David Adams Release Reaction

(Photo courtesy of Jordan Megenhardt/MLB.com)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

The Irrational Fan's Take:

'"What are the Yankees doing??  Why would they get rid of Adams?  He's only 25 years old and he's coming off the best year of his career.  He hit .306/.385/.450 and he can play second base and third base.  The Yankees are going to need infield depth this season and possibly next depending on what happens with A-Rod and Cano and they just gave away one of their top young players at those positions to clear a roster spot for Vernon Wells!  That guy Brad V. from IIATMS/TYA ranked Adams 14th in his Top 30 Prospects this year, so he's gotta be good.

Not to mention the fact that Adams and Corban Joseph could have made a nice lefty/righty platoon DH on the bench if Hafner got hurt this season and then transitioned to second in 2014 if Cano doesn't get re-signed.  I don't get it.  How can they start playing Adams at third base last season and then just dump him for a player they didn't even need?  This is why the Yankees never develop any good young position players.  They never give them a real shot.  They've got a bunch of kids in the Minors who can play and now they're getting rid of them to get older.  Horrible move.  Cashman should be fired right now."

The Rational Fan's Take:


"Adams could have developed into a nice bench player for the Yankees within the next year, but realistically what did they give up by losing him?  He turns 26 in less than two months, so he's already old for a prospect, he's never had a single at-bat above Double-A, and that career best year he put up in 2012 was in his second trip back to Double-A.  Yeah he can play two infield positions, but I've never read any scouting reports that say he can play either of them that well and I really don't think the Yankees are going to let Cano walk and hand the position over to a still somewhat unproven guy like Adams and a limited ceiling guy like CoJo.

Not to mention the fact that Adams has had some serious injury problems in his career.  That ankle injury from a few years ago really hurt his development and probably sapped some of his physical skills, and he's been battling a back injury all spring.  We don't even know how he's going to hold up physically over a full 162-game season.  Plus, I read some tweets from Josh Norris that made it sound like this was the right move for the Yankees to make if they wanted to keep Adams.  They're not the type to just dump productive young players like that.  They felt they had to address a need now, a need that Adams couldn't fulfill, and their 40-man roster situation put them in a tight spot.  We may not like the move to add Wells, but we've got to give Cash the benefit of the doubt when it comes to managing the roster and see what happens in the next day or so."

I'll give you two guesses on which take was mine when I first heard the news and which one was mine after I read the Norris updates.

P.S.- I wasn't implying that my prospect rankings were irrational.  Personally I think they're pretty damn good.  Tamar's are probably still better, though.