantage of Friday’s off day — but if they don’t add Florial, he would have to go through waivers.

Amazon announces 20 New York Yankees games on Prime this season, commence the complaining

Amazon and the Yankees announced Tuesday that 20 regular-season games will air exclusively on Prime Video. Just like last season, the games will be produced by YES Network and include their team of broadcasters.

While most of last year’s Yankees broadcasts on Prime aired on Friday, most of this season’s games will be on Wednesday.

The games will once again feature Amazon’s X-Ray technology, which lets viewers access live in-game stats, team and player details, and real-time play-by-play information for fans streaming on Android, iOS mobile, and Fire TV. Games will also be available for replay on Prime for 48 hours afterward.

And just like last year, these Yankees games will be available to MLB.TV subscribers outside of the New York market.

Anthony Volpe wins competition to be Yankees’ Opening Day shortstop

The Yankees will have a 21-year-old New Jersey product starting at shortstop on Opening Day.

Anthony Volpe has won the shortstop battle the Yankees held during spring training, consistently showing off his all-around game and the high potential that team officials had been raving about since drafting him in the first round in 2019.

Volpe entered camp seemingly with the longest odds to win the job, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa the incumbent and Oswald Peraza ahead in his development path after making a one-month cameo at the end of last season.

Unlike Kiner-Falefa and Peraza, Volpe was not on the 40-man roster and had only played 22 games at Triple-A, a knock because the Yankees typically like their prospects to conquer each level of the minor leagues before moving up.

Playing for the Yankees Has Its Perks. In-Flight Internet Is Not One of Them.

Gerrit Cole had dreamed of playing for the Yankees since he was a kid, and in so many ways the experience has been exactly what children envision: the crisp pinstripes, the retired numbers, the Bleacher Creatures.

But one thing surprised him when he got to New York after signing a nine-year, $324 million deal before the 2020 season: The fourth-most valuable franchise in sports charges players for internet access on the team plane.

“It’s your fault,” longtime center fielder Brett Gardner told him. “Your contract is too big, so they can’t pay for the Wi-Fi.”

Technically, it’s Delta that does the charging, approximately $9 per flight. (Delta also offers free iMessage and WhatsApp.) But the Yankees, whom Forbes estimates are worth $6 billion, do not cover the cost. A person familiar with the prices of such things said an in-flight Wi-Fi plan for one team for one year costs approximately $40,000—or about the price of four Cole pitches.

Carlos Rodon believes Yankees fans more ‘invested’ than Giants fans

Now playing on the East Coast, Rodón explained the main difference between the fans in New York and those in the Bay Area.

“The fans here want to win. They care. They care a lot,” Rodón said (h/t NJ.com’s Bob Klapisch). “Giants fans are invested, but not like in New York.

“Win or lose, you’re not going to get booed in San Francisco.”

On Sept. 4, Rodón said after the Giants’ 5-3 walk-off win over the Arizona Diamondbacks that San Francisco has “very faithful fans” and explained that Giants fans “care” and was “grateful” to them for continuing to support the team, even amid a long losing streak.

ESPN announces eight-part ‘The Yankees Win’ docuseries, with J.J. Abrams, Connor Schell, Libby Geist, and Jonathan Hock involved

ESPN Films today announced “The Yankees Win,” an eight-part documentary event that brings to life the storied history of the most famed franchise in sports. Fifty years after the larger-than-life George Steinbrenner bought the club, his legacy has transformed the mere notion of sports ownership forever. Produced in partnership with Major League Baseball, with extensive access to the league’s unparalleled archives, the series will feature players, managers, coaches, executives, writers, commentators, and fans in candid interviews and some never-before-seen footage.

…The series is directed by Emmy and Peabody winner Jonathan Hock (“Survive and Advance,” ”The Best That Never Was,” “Of Miracles and Men”) and is executive produced by ESPN Films in association with Major League Baseball. The project is being produced by Words + Pictures, Hock Films, Bad Robot and Zipper Bros Films. JJ Abrams, Rachel Rusch Rich, Glen Zipper, Connor Schell, Libby Geist, Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern and Nick Trotta and Sean Stuart will serve as Executive Producers.

Montas to undergo shoulder surgery next Tuesday

Right-hander Frankie Montas is continuing to experience discomfort in his pitching shoulder and will undergo surgery next Tuesday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Wednesday. Montas could potentially return at some point in the second half of the season, according to Boone.

Montas was already expected to miss the beginning of the regular season, and general manager Brian Cashman said in January that the right-hander was about eight weeks behind in his throwing program. Pitching coach Matt Blake said that Montas had been unable to resume throwing.

Montas, who turns 30 in March, was 5-12 with a 4.05 ERA in 27 starts for the Athletics and Yankees last season.

WAR Doesn’t Care One Bit About Your Reputation

“WAR doesn’t care if you were beloved as a player, admired as a man. WAR doesn’t care if you were the smartest player on the field, or the dumbest. According to WAR, you are what the numbers say you are.

And in Mattingly’s case, WAR says… he was just a pretty good glove man.”

