May 15th, 2020: Future Payroll, Trades Freeze, Mailbag

Sad news: former Yankees player and general manager Bob Watson passed away last night following a long battle with kidney disease, his family announced. He was 74. Watson played for the Yankees from 1980-82 and was the general manager from 1995-98. In 1996, he became the first African American general manager to win the World Series. Here's the RAB Retro Week post on the transition from Watson to Brian Cashman. Here are today's thoughts.

1. Future payroll obligations. The financial impact of the shutdown will last multiple years. That's true for the Average Joe and billion dollar sports franchises. Buster Olney says one owner has already instructed the front office to cut payroll next year and I can't imagine it's just one owner who's done that. Teams were trimming payroll when the sport was thriving and setting revenue records each year -- Ron Blum reports the MLB average salary was set to hold steady around $4.4M for the fifth straight season in 2020 -- so imagine what they'll do now that they're facing a real financial hardship. Anyway, because future payroll will be such an important consideration going forward, I figured it's worth breaking down what the Yankees have on the books the next few seasons, and what important decisions are looming. Let's get to it.

2021: $110.35M in guaranteed contracts

• Arbitration-eligibles: Tommy Kahnle (Arb4), Luis Cessa (Arb2), Chad Green (Arb2), Jonathan Holder (Arb2), Aaron Judge (Arb2), Jordan Montgomery (Arb2), Gary Sanchez (Arb2), Gio Urshela (Arb2), Miguel Andujar (Arb1), Clint Frazier (Arb1), Gleyber Torres (Arb1), Luke Voit (Arb1)
• Option decisions: Zack Britton (two-year, $27M club option or one-year, $13M player option), J.A. Happ ($17M vesting option), Brett Gardner ($10M club option with $2.5M buyout)
• Notable free agents after 2020: DJ LeMahieu, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka

Huge, huge arbitration class this coming offseason. I've seen speculation there will be a ton of non-tenders this offseason as teams trim the fat and get their payroll under control, and I'd say Cessa and Holder are most in danger. Why pay low seven figures for your seventh and eighth reliever when you could likely find someone to give you similar production at the league minimum? Urshela could be in danger should he crash back to Earth in 2020. What about Voit? C.J. Cron and Jesus Aguilar each made about $2.5M in their first arbitration year, which is a decent enough salary reference point for Voit. Given the expected financial climate, would the Yankees non-tender Voit and go with the cheaper Mike Ford at first base? I don't think so, but the shutdown means the chances of a Voit non-tender have gone from none to slim. Judge and Sanchez going into their second arbitration year and Torres going into his first (as a Super Two) will be the big dollar payouts this coming winter, then the Yankees have to re-sign or replace LeMahieu, Paxton, and Tanaka. Maybe Deivi Garcia and/or Clarke Schmidt could step into the rotation in 2021. Would be cool. It's still really difficult for me to see the Yankees losing two important starters (plus likely Happ) in one offseason and not doing anything to replace them. That $110.35M in guaranteed contracts covers only six players (Aroldis Chapman, Gerrit Cole, Aaron Hicks, Adam Ottavino, Luis Severino, Giancarlo Stanton) though I'd expect Britton to be back one way or the other. He'll add $13M to the payroll. The 2021 luxury tax payroll is a tick below the guaranteed dollars at $104.467M. The Yankees typically focus on luxury tax payroll but that may change after this season. Actual dollars figure to become more important. Either way, this coming offseason will be monumental. The Yankees have several key players becoming free agents and many arbitration situations to deal with.

2022: $101.75M in guaranteed contracts 

• Arbitration-eligibles: Luis Cessa (Arb3), Chad Green (Arb3), Jonathan Holder (Arb3), Aaron Judge (Arb3), Jordan Montgomery (Arb3), Gary Sanchez (Arb3), Gio Urshela (Arb3), Miguel Andujar (Arb2), Clint Frazier (Arb2), Gleyber Torres (Arb2), Luke Voit (Arb2), Domingo German (Arb1), Kyle Higashioka (Arb1), Jonathan Loaisiga (Arb1), Mike Tauchman (Arb1), Tyler Wade (Arb1)
• Option decisions: none
• Notable free agents after 2021: Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino (maybe Zack Britton, J.A. Happ, and Brett Gardner depending on the option decisions)

