Why the 2021 Lockout May Work to the Yankees Benefit @Lonsksk

At 12:03 a.m. EST on Thursday (December 2nd) the MLB owners officially locked out the players, thus shutting down all trades and free agent signings until further notice. There are many questions that fans all around MLB have, but I will be covering how this can actually work to the Yankees benefit. 

The Yankees only major move before the lockout was signing LHP Joely Rodriguez to a 1 year/$2 million dollar deal. Rodriguez was acquired by the Yankees in the Joey Gallo trade at the 2021 trade deadline. This has frustrated a lot of Yankee fans, but I am here to be a so-called “voice of reason”.

Below I will list a few major reasons why there’s no need to freak out (yet):

• It’s Only November 

• • Yes I know this lockout will probably last a month or two, but it’s still very early and there’s still a lot of time left before Spring Training 2022. 
  • Cashman has said multiple times that the Yankees have “latitude”, and I still believe that they’ll be very aggressive post lockout. 

• Most Realistic Yankee Targets Are Still Available

• • While a plethora of players have signed pre lockout, a majority of the Yankee targets are still available.
    • Carlos Correa, Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, Sean Manaea, Chris Bassit, etc.

• Yankee Interests Were Beginning To Be Leaked

• • A few hours before the lockout, leaks began to be revealed showing Yankee interest in multiple free agents. 
  • They were rumored to be very interested in Atlanta 1st baseman Freddie Freeman (as reported by @SimonettiSource and others).
  • They were also rumored to be in discussions with former Houston shortstop Carlos Correa, who myself and many others view as the favorite to become the future Yankee shortstop. 

While the lockout quite frankly sucks, the Yankees can use it as a golden opportunity to get all of their orders in place and put themselves in a perfect situation going into 2022. I understand the fan frustration with the lack of moves (so far), but I plead with you all to just give Cashman till the end of this off-season to come true to his word. I know patience and Yankee fans never tend to go together, but if Cashman were to make little (or no) moves at all, I think all fans would stand together and “fight back” against ownership. 

My advice to Yankee fans, stay calm and enjoy the stress free time away from baseball. Once MLB activities resume, we can all go back to stressing ourselves out again and overreacting to other teams’ moves together. Hopefully we can all go into the 2022 season happy as fans and excited to see our Yankees win their 28th World Series Championship.