NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. _ With negotiations still ongoing, Brian Cashman didn't have many answers Wednesday night during a conversation about the Yankees' aggressive pursuit of an elite closer, the decision narrowing to either Aroldis Chapman or Kenley Jansen. Other than saying he's been speaking to both agents, Cashman couldn't provide much of a progress report, and he remains stuck on their clock.
There is one question, however, that has overshadowed this entire process.
Why do it at all?
The logic seems twisted, choosing to pay a relief pitcher somewhere north of $80 million _ crushing all the previous records for a closer _ to put him on a team that claims to be rebuilding with younger, cheaper, farm-nurtured talent. Wouldn't it make more sense to just use Dellin Betances as closer, as the Yankees did after trading away Chapman and Andrew Miller last July, and maybe use that money for other needs, such as other bullpen roles or even another starting pitcher?
It's a sensible argument, but one that Cashman, with money burning a hole in his pocket, doesn't subscribe to. The Yankees passed on Chris Sale, the best possible option to quickly upgrade the rotation, because the price in prospects was just too great. Even letting him go to the Red Sox, of all places.
That doesn't mean Cashman plans to punt on the 2017 season, and when the GM sees Chapman, it no doubt reminds him of the super-pen he assembled a year ago _ minus Miller, of course. Pairing Chapman again with Betances would recreate an area of strength for a team that Cashman believes is on the rise, without costing any of his prospects or even a first-round draft pick, which moved from 17 to 16 yesterday with the Rockies' signing of Ian Desmond.
Whatever the Yankees have to give up for Chapman, it's only money. And that's rarely been a deterrent for this franchise when the front office really, really wants something.
"We have a chance to significantly improve our club," Cashman said.
In shooting down Sale, Cashman insisted that these Yankees are more than one player away. And dealing away a package of prospects would be akin to taking one step forward with Sale and two back in terms of building a team to contend over a more prolonged period. Chapman is only one player, too. But in signing him to a four- or five-year deal, that transaction doesn't hurt the Yankees' development and stays consistent with the Cashman blueprint.
But this plan only seems to work with Chapman rather than Jansen, who is a superb closer but an unknown quantity in the Bronx. Signing him also would cost the Yankees that 16th overall pick, a sacrifice Cashman strongly wants to avoid. With Chapman clearly the top choice, Jansen feels more like leverage for Cashman.
Once the Giants took Mark Melancon off the board Monday with a four-year, $62-million deal, that immediately raised the prices for the remaining two star free agents _ and stepped up the urgency for the other teams left in the closer derby.
But two days after the Melancon signing, both Chapman and Jansen held their ground, maybe waiting for the other to blink. Despite having offers out to both, Cashman denied this was a situation where whoever jumps first ends up in pinstripes.
"It's not a race," Cashman said. "The preference is Chapman."
For that reason, we continue to believe Chapman will return to the Bronx. After what the team went through last season, selling off their assets in un-Yankee-like fashion, and now watching other clubs make all the noise, Cashman won't let them be forgotten, even if it means going a bit overboard to give Chapman a record deal.
They're still the Yankees, after all. And the stellar free-agent class of 2018 isn't that far away.