As far as contracts that are currently guaranteed for 2021, only Ottavino's expires after that season. That great big arbitration class moves up a year -- given what he's done in his career to date (two All-Star Games, MVP votes, etc.), it's possible Torres will be pushing $10M in only his second arbitration year as a Super Two in 2022 -- and I can't imagine any of the first year arbitration players (Higashioka, Loaisiga, Tauchman, Wade) will command significant salaries. If they do, it means they've had a breakout season, and that would be a welcome development. Re-signing or replacing LeMahieu, Paxton, and Tanaka after this season could add to the 2022 payroll, though I'm guessing the Yankees are hoping they'll be able to replace the relievers (Kahnle, Ottavino, maybe Britton) internally with ... who knows. Albert Abreu, Deivi Garcia, Brooks Kriske, maybe someone they pluck from another team and turn into the next Chad Green. Someone cheap, the point is. If they have to go outside the organization to reinforce the bullpen, they will (probably), but carrying three relievers making $9M+ annually may not be a thing that happens after the shutdown. At least not for a little while.

2023: $78.5M in guaranteed contracts

• Arbitration-eligibles: Luis Cessa (Arb4), Jonathan Holder (Arb4), Jordan Montgomery (Arb4), Gio Urshela (Arb4), Miguel Andujar (Arb3), Clint Frazier (Arb3), Gleyber Torres (Arb3), Luke Voit (Arb3), Domingo German (Arb2), Kyle Higashioka (Arb2), Jonathan Loaisiga (Arb2), Mike Tauchman (Arb2), Tyler Wade (Arb2), Thairo Estrada (Arb1), Mike Ford (Arb1), Deivi Garcia (Arb1?), Clarke Schmidt (Arb1?)
• Option decisions: Luis Severino ($15M club option with $2.75M buyout)
• Notable free agents after 2022: Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez (maybe Zack Britton depending on the option decision)

This is when you can start to see the window closing. Four key players are set to become free agents following the 2022 season and will have to be re-signed or replaced, and the three players with guaranteed contracts on the books for 2023 will be entering their age 32 (Gerrit Cole) or 33 (Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton) season. Severino's club option was far from a sure thing before the shutdown because of the injuries. With the shutdown? Who knows. He'll have two seasons (more like 1.5 seasons given the typical Tommy John surgery rehab timetable) to show the Yankees he's worth $15M in the post-shutdown financial climate in 2023. The arbitration class is large in that includes about a dozen players, but based on what we know right now, not too many will make big money. Torres for sure, possibly Andujar and Voit, maybe Montgomery if he stays healthy, maybe Frazier if he blackmails someone and gets regular playing time. The fourth year Super Twos like Cessa, Holder, and Urshela shouldn't break the bank (well, maybe Urshela will if he's really this good). For Garcia and Schmidt to reach arbitration-eligibility in 2023, they would need to spend most or all of the 2020 season in the big leagues. MLB proposed a 30-man active roster with a 20-man taxi squad this year and I would expect both Garcia and Schmidt to be on that 50-man roster, though that doesn't necessarily mean they'll get a full year of service time. We don't know how the taxi squad will work just yet. Point is, the 2022-23 offseason is when the core as we know it may begin to break apart. Age will become a factor and key homegrown Yankees are due to hit free agency. The roster will look very different in 2023. That's a given because every roster changes a lot in three years, but I mean it could look very different.

2024: $77.5M in guaranteed contracts

• Arbitration-eligibles: Gleyber Torres (Arb4), Domingo German (Arb3), Kyle Higashioka (Arb3), Jonathan Loaisiga (Arb3), Mike Tauchman (Arb3), Tyler Wade (Arb3), Thairo Estrada (Arb2), Mike Ford (Arb2), Deivi Garcia (Arb2?), Clarke Schmidt (Arb2?)
• Option decisions: none
• Notable free agents after 2023: Miguel Andujar, Luis Cessa, Clint Frazier, Jonathan Holder, Jordan Montgomery, Gio Urshela, Luke Voit (maybe Luis Severino depending on the option decision)

