tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Yankee Fans Deserve Answers

Yankee fans typically know that their team is committed to getting better in the off season. The team's organizational goal is to win the World Series. This has been the Yankee mission statement since George Steinbrenner bought the team 40 years ago. But this winter has been different. While the Yankee brass mouth the mission statement, their actions give fans cause for concern. So my question to Hal Steinbrenner, Lonn Trost, Randy Levine and Brian Cashman is: what's the long-term plan for this franchise??

You see for the first time since the Steinbrenner family has owned the Yankees, the team will place its own salary cap on its payroll. As Joel Sherman reported first many months ago, the Yankees have stated that they will get their payroll down to $189 million by 2014. As a result, Brian Cashman has only signed free agents to one year deals (with exception of Ichiro) thus excluding them from many outfield and third base options. This has led to the Yankees being one of the oldest teams in baseball and still having questions at catcher and who will be their right-handed hitting outfielder. Not to mention who will be their everyday DH.

Would the Yankees under George Steinbrenner be content with either Francisco Cervelli or Chris Stewart as their starting catcher. Would Matt Diaz be their right-hand hitting outfielder?? Would Russ Canzler be the answer to replace Nick Swisher?? Would Eduardo Nunez be the everyday designated hitter?? My answer to all of those questions is probably not.

New York is the toughest media market in the world. That being the case, I am asking Mike Francesa, Joel Sherman, Jack Curry, Ken Davidoff, Anthony McCarron, Mark Feinsand, George King III or Bill Madden to begin asking the question: What is the long-term plan for this franchise?? If payroll reduction is the answer, what is the plan as far as re-signing Robinson Cano? Will Curtis Granderson be re-signed or will he be traded?? When the contracts of the following players expire who will replace Hiroki Kuroda, Mariano Rivera, Kevin Youkilis, and Andy Pettite. And finally, has the Yankee mission statement changed??

As Yankee fans who have supported this team, making it the richest professional sports organization in the world, we deserve answers. We deserve to know what the long-range plan is for this team. We deserve to know what the timetable is for Mike Montgomery, Austin Romine, Gary Sanchez, Manny Banuelos and whoever else Cashman & Company want to sell us as being the next young group to lead us to the Canyon of Heroes. In my mind, its the least they can do.