John Shea:
Yankees building a young and powerful team.
Sonny Gray is no Jason Giambi, who longed to be a Yankee and fulfilled his father’s wish that he play in pinstripes after leaving the A’s in 2002.
John Giambi was a huge Mickey Mantle fan, so Jason wore No. 25 in New York, if only because the digits added up to the Mick’s No. 7.
No, Gray is a Yankee not by choice but by circumstance. The Yankees offered what the A’s deemed the best prospect package, and Gray, who was raised in a small Tennessee town (Smyrna), suddenly works in the media capital of the world.
Gray can be outgoing, charming and hilarious, but he also can be withdrawn, especially in group interviews. It’ll be intriguing to see how he adjusts to the big city, how he buys into the experience, how his personality plays out.
In Oakland, he always seemed to lift his game — and personality — when the A’s were winning. How will he fit in with the Yankees?
“Perfectly,” said Billy Beane, the man who sent Gray to the Bronx. “First, it’s a great opportunity for Sonny. The Yankees are a first-class operation. They’ve obviously got a good team.
“They’ve got a young team, too. Sonny fits in age-wise. People don’t associate the Yankees as one of the best young teams in baseball, but that’s what they’ve become. I think it’s a perfect opportunity.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Gray will make his Yankees debut early in the next trip, which begins Thursday in Cleveland. Luis Severino pitched Monday against Detroit, and CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka are slated to pitch the final two games of the home series.
Lefty Jaime Garcia also is waiting to make his Yankees debut after he arrived in a trade from the Twins. It’s an easy call to remove Jordan Montgomery from the rotation, despite the rookie’s effectiveness.
Either way, a very good rotation — ranked fifth in WAR — just got far better. Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox president, is calling the Yankees “the Golden State Warriors” — in other words, the best team in the majors.
The Dodgers might take exception. Actually, Dombrowski was having fun with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who called the Red Sox baseball’s version of the Warriors when they traded for Chris Sale in the offseason.
Good stuff, except there’s one problem with the Warriors comparison. Neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox has won two championships with their current core of players. With Sean Doolittle in Washington and Gray in New York, the longest-tenured Athletic is … Marcus Semien. All of 2½ seasons in green and gold.
Semien debuted with the A’s on April 6, 2015, two days before Josh Phegley got in his first A’s game.
“It does feel like Phegley and I just got here,” said Semien, adding he’d like the current nucleus to stick together. “I still don’t feel like I’m a veteran on this team. I just want to lead by example out there, no matter what.”
Technically, Jed Lowrie, Rajai Davis and Santiago Casilla were A’s before 2015, but all went elsewhere and returned in the past year or two. Why did the Giants do nothing at the deadline? Why didn’t they move at least one of their big contracts?
Fact is, moving expensive contracts was a tough sell throughout the majors. Of the 32 players traded since July 24, none had guaranteed deals through this season, and 21 will be free agents at season’s end.
The game-wide trend is to acquire either two-month rentals or players under team control. It is a lousy time to be a team willing to shed big-money deals. Just ask the Tigers, who still have Justin Verlander, and other teams in that predicament. Nationals manager Dusty Baker made no secret he wanted a deeper bullpen, even after Washington acquired Doolittle and Ryan Madson from Oakland in mid-July. Adding Brandon Kintzler from the Twins on Monday solidifies the relief corps, which has lacked a closer since Mark Melancon left as a free agent.
Baker hasn’t named a closer, but it would make sense for Doolittle and Madson to set up Kintzler, who saved 28 games in 32 attempts for Minnesota but isn’t a prototypical closer because he doesn’t strike out many (unlike Doolittle and Madson) and relies on weak contact.
Either way, it’s a major upgrade. The missing link in Baker’s managing career is a World Series title, and he wasn’t going to get it this year without a deeper bullpen. The Dodgers swept the Giants to take a 34½-game lead on their rivals and then got better. Yu Darvish? Really? As if playing .700 ball wasn’t good enough. It was a bold move to trade for the Rangers righthander.
Darvish is insurance in case Clayton Kershaw remains shelved with a back issue. He’s supposed to return in September. As is, the rotation, including Alex Wood and Rich Hill — with Brandon McCarthy, Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu in the wings — has the lowest ERA in the majors.
The Dodgers also acquired lefty relievers Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani without losing any of their top three prospects. What are they doing, trying to figure out who faces Bryce Harper or Anthony Rizzo in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the NLCS?
Well, yes.