The Luckiest Pitching Staff in History

Mathewson’s inclusion on this staff shows that “great” and “lucky” aren’t mutually exclusive.

Yankees have bigger issues than Aaron Hicks, Josh Donaldson

Is their depth-chart status about the Yankees being determined to get something for their money? I asked Cashman if everyone on his roster were making the $720,000 minimum this year, would Donaldson still be the starting third baseman and would Hicks still be the frontrunner in left?

“We’re not applying that [status based on salary] standard,” Cashman said. “The hypothetical you played out, it’s not a realistic one. Donaldson has been a hell of a player for quite some time, including defensively last year for us, and offensively last year was really the first year that he went south. So there’s no reason to believe that that’s something that is permanent.

“He transitioned to a new team, and then we’ll just wait and see how the ’23 version on the offensive side looks, because the ’21 version [26 homers, .827 OPS for Minnesota] was more than good enough. That was something we were clearly looking forward to apply to the roster and so the question is did he just wake up and stop hitting for life? Or was it just an off-year? We’ll find out.”

Mets have fallen further behind Yankees in this key area

I’m in 100% agreement on the importance of intellectual diversity. What I’m not so sure about is that the Yankees are necessarily ahead of the Mets based on these three guys. Don’t get me wrong, I like the hires for the Yankees. Without knowing all the voices in the Mets organization, however, it’s completely possible the Mets have as much diversity of thought as the Yankees.

The next step forward for Steve Cohen and GM Billy Eppler should be to add a person or people whose eyes are trained to provide deeply informed answers to questions like that. Intellectual diversity is one element that differentiates good front offices from great ones, and the Mets could stand to improve in this area.

The team has scores of terrific scouts, analysts and bright minds—longtime amateur scouting director Tommy Tanous, for example, remains a valued voice in the Cohen administration—but overall, the difference between the teams is notable.

Cashman not only has Naehring, a former MLB infielder, but ex-Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry, and the recently hired Brian Sabean and Omar Minaya—four people to the Mets’ zero to provide crucial balance and traditional scouting and player development skills.

Rosenthal: Think the Yankees are shifting away from analytics with new hires? Brian Cashman says otherwise - The Athletic

A lot of people are still stuck in the past’s false dichotomy between scouting and analytics. The best teams want the best analytics AND the best scouting. Great player evaluation is the foundation of success in MLB.

He does not buy the perception they are too analytically based.

“I know we’re not,” Cashman said. “I know that analytics are serving us well, just like our pro scouting serves us well, our international scouting serves us well, our international amateur, our domestic amateur. It’s one of many departments. But one that gets way too much scrutiny.

“… Ultimately, if you look at our cabinet, it’s a very diverse cabinet. I’ve always preached that I want to hire people and surround myself with people that are gifted and experts in very specific areas. That probably has more to do with my staying power in this industry than anything else. I’ve hired really well, surrounded myself with people I consider smarter than me with expertise in various aspects of our industry that we can benefit from.

“All I care about is making sure that when we go through our decision-making process, we have every tool in the toolbox. That’s the (phrase) I use all the time. That the information is there for us to digest and ultimately make a decision on. That comes from the scouting arena. That comes from the analytical arena. That comes from the technology and performance side, from the mental-skills side. We combine all that stuff.”

Yankees hire Omar Minaya in advisory role as front office refresh continues

The New York Yankees have added another veteran executive to their front office. The Yankees have hired former New York Mets GM Omar Minaya as an advisor to baseball operations, the team announced Thursday. The Yankees recently hired former San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean as an executive advisor.

Minaya, 64, grew up in Queens and got into scouting after his minor-league playing career ended in the mid-1980s. He started his front office career with the Texas Rangers before moving on to the Mets, the Montreal Expos, back to the Mets, the San Diego Padres, and then back to the Mets for a third stint. He served as Expos GM from 2002-04 and Mets GM from 2005-10.

Most recently, Minaya worked with Major League Baseball as a consultant for domestic and international amateur scouting initiatives. He has been credited with helping the Rangers unearth players like Sammy Sosa and Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez during his scouting tenure with Texas. Minaya is regarded as one of the most successful and respected scouting minds in the game.

Yankees appoint Brian Sabean as executive advisor to the general manager

The New York Yankees today announced that they have appointed Brian Sabean as Executive Advisor to Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Cashman.

Sabean, 66, re-joins the Yankees after spending the previous 30 seasons with the San Francisco Giants. He spent the last four seasons as an Executive Vice President for San Francisco, working on strategic initiatives as a senior advisor and evaluator. Prior to that, Sabean served as the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations from 2015-18 and as the Giants Senior Vice President and General Manager from 1996-2015. Under Sabean’s leadership from 1996-2018, San Francisco earned eight postseason births, claiming five division titles, four National League pennants and three World Series Championships.

