The Yankees have finally put an end to one of the most prolonged battles of a player with a desire to wear the pinstripes. Chance Adams – You are a free man.
The Yankees are not to be faulted for their on-again-off-again love affair with Chance Adams. Brian Cashman did what he was hired to do, which is to keep players of value for as long as he can when it serves the best interests of the team.
But today, when the Yankees DFA’d (designated for assignment) Adams, a breath of fresh air was released, purifying the saga of Adams’ “career” with the Yankees.
DFA’d doesn’t mean a complete cut of ties between the Yankees and Adams, but if he doesn’t refuse the suspected assignment to the minor leagues, then maybe we’re looking at another problem here – and it has nothing to do with the Yankees.
Yankees and Chance Adams – A long history
On June 9, 2015, Adams was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 5th round of the 2015 amateur draft.
Over the next two seasons, Adams jettisoned his way through the Yankees system, winding up at their Triple-A level team in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
At one point, Adams, as a starting pitcher, had a record of 28-6 on his minor league resume, and that included an 11-5 showing at the Yankees highest minor league level.
In a high school yearbook, Adams would always claim the title of Most Likely To Succeed. But it never happened with the New York Yankees.
Chance Adams was always a victim of circumstance, and it only fits he was cut to make room on the 40-man roster for the best pitcher in baseball today – Gerrit Cole.
The Yankees didn’t rape Chance Adams
Let’s be clear – the Yankees did not rape Chance Adams. His salary last year was the major league minimum, which totals $556,725 – more than what it takes the average American worker to earn in ten years.
And there’s something else. No one has ever claimed Chance Adams had “put-away” major league stuff. His fastball dangled in the 92-93 mph range. But based on his won-loss record, he did possess an ability to get a hitter out.
The Yankees will not miss Adams in the 2020 season or beyond. They have a wealth of pitching talent (if they don’t trade them away) on the way.
If not this year, then certainly soon we’ll hear more from the likes of Deivi Garcia, Luis Gil, Michael King, and Clarke Schmidt – all of whom have risen to the plateau once occupied by Adams.
At the age of only 25, Chance Adams would seem to be a prime candidate as a soon to be free-agent for a team to take a flyer on.
Wherever he goes, Adams will be under team control until 2026, with arbitration not scheduled until 2023. What’s not to like?
Chance Adams – Meet Mason Williams
All teams find themselves in these situations where a player is good enough to be kept until he is not.
And when the numbers crunch doesn’t quite match up, the trimmings are made. That’s life as a professional ballplayer.
Mason Williams is another example of a Yankee’s high draft choice in 2010 who existed on the outskirts of the team’s plans, despite showing the promise the team expected.
In 2017, after six seasons in the Yankees farm system, Williams was granted free agency. Today, after a two-year stint with the Cincinnati Reds, he will now be trying to hang on with the Baltimore Orioles at the tender age of 27.
The squeeze is always on
A player never knows what his fate will be when he signs on with a team in the June draft. Gerrit Cole snubbed the Yankees when they drafted him and look where here is now.
But for every Gerrit Cole, there are far more like Chance Adams and Mason Williams, players who labor in wait for a chance that never comes.
Chance Adams has a chance to resurrect his career. He may or may not have major league stuff to maintain what he needs to do.
But at least now, the choice is his and his alone as to what he wants to do with the next decade of his life…
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
