I had one hell of a day yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday to a text telling me about David Robertson signing with the White Sox. I was instantly cranky because for once I was in a deep sleep and was woken up with bad news. Oh and the fact that it was the news I was dreading to hear the most made it a very bitter pill to swallow. I called it....my worst fear confirmed....Robertson is gone.
I can't say I blame him either. I am not mad at Robertson for leaving. Hell, I am not even mad at Brian Cashman because he is not the one calling the shots. I will reserve my temptation to cast stones because he is not my target. Let's face it....he is a puppet and Hal and Hank Steinbrenner are the puppet masters. At this point, that is all they are to me because quite frankly, I think they were incredibly stupid.
I have had countless conversations about Robertson since all of this happened. Some people agree with me, and some don't and that is fine. I acknowledge that while I am irrationally angry about this there is a business side to all of this. I just can't stop going back to one idea and that is we offered someone from the outside a 4 year deal. He has talent, but not everyone with talent can make it as a Yankee.
Look at Carl Pavano for example, no one wants to relive that, but it happened. Andrew Miller has talent and he could be that diamond in the rough for us. Can he handle the Bronx lights? That remains to be seen. Robertson on the other hand was able to do something that I never wanted to imagine and that is take over for the great Mariano Rivera. Not only did he do it, he made that bullpen the saving grace of our team. He did everything we asked him to do.
Based on everything that Robertson did for us this year, it was a no brainer to bring him back. There was no reason not to. I realize the "business" reasoning behind this is that the Yankees wanted the compensatory draft pick to make up for it. Great! But you know what? The Yankees aren't exactly big on making the most of their draft picks. Our picks have not panned out well for us, and the ones that they do pick and we fall in love with are just traded away later. If you are going to tell me that this is the start of the Yankees trying to start a homegrown dynasty again I just don't buy it.
So not signing Robertson also means that we just swapped him for Miller and saved $10 million too. Well, that is one of the "business" reasons I read yesterday on Twitter. That money is nothing to the Yankees, especially not on a 4 year deal. That's idiotic to me because unless they use that to make a killer signing like Max Scherzer, then that was an unnecessary sacrifice. If that is the way the Yankees want to spin it, then they better use that in other areas of need.
It's my opinion that Robertson wanted to be a Yankee. Some people have told me "If he wanted to be a Yankee he would have taken a 3 year deal or less money." I get that to a point. However, just like there is a business reasoning for the Yankees not giving Robertson the offer he wanted....there is a reason why he shouldn't have taken less and if Miller was worthy of 4 years as a non-closer type then Robertson was worth that many years and more money. As soon as he found out the Yankees weren't going to give him what he wanted that is when he left, and while some think that he just didn't want to be here I disagree. He gave the Yankees every opportunity to make the deal happen. They told him no, so he did what was best for him. I can't fault him for that, and I hope people realize that. Again, it is a business, right?
In my mind I keep going back to the interview Hal did with Michael Kay back in October, it inspired STEINBRENNER ISSUES APOLOGY TO FANS. He promised the fans that they were going to get us back to being a winning team again. Robertson could have been a big part of that equation and I think he should have been. We don't have an experienced closer right now. We haven't said that in 20 years so yeah, I am being irrational and taking my aggression out on Hal. I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt here, but I really think he made a bonehead move. I hope I am wrong....I guess only time will tell.
To David, his amazing wife Erin and family thank you for all of the memories. This isn't goodbye, because you will always be a part of the BYB family.
--Jeana Bellezza, BYB Senior Writer and Editor
Twitter: @NyPrincessJ
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