The Yankees made it all the way to the World Series last year, so obviously they were doing something right, but a consistent theme throughout their season and over the last few years in general has been potential culture issues in the clubhouse, with guys like Marcus Strowman, Glaber Torres, Alex Rugo and a couple others clashing a bit with what has been considered to be in years past.

The quote Unquote Yankee Way coupled this with the fact that there was some real mental laziness issues that came about at multiple points last season, and you have a situation that seems to routinely Drive Yankees fans up a wall, but unfortunately for them it doesn’t seem like, as we approach 2025 spring training, that anything’s going to be all that different.

This year, as already before, everyone’s even reported officially to camp, we have some internal controversy now.

I know a lot of people are probably expecting me to jump on Marcus strowman for his comments about how he is a starter and that he won’t even consider going to the bullpen, but I don’t think that’s the angle I want to approach this from.

Is it not reasonable for a guy who’s about to turn 34 in the second year of a $37 million deal to not want to pitch in the bullpen, heading into another offseason where he’ll be a free agent.

This could absolutely kill the perception of his value and future earnings potential, which, of course, should be high priority to him, especially if he doesn’t want to or think the Yankees are going to resign him.

And it wasn’t like he was terrible last year either.

He was about an average Major League pitcher, and it gets even more complicated when you consider the fact that the Yankees performed the worst defensively behind him of any individual starter, making the ground Ballers life harder than it probably should have been.

So who do I think this cultural issue then Falls with, if not him?

To me, it’s on Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone, who obviously didn’t communicate to strowman their potential role form over the off season, that they were even considering using him in the bullpen or having him be part of a six-man man rotation.

Coming to an understanding on this with all players that it’s going to affect is just something that has to be done before February.

If they had communicated and he had decided to outright refuse, then they could have at least explored a trade right.

I mean he’s been a consumate three to four starter over the last 3 years, and for 18 million you could certainly do worse, especially if you’re on a team with good Infield defense.

This is like with Nest Cortez last season, when he was basically moved the bullpen against his will for just enough time to irritate him, before coming back as a starter, dealing with an injury and then being thrown into one of the biggest spots you possibly can be in game one of the World Series, giving up one of the more iconic home runs in Mlb history in a situation that just felt unfair to the Lefty.

If New York ever wants to be a complete team from opening day to the last game of the World Series, they’re going to need to get these cultural Rifts figured out and, like I just said, I think this has to start from the top down.

If strowman isn’t the kind of personality you want on your team, don’t sign him.

Simply put, if management isn’t unified on the kind of culture they want to cultivate, things will keep being strained in the Yankees Clubhouse, which will then keep causing some of the issues that show up on the field.

Now I want to know what you guys think.

Do you blame strowman for his actions or do you think he’s being reasonable based on the contract he signed and his impending free agency?

Let me know in the comments below now.

Thank you so much for watching.

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