How many of those notable free agents do you think will make it through their team control years and still be with the Yankees heading into the 2023-24 offseason? Three would be a lot, I think. This sport is so unpredictable and there's so much roster turnover. Go back five years and we were talking about exciting young Yankees like Greg Bird and Slade Heathcott and John Ryan Murphy. They all looked like long-term keepers (at least Bird and Murphy did seeing how they had success in something more than a cup of coffee in 2015). Right now, the 2024 arbitration class doesn't look too daunting, with Torres in his final year as a Super Two the most notable case. The hope is Garcia and Schmidt will really break out between now and then, and who knows, maybe others like Albert Abreu and Estevan Florial start to have success and reach arbitration around this time. Come 2024, we should know whether current top prospects like Roansy Contreras, Jasson Dominguez, and Luis Medina are big league contributors or close to it, though they should still be in their pre-arbitration years. We'll fret about their future earning potential then like we do Gleyber now. The $77.5M in guaranteed money is tied up in the same three players (Gerrit Cole, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton) and I guess that's the most shocking part of this exercise. The Yankees have few guaranteed contracts coming off the books the next four years. DJ LeMahieu, James Paxton, and Masahiro Tanaka this winter, then Adam Ottavino next winter, then Aroldis Chapman the year after that with Zack Britton, J.A. Happ, Brett Gardner, and Luis Severino sprinkled in along the way with their options. All that while Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez approach free agency and Torres goes through arbitration four times. The Yankees' payroll obligations, meaning guaranteed money that is on the books right now, only drops from $110.35M to $101.75M to $78.5M to $77.5M from 2021-24. The Dodgers go from $120.2M to $42M to $6.5M to $0 during that same four-year span, for comparison. The Yankees have more money than most and I'm sure that will be true even after the shutdown, but their future payroll situation is about as team unfriendly as it gets. They've got two monster contracts on the books (Cole and Stanton) and homegrown stars getting expensive. It'll be difficult situation to navigate in the coming years. Not impossible, obviously, just more difficult than it would've been with the usual revenue coming in.

UPDATE: I forgot about Domingo German and added him to the breakdown above. His suspension ensured he would not collect a full year of service time this season no matter what, and the shutdown ensures he won't be a Super Two either. The suspension pushes German's arbitration-eligibility back to 2022 and his free agency back to the 2024-25 offseason.

2. Indefinite trades freeze. Major League transactions are frozen during the shutdown and I'm starting to think a trades freeze would be worthwhile even after Spring Training 2.0 and the regular season begin. Do we really want players changing clubhouses in the middle of a pandemic? Baseball allows for natural social distancing on the field -- aside from tag plays and the batter and catcher (and home plate umpire), there aren't many reasons for players to be close together in this sport -- but the dugout and clubhouse and team plane are different animals. Players can't help but be on top of each other then. There will be who knows how many trades during a shortened 82-game season and moving guys around to different teams feels like an unnecessary risk. Whenever MLB and the MLBPA come up with a plan to begin the season, they could allow trades between then and the start of Spring Training 2.0 since players are isolating at home. Once Spring Training 2.0 begins though, and the players and staff are around each other again, that's it. No more trades in an effort to contain the virus. You don't need a player(s) taking something from one clubhouse to another. That's the reason to put a trades freeze in place. There are a few reasons not to enact a trades freeze. For starters, MLB plans to test players and personnel regularly -- Jared Diamond (subs. req'd) reports MLB's proposal calls for testing all personnel multiple times per week with results being available within 24 hours -- and maybe that's enough to stay on top of this pool of 2,000-something people and allow players to change clubhouses. There's also the baseball aspect. MLB wants to play a competitive season and crown a champion, and if they're going to do that, they should give teams an opportunity to improve, whether it's bring in help to cover for an injury or simply jump on a chance to upgrade a position. Don't forget about the rebuilding teams either. They should be given the opportunity to unload their impending free agents. (Surely some teams would try to salary dump players, even good ones, to get their payroll in order after the shutdown, right?) For the sake of argument, let's say MLB does implement a trades freeze. Free agents (Yasiel Puig, Andrew Cashner, etc.) could still sign at any time because they're isolating at home, but trades are not allowed. In that case, the Yankees would be in pretty good shape because they have such a deep and talented roster. Not being able to replace Luis Severino would stink, sure, and several key Yankees are no stranger to the injured list (Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge, James Paxton, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, etc.), but the base talent level is so high. PECOTA and FanGraphs both project the Yankees as the third best team in baseball. Freeze every roster right now and the Yankees would have as good a chance to win the World Series as any team in the game. These are the positions I'd worry about most should MLB freeze trades after the shutdown:

1. Middle infield. It's real thin after DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres. Either one gets hurt and the Yankees are looking at Tyler Wade, Starting Infielder.
2. Rotation. Severino's not coming back, Paxton is returning from back surgery, Domingo German is suspended, and Jordan Montgomery is in Year 1 with his new elbow ligament.
3. Outfield. Hicks and Judge are still rehabbing their injuries and Brett Gardner turns 37 in three months. There's risk here, though Clint Frazier mitigates some of that.
4. Bullpen. Pitchers get hurt, but the Yankees have a deep bullpen and they could survive losing a key reliever to injury. They're in better shape here than just about any other team.
5. Corner infield. Miguel Andujar, Mike Ford, Gio Urshela, Luke Voit. It'll be fine.