During Sabean’s tenure as GM, the Giants were named the Topps “Organization of the Year” in both 2009 and 2011 and the Baseball America “Organization of the Year” in 2010. He was also named Major League Baseball’s “Executive of the Year” by the Sporting News in 2003 and by Baseball America in 2003 and 2012_._

Carlos Rodon joining Yankees on 6-year, $162M deal, sources say

The New York Yankees and free-agent left-hander Carlos Rodon have agreed on a six-year, $162 million contract, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The agreement was first reported by New York Post.

Rodon set a career high for wins with the San Francisco Giants in 2022 in going 14-8 with a 2.88 ERA and made his second All-Star team. His 31 starts and 178 innings were a career high, and followed a 2021 season in which he went 13-5 with a career-best 2.37 ERA for the Chicago White Sox.

Yankees expected to make formal Carlos Rodon offer very soon

Of course, seven years at $1,000,000 per year is an offer, so the info is meaningless.

The initial indication is that Rodon seeks seven-plus years at $200 million plus, and while the Yankees seem reluctant to go to that length, they also seem very serious and hopeful about this pursuit.

Ken Rosenthal on Twitter: “Deal is pending a physical.” / Twitter

Judge gets PAID!

Deal is pending a physical. https://t.co/ptJ08JyrGU

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 7, 2022

Sources: Tommy Kahnle, Yankees reunite on two-year deal

Right-hander Tommy Kahnle and the New York Yankees are in agreement on a two-year, $11.5 million contract, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Kahnle pitched for the Yankees for four seasons (2017-20) and underwent Tommy John surgery in August of his most recent season with the team. A hard-throwing reliever, Kahnle struck out 88 in 61⅓ innings and walked 20 while posting a 3.67 ERA in 2019, his last full season with the Yankees.

Yanks re-sign Brian Cashman to 4-year deal

The New York Yankees on Monday announced that the club has re-signed Brian Cashman to a four-year contract through the 2026 season to continue serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager.

Cashman, 55, is the longest-serving Yankees General Manager in franchise history and has the longest tenure among current Major League general managers. The Yankees have earned postseason berths in 21 of his 25 seasons as GM (1998-2007, ’09-12, ’15, ’17-22), claiming 14 Division titles, six American League championships and four World Series titles. Since 1998, the Yankees’ 21 postseason berths are the most in the Majors — five more than Atlanta (16) and St. Louis (16), who are tied for second in that span. The 21 playoff appearances are also eight more than any other American League team (Boston-13). Cashman’s feat of reaching the playoffs in each of his first 10 seasons (1998-2007) remains unmatched in Baseball history.

What is the greatest collection of talent ever on one roster?

1. The 2005 Yankees, who—at 1,103 WAR—currently stand as the second-greatest collection of baseball greatness ever
The key acquisition: Randy Johnson (acquired the previous offseason)
The key debut: Robinson Cano
The other main stars: Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown, Gary Sheffield, Mariano Rivera
Famous players you’ll never associate with that team: Ruben Sierra, Al Leiter
Total All-Stars (at any point in the players’ careers): 23

They are so close—just 35 behind the 1928 A’s—and, six months ago, I might have let myself dream. Two Yankees from that club are still active, almost 15 years later: Cano and Melky Cabrera. Cano was, as recently as last year, still a very valuable major leaguer, and not long ago he was an MVP candidate. Cabrera was still a league-average hitter and just 34 years old. (He ranks sixth among active players in career hits, if you can believe it.)

Focus on Jeter should inspire memories of Garciaparra’s peak

“it’s as if Jeter stands alone as the shortstop talent for a generation.

It’s too bad, considering that Garciaparra was every bit the player Jeter was. And in his prime, he was better.

There’s no question that Jeter brings the superior career to a debate between the two. Injuries derailed what Garciaparra could become from a legacy standpoint, and cost him the Hall of Fame”

Shortstops with most seasons of 6+ WAR, debuting 1969+:

Barra: How Does The Mets 1962-2012 All-time Team Stack Up to The Yankees?

Barra, pulling pages out of his Bobby Meachem Pfeil!

What struck me after studying the list is how well the Mets’ all-time team matches up against the Yankees’ best over the past half century.

1st base: Mattingly was a very good hitter and probably as good a fielder as Hernandez, but the difference is slight.

2nd base: I had forgotten how good Alfonso; he had a .284 career batting average, .292 with the Mets, both numbers well ahead of Willie Randolph, .276 and .275 respectively. He also hit more than twice as many home runs as Randolph.

SS: Jeter, of course, at shortstop, but at their respective peaks, not so much over Reyes as you might think.

3rd base: Ditto with A-Rod and Wright. It may well be that after a couple more seasons we’ll conclude that Wright was the better ballplayer, that is when we compare him with Rodriguez’s New York years.

CF: Beltran was a better hitter and better all-around player than Bernie.

RF: If you consider only Reggie Jackson’s season with the Yankees, it’s a close pick with Strawberry at his peak - too close for me to call without doing a comprehensive study. Off the top of my head, though, I’d take Darryl. So much of Mr. October’s postseason reputation centers on the ‘77 Series when he hit 5 home runs and that one game when he hit 3. (Jackson had no particular reputation as a postseason hitter before then.)