Yas to Yaz!

An emotional appeal

I have very few marketable skills. A literature degree paired with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing has left me shockingly skint. In this brave new world of A.I. generated content, all my eggs are in one shrinking basket. But there is one thing that separates me from the finance bro bloggers brought to you by DraftKings: my ability to spell Y-a-s-t-r-z-e-m-s-k-i.

No hesitation or doubt. Yastrzemski. I just typed that up. Didn’t double check it at all. String of four consonants — not a problem. The ‘s’ before the ‘z’ — got that in the bag.

Y-a-s-t-r-z-e-m-s-k-i is ingrained in the muscle memory of my finger digits. A reflex. A clickity-clack step across the keyboard that I’d like to continue.

There you go. One great reason why Buster Posey shouldn’t trade Mike Yastrzemski. There are others, but do I need to go on? If Posey is taking his Louisville Slugger to all data formula spreadsheet input screen boxes (yes?), then re-emphasizing the human element in the San Francisco Giants’ roster development starts with Y-a-s. Yas it does. Say Yas to Yaz. Bumper sticker ideas up the wazoo. Strong Polish names with Hall of Fame lineage over numbers any day.

Okay yes, with the team looking to cut some clams from the budget, shelling out nearly $10 million in arbitration for a league-average player is arguably pretty steep. The other side of predictability is there isn’t much chance of exceeding expectations. We know what we’ll get for that cost. We know Mike Yastrzemski will strike out a quarter of the time in 2025. He’ll coax seven pitches from a pitcher but ultimately swing under a slightly elevated fastball. He’s got a lot of holes in his long, lumber-y hack. 20 homers? If you round up! The only reason he didn’t hit 20+ doubles in 2024 is because half of them weirdly turned into triples. He’ll get into a groove at the plate, lifting baseballs onto the arcade or pulling them into the corner, then pull a hammy, take a week off, and go completely cold. Long flies will turn into cheap flares that linger too long in the air. Line drives won’t sink. Hard-hit ground will find gloves. No one looks blankly up at an indeterminate point in the night sky as they walk back to the dugout after an AB quite like Mike.

Y-a-s or n-o? It’s been a doozy of a question since 2021. McCovey Chronicles contributors and commentators have never hesitated to sweat some ink in defense or degradation of the guy. Bryan did it in a very logical, analytical, Bryan way back in September. Again, the debate is headling with the news of making Yastrzemski available as a trade option, and here I am doing it all over again: Restating and retreading over well-worn ground. The debate will never rest.

Like a lot of 1.5-2.0 WAR players, we see what we want to find in them. Hot dog, great value! Or an infuriating and unnecessary expense. I’m no different. Cut me and I bleed. The deepest darkest truest reason I want to keep Yaz is I like the way his name bends on the back of his jersey. Sentimentality is important. If it wasn’t we’d all flip-flopping and band-wagoning through our days. Fan means fanatic — the input and zeal doesn’t add up to the return. Of course not. What you do get is opinions. Lots of them. Mostly weird, non-sensical ones too. $10 million not-my-dollars to watch Yaz grow another mustache. Money well spent!

Honestly though, being liked and a good person deserves an arbitration deal, especially if the player is the longest tenured member of the club, especially if he wants to stay. Leo Durocher kind of said “Nice guys finish last”, but that was when he was a Dodger. When he became a Giant he kinda probably said “I like nice guys. Nice guys make me smile, let’s keep ‘em around.” Perhaps this outlook explains the current, diverging trajectory of these clubs. Perhaps it’s the reason I wake up each morning and thank God I’m not a Dodgers fan.

Spelling out Y-a-s-t-r-z-e-m-s-k-i brings me a quiet joy, the same joy I get watching Yaz playing a carom off the brick facade in right. The oft-repeated and best description of Yaz’s play is “fundamentally sound”; or “does a lot of little things right.” Which is perhaps why he’s appreciated by teammates, coaches, and front office blokes, and why the quality is lost in translation when it comes to some members of the greater public. The style is all very New England-y. A firm resoluteness. Unerring and frill-less. The leadership, the work ethic Yaz exhibits is another reason for an another year as a Giant. I’m not sure you want Marco Luciano playing the outfield at all, but if he does, do you want Marco Luciano trying to figure out right field without Yaz’s tutelage? To handle such jutting angles requires a cool head, some nuance, some real on-hand experience. Luciano’s back-pocket positioning card will just have one note written in Yaz’s, I assume, straightforward sans-serif print: The wall is made out of bricks.

A corner outfield spot is a perfect place to platoon the veteran with a cuspy outfield player. Lord knows the Giants have plenty of those at their disposal. Facing lefties, put Luciano in the friendlier left and Ramos in right (he could use some guidance too); against right-handers, shift Ramos back to left. Or have Tyler Fitzgerald bounce from the infield to right against southpaws, allowing Casey Schmitt to get reps at second. There are plenty of ways to shake it all out, to play the hot hand, while maintaining some consistency. Keeping Yaz around unlocks a lot of that flexibility while still guaranteeing a level of productivity at the position. It also keeps an increasingly rare lefty bat in the mix and available off the bench.

Obviously all of this is moot if the Giants sign Juan Soto — but we all know that will not happen. Haha! Skepticism abounds of other corner OF pursuits (if they even exist) as well. Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander, or Jurickson Profar — eh, probably not. And what exactly will Yaz fetch as a trade piece? Nothing significant on his own. He’d have to be packaged with someone like LaMonte Wade Jr. and/or Camilo Doval and/or a pitching prospect to initiate any transactions. Organizing something with that many moving parts sounds like a real headache, and to do all that in this tentative trading climate? There’s bigger fish to fry for Posey in his first offseason. When you get down to it, Yaz on the trading block feels less of a baseball decision and more of a business decision, i.e. how do we get taxed less?

Yaz is a bright guy, and a realistic one. He knows he’s nearing the end. He isn’t looking for a full time gig. His skill set is as supporting cast, and it always has been. His breakthrough into the Majors has been one of the better stories in the past five years and it should have a clean ending. Keep him around til he reaches free agency in 2026.

Those dang feelings again. Surely there’s a teensy-bit of room for it when constructing a roster. Mapping out a team with little pockets of choice guided by emotion — to me this is at least part of the aesthetic element that Posey wants to restore to the game. The story. The arc. A selfless player with a team-centered approach. A player who matters to no one else but the hometown crowd.

For ol’ times sake: Y-a-s-t-r-z-e-m-s-k-i !