No matter how often MLB tests personnel, freezing trades during the season would be the smart move out of an abundance of caution. I bet the MLBPA would go for it too. Getting traded sucks, especially during the season. No one likes having to relocate at a moment's notice and be away from their family for however many weeks. It would be unfortunate to drop a trades freeze on teams now rather than give them an entire offseason to prepare, but what can you do? These are unprecedented times and MLB has an obligation to do whatever it can to protect its personnel and the public at large. I don't think it'll happen, but I believe a trades freeze would be smart and the Yankees would be as well-positioned to get through the season without outside help as any team in baseball.

3. 2020 draft prospect: Texas Tech RHP Clayton Beeter. The Yankees will have only three picks and a $3.7M maximum bonus pool during this year's five-round draft, and between now and the June 10th draft date, I'm going to break down potential Yankees targets. We've already covered RHP Nick Bitsko, RHP Tanner Burns, OF Pete Crow-Armstrong, LHP Jake Eder, RHP J.T. Ginn, OF Isaiah Greene, RHP Bryce Jarvis, LHP Luke Little, RHP Max Meyer, RHP C.J. Van Eyk, and C Austin Wells. Beeter was not drafted out of his Texas high school in 2017 and he blew out his elbow during fall practice prior to his freshman season at Texas Tech. He had Tommy John surgery in Dec. 2017 and an arthroscopic elbow procedure in July 2018, and missed the entire 2018 season. Beeter returned to the mound as a redshirt freshman last year and had a 3.48 ERA with 40 strikeouts and 20 walks in 20.2 innings as the Red Raiders' closer. Lots of walks, though that's not entirely unexpected so soon after Tommy John surgery. Texas Tech moved Beeter into the rotation this spring and he had a 2.14 ERA with 33 strikeouts and only four walks in four starts and 21 innings prior to the shutdown. MLB.com ranks him as the 51st best prospect in the draft class. Baseball America (subs. req'd) has him 80th. Here's a chunk of MLB's scouting report (here's video):

Beeter added rather than lost velocity as he worked longer stints this year, sitting at 93-96 mph and peaking at 98 with his fastball. He has a pair of power breaking balls, a wipeout curveball in the low 80s and a slider in the mid-80s that some evaluators believe is even better. He even flashes at least a solid changeup, though he doesn't turn to his fourth option very often ... His lack of track record is worrisome but it's hard to argue with the quality stuff and strikes he unleashed this spring.

Although the scouting publications rank him as a second or third round talent, I've heard Beeter is likely to get picked in the back half of the first round from two different people who'd know. The stuff is good, the Trackman data is excellent -- Beeter's curveball spin rate was recorded north of 3,000 rpm this spring, and I should mention MLB's report notes "Beeter tunnels his pitches extremely well," which is a cool analytics thing -- and there's a sense he'll be an easy (maybe even below-slot) sign given the injury history and short track record. Clubs see Beeter as a guy with great natural ability and a lot of untapped potential. For what it's worth, Keith Law (subs. req'd) has Beeter going to the Yankees with the 28th overall pick in his mock draft, though there's nothing in the write-up explicitly connecting the two ("Yankees interested in him," etc. etc.). Law's write-up does say Beeter came out "throwing an absolute screaming hammer of a curveball this spring that multiple scouts have called a grade 80 pitch," which is notable. I expect this to be a college heavy draft and getting big upside late in the first round is not easy, especially with college players. Beeter appears to offer some, similar to Walker Buehler in 2015 (24th overall), though Buehler had a longer track record and had not yet undergone Tommy John surgery. The similarities exist though. Look beyond the short track record and injury history and the raw stuff suggests there's an impact pitcher waiting to be unleashed.

