ESPN | Jesse Rogers: One day after the MLB Players’ Association offered a soft cap and a substantial increase of the minimum salary, among other things, the owners came up with the first firm cap offer since the 1994 strike. Per the league’s offer, each organization would need to keep a minimum payroll of $171.2 million, with a maximum of $245.3 million. “Our salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 as we grow the game together,” league spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement.
MLB.com | Bill Ladson: Ladson caught up with Yankees legend Reggie Jackson. Mr. October discussed many subjects, including his excellent shape, cutting down on sugar, his love for the Steinbrenner family, the development of Aaron Judge, his favorite ballplayers around the league, his stance on the ABS challenge system, and many more. It’s definitely worth a read if you admire the always interesting Jackson.
NJ Advance Media | Randy Miller: Yankees backup catcher J.C. Escarra, who hits from the left side of the plate, is reportedly exploring the possibility of becoming a switch-hitter in the offseason. Per Miller, he is taking five swings righty every day in batting practice and is not opposed to the idea of eventually hitting from both sides. “I’m not committed yet, but it’s been on my mind some. We’ll see where it goes. All things are possible,” he said. Escarra is hitting .200/.250/.291 with a 51 wRC+ in 60 plate appearances this year.
NY Post | Ryan Giancola: It’s not a secret to anybody that followed the Yankees in the eighties that Dave Winfield and George Steinbrenner had a complicated relationship. The former outfielder, who spent nine seasons in the Bronx, criticized the “toxic work environment” in New York while talking on the All The Smoke Baseball podcast.
“Those nine-plus years that I was there, there wasn’t one day that I felt the organization was on my side trying to help me promote me, move me forward,” Winfield said on Wednesday. “You got to go to work every day, a toxic work environment.”
He added: “One of the best things that happened for my career is when I left New York.”
Steinbrenner infamously hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Winfield, and also leaked made-up stories about him to the press, among other things.
SNY | John Flanigan: Yankees ace Gerrit Cole has already returned from the injured list, making two starts so far. Both of them resulted in at least six scoreless innings, with the most recent one, on Wednesday, also including 10 strikeouts in 6.2 frames. His velocity and command both seem all the way back, and manager Aaron Boone had nothing but good things to say about the frontline starter. “If the first start was the appetizer, this was the main course,” he said. “He had everything going.” A healthy, locked-in Cole takes the Yanks’ rotation to a whole new level.
