Well, Brian Cashman will join us coming up at 220. He met the media earlier, if you missed, he could rewind it on the Odyssey app during the midday program.

And I listen to everything Aaron said. I listen to everything Brian Cashman said. And there's certainly a lot of things you can take away from it.

But I will give you the number one thing that changed my opinion. And that is, I sat here yesterday and over the last few days when discussing the Yankee

off season, one of the things I thought was, wow, you have a surplus of starting pitching.

You could deal from a strength.

Well, it would have been easy two days ago to say, but Evan, pitchers get hurt.

Why would you deal from a strength?

Well, they're already hurt. Because Carlos Rodan, in news none of us saw coming, needed surgery to clean up some loose bodies in his elbow, and it was confirmed by both Cashman and Boone, he will not be ready for opening day. It doesn't mean he's missing the season. It doesn't mean he's missing the first half, but he's going to miss the first few weeks of the season. And because it's surgery, you don't actually know if it's just the first few weeks of the season. Combine that with the fact that Garrett Cole is indeed coming off Tommy John's surgery. We already had an idea he wasn't going to be ready for the start of the year. But he's not going to be ready for the start of the year. So I think what this reinforces to me, Sean, is that you need to wrap your arms around the starting pitching that you have and not deal from a strength, but actually keep as much of it as you can because you may need every morsel of it. Yeah, I agree with you on that front. I think if the Yankees are going to make upgrades to this roster, it will not involve trading,

let's say a Luis Heel or a Will Warren or somebody like that because you are going to need them. Now, the caveat is I don't think that this changes my approach in the offseason in terms of what additions the Yankees make. You can never have enough starting pitching. Of that, I have no doubt. but I'm not going out of my way to find another starter he signed for three years, something like that.

They are still going to start opening day with four of their baseline starters there with Warren, with Heel, with Schlittler now, and with Max Fried, of course, injuries notwithstanding in February or March. Ultimately, I still think Yankee starting pitching is going to be a strength of the 2026 team, but it's going to be a little nerve-wracking out the gates at April. Yeah, I don't become super aggressive adding starting pitching by any stretch. I just think that now you have to wrap your arms around this and not say, you know, let's see what Luis Hill could get us on the open market. I floated the idea a few days ago about Carlos Rodon.

I'm not even sure what his value would be considering he's coming off of surgery. Oh, nothing, by the way. Probably. I wouldn't say nothing, but it's not as... You're going to take on the last three years of that contract and a guy coming off loose bodies? It's not as high as it was 72 hours ago. That's what I would tell you.

So I think that you look at next year and you say to yourself, wow, okay, coming out of the gate,

and this is just assuming everyone gets out of spring training healthy, which is a guarantee that that's not going to be the case. Whether it's the Yankees, the Mets, or any other team in baseball, you've got seven starters that you're penciling in going into spring training. One or two guys getting hurt. So even the four guys that you mentioned, there's no guarantee you're getting out of spring training healthy.

So the Yankees are going into next year a little bit behind the eight ball. And Aaron Boone said something that is so true. And I actually been thinking about it the last few days. I'm glad he brought it up. I know we've had our arguments about just get in. The regular season doesn't really matter. Get hot at the right time.

Look, I stand by all those comments, but the New York Mets and the New York Yankees had one game

changed their future. The Mets clearly missed the playoffs by one game. The Yankees missed

home field advantage throughout the postseason by one game. And Aaron Boone even admitted

when talking earlier today, yeah, when I think back to this season, could I have been more

aggressive with my bullpen? Could I have been more creative? Because he knows what I know what you know.

Yes, games in May feel like no big deal. But if one game went differently for the New York

Yankees, they're not playing the Red Sox in a best of three. They're hosting a best of five against the Toronto Blue Jays. Does that mean everything goes differently? Maybe. I mean, it's possible. We know the difference it would have made on the Mets. That's different. So it reminds me that we can sit here and say, Two weeks to begin the year, no biggie. A month to begin the year, no biggie.

But the reality is... That's different. So it reminds me that we can sit here and say, ah, two weeks to begin the year, no biggie, a month to begin the year, no biggie.

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