4. Remembering a random Yankee: Billy Butler. By request, our next random Yankee is a player who turned only 34 last month. I would've guessed Butler was 37 or 38. We've already covered Juan Acevedo, Erick Almonte, Oscar Azocar, Colter Bean, Cesar Cabral, Brandon Claussen, Kevin Elster, Greg Golson, Nick Green, Aaron Guiel, Eric Hinske, Brandon Knight, Blake Parker, Chris Parmelee, Mark Reynolds, DeWayne Wise, and Kerry Wood. The 2016 Yankees were a team in transition. They sold at the deadline and embraced youth. As part of the youth movement, Alex Rodriguez was released on Aug. 13th. A-Rod couldn't play the field at that point and he was hitting .200/.247/.351 (56 wRC+) with nine homers through 243 plate appearances. He was done and the Yankees did not want to keep him around as a right-handed platoon DH. One month later, the Yankees signed Butler to be a right-handed platoon DH. They signed him on Sept. 15th. Here's the lineup they sent out against Clayton Kershaw the night before:

1. LF Brett Gardner
2. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
3. C Gary Sanchez
4. 2B Starlin Castro
5. 3B Chase Headley
6. SS Didi Gregorius
7. RF Rob Refsnyder
8. DH Austin Romine
9. 1B Tyler Austin

Austin Romine, designated hitter. A real thing that happened. Aaron Judge was hurt at the time and the Yankees were only two games out of the second Wild Card spot. They were in the postseason race and they needed a righty bat, and Butler was freely available -- he hit .276/.331/.403 (100 wRC+) in 85 games with the Athletics before being released on Sept. 11th -- so they picked him up. Butler wouldn't have been eligible for the postseason roster because he wasn't in the organization on Aug. 31st, but whatever. If he helped get the Yankees to the postseason, it would've been worth it. He was worth a roster spot and the prorated league minimum (about $55,000) at the time. The Yankees faced seven lefty starters in the first 10 games after the signing, so Butler was a lineup regular, and he did well enough. He went 1-for-3 and drove in two runs in his first game as a Yankee. The next day he hit a pinch-hit home run (here's video). Butler went 6-for-14 (.429) in the next four games after that. The scrap heap pickup was doing what the Yankees hoped he would do. The rest of the team did not hold up their end of the bargain. Butler went 9-for-24 (.409) with two doubles and a home run in his first nine games with the club but the Yankees went 1-8 and fell out of the postseason race. They sat Butler down the stretch -- he started only two of the final seven games -- in favor of younger players, and that was that. Butler became a free agent after the season and he hasn't played anywhere since. His most memorable act as a Yankee was beating Brian McCann in a foot race on the final day of the season. Here's the video.

5. Rapid fire thoughts. Brian Cashman told Brendan Kuty yesterday that he expects Aaron Judge to return in the "summertime." Conveniently vague but also in line with everything we know. Last week we heard Judge's rib is still healing and that'll have another CT scan in a few weeks. CT scan in a few weeks, then a few weeks of rehab work, and yeah, we're into June or July. Summertime. No new information from the GM. "(He) wants to play as much as anybody and we look forward to getting him back in the lineup," Cashman said ... Wouldn't it be something if the highest paid Yankee this season winds up being Jacoby Ellsbury? Earlier this week Ken Rosenthal (subs. req'd) reported the Collective Bargaining Agreement seems to protect the salaries of released players. They are not on the 40-man roster and not subject to a salary reduction agreement between MLB and the MLBPA. Prince Fielder hasn't played since 2016 but he's owed $24M this year and will likely be the highest paid player in baseball. The Yankees released Ellsbury over the winter and are withholding the $26M they owe him because they claim he received medical treatment without their approval. I have no idea how (or when) that will be resolved, but it's not impossible Ellsbury wins the legal battle, and gets the $26M. In that case the Yankees would've been better off financially carrying him on the roster this year. Go figure ... Yankees team doctor Dr. Chris Ahmad wrote about the potential for an increase in Tommy John surgeries following the shutdown. Tommy John surgery spikes in February and March each year because some players inevitably do too much too soon, and that same risk will exist when Spring Training 2.0 begins. Ahmad didn't write his post for big leaguers though. He cautioned amateur players (and parents) to not rush back into baseball, and to do what you can now to prepare. MLB players get all the attention and understandably so. All the young kids around the country will face the same risk though, and they don't have access to the same high-level coaching and care as big leaguers. A spike in injuries at any level, pro or amateur, would be disheartening after the shutdown. Hopefully a few young players or parents see Ahmad's post and some major injuries can be avoided. Would be cool.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Brian asks: I know things are hard to project in the current environment, but assuming a 10% reduction in production in 2020, what do you predict DJLM's next contract to be?

A 10% decline would make DJ LeMahieu a 122 wRC+ and +5.3 WAR player (per 162 games) in 2020, so he'd still be very good. Among the best players in the sport and someone the Yankees would want to retain. Joel Sherman recently floated the Ben Zobrist contract (four years at $14M annually) for LeMahieu, who turns 32 in July. Zobrist signed his deal at 35.

The shutdown changes everything and we have no idea what free agency will look like this offseason. The more games they play this year, the better it'll be, at least in theory. As good as LeMahieu is and would be with a 10% decline, the Zobrist contract feels rich. Would any team lock up a player, even a great middle infielder, at $14M a year from ages 32-35? Eh.

Something between LeMahieu's current contract (two years at $12M annually) and the Zobrist contract seems ... fair? I think? Hard to say. That would be three years at $13M per year. I'd be totally cool with giving LeMahieu that after the season. I also have no idea what the market will look like and how big a financial hit the Yankees will take this year.

James asks: Assume for the sake of the argument that all teams go all in during the shortened season, and National League teams aggressively look to trade for DH hitters from AL rosters. How much would that raise the trade value of players like: Luke Voit, Mike Ford, Miguel Andújar, or Clint Frazier? While these players had less value to NL teams prior to the DH, are there any NL players the Yankees could now target in a universal DH world offering players that wouldn't have made sense to NL teams prior to now?

MLB's restart proposal includes a universal DH and it feels like the beginning of the end for pitchers hitting. Now that the door's been cracked open a bit, it'll soon be kicked wide open and the universal DH will become a full-time thing. I bet it happens with the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. MLB and the MLBPA both want it. It'll happen.

I wrote a CBS post looking at each National League team's DH options and I was surprised to see so many have viable candidates. The Pirates are the clear exception, but they won't go all-in on 2020 anyway. Otherwise the Diamondbacks have Jake Lamb, the Rockies have Daniel Murphy, the Marlins have Matt Joyce, the Reds have six outfielders for three spots, so on and so forth. Most NL teams are in good shape.

The universal DH could improve the trade value of guys like Andujar and Ford and Voit, but I honestly don't think it would be much unless we learn the universal DH is permanent. I don't see teams making trades to plug a lineup spot for 82 games given the shocking quality of their in-house options. If you're a contender like the Braves, do you trade for Ford or Voit or whoever, or just platoon Adam Duvall and Nick Markakis? Exactly.

Yasiel Puig is the only clear cut everyday player sitting in free agency, so the fact there are few viable DH candidates available for nothing but cash would help the Yankees. I imagine they would be among the first teams to get a call from an NL club looking for a DH. I can't help but feel like Andujar or Frazier or whoever is more valuable to the Yankees on their roster than whatever they could bring back as a trade chip at this point.

John asks: Last point actually started from the Billy Butler research. Went to RAB to see what you wrote about him from his time in New York and realized we just passed the one year anniversary of RAB ending it's former era into the new twice a week format. April 29th was a year since the last post. How has the year been? Any regrets or do you ever find yourself wanting to go back? Anything you would change or any changes being considered to the current format?

John kinda sorta requested Butler as today's random Yankee. As for RAB, the one-year anniversary of the site shutting down came and went without me even realizing it. It didn't dawn on me until a few days later, otherwise I probably would've mentioned something about it in the intro here. Pretty good indication how much I miss it, huh?

In all seriousness, I don't have any regrets about running RAB as long as I did because I truly did love it, but I also don't regret walking away when I did. I was burnt out and it had become more work than fun. There are times I wonder what the hell I would be writing about at RAB during the shutdown and it stresses me out. This would've been a nightmare, content-wise.

The Patreon is great because I still have a creative outlet and can write about the Yankees, and I can do without feeling "on call." With RAB, I always had one eye on the news in case something happened and reaction was required, even though I owned the site and was my own boss. I still felt that obligation to be available 24/7. I don't miss that at all.

The original plan here was one post a week on Wednesdays, but that lasted a week. I have too much to say and these days if you sit on something for a few days, it's old news. Twice a week is just right. It spreads out the content without me feeling like the next post is always a few hours away like it did at RAB. 

I don't miss RAB and I don't feel the pull to go back. Honestly, I look back and wonder how I did that for so long. I don't regret it but I don't miss it either. I'm happier and healthier now -- for real, closing RAB has had serious mental and physical health benefits -- and shutting the site was something I needed to do. I appreciate everyone who's stuck with me here and I hope the Patreon can fill the void to some degree. RAB was fun for a long time but it reached the point where it was time for me to make a life change.