1987 Season. Part 2 – The Hot Stove Season.
With an excellent season ended by such a devastating loss, George Steinbrenner’s first inclination was to fire someone. His ire immediately hovered over manager and Yankee icon Yogi Berra. Clearly Yogi hadn’t gotten the team prepared to face the Mets. George didn’t care how many rings Yogi had from his playing days, the drive to win simply didn’t ooze out of every pore of his body like it did for someone like himself or George’s dark soul mate the hard fighting and drinking Billy Martin. When during one of his anti-Yogi rants GM Clyde King unwisely decided to point out the PR hit the team would take in the media should they fire Yogi, who was likely to win a second straight AL Manager of the Year award thanks to the team pulling out the division title on the last day in a do or die game against the likely Cy Young award winner, George immediately knew who was getting a promotion firing … Clyde King. On October 22nd the team announced that Clyde King was becoming a “Special Advisor” to the Boss and Woody Woodward was being promoted to General Manager. At George’s prodding, Woodward began making calls in search of a blockbuster trade to alter the chemistry of the clubhouse to that of hardnosed winners. The Brewers didn’t want to part with Paul Molitor. The Tigers wanted too much for Kirk Gibson. John Schuerholz of the Royals laughed at inquiries about Brett Saberhagen. Tommy Lasorda couldn’t live without Mike Scioscia behind the plate at Chavez Ravine. And despite an off year the Cardinals refused to talk about any of their starting pitchers. But everyone asked about the availability of Bo Jackson and Doug Drabek, the Yankees best playoff performers. When Woodward asked the Boss if he could move either one if the right deal came along, George chewed his new GM out for ten straight profanity laced minutes.
There were some excellent players available as Free Agents that fall: Jack Morris and Lance Parrish of the Tigers, Tim Raines and Andres Dawson of the Expos, Rich Gedman of the Red Sox, Brian Downing of the Angels, Ray Knight of the Mets. But Steinbrenner informed Woodward that this particular year the stars were not aligned for those kinds of signings. The word from Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s office was that the free agent freeze started in 1985 was still on. And as much as George kvetched to himself about it, he was not going to be the first owner to stab his brother owners in their collective collusional backs.
So GM Woodward shifted over to a small ball theory of Hot Stove Season operations. On December 19th he arranged for the unhappy in New York catcher Butch Wynegar to go to the much more relaxed southern California atmosphere in exchange for hard throwing A ball reliever Bryan Harvey. He resigned some of his own free agents: Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, and Tommy John. On January 5th he traded rookie pitcher Scott Nielsen to the White Sox in exchange for minor league infielder Randy Velarde and minor league pitcher Pete Filson. Backup second baseman and former Yank Juan Bonilla was signed as a free agent in early January after he was release from the Orioles. Pitcher Dave Schmidt, released by the White Sox, was the biggest off season Free Agent acquisition signing a 3 year contract for $1.8 million on January 20. The Dave Schmidt signing cleared the way for the team to release long time reliever Bob Shirley from the roster. Right before catchers and pitcher were to report to Florida, the Yankees welcomed back free agent and catcher Rick Cerone to the organization in a 3 year $1 million dollar deal. The lone loss of the off season came when Don Mattingly won his arbitration case against the Yankees and secured himself a $1,950,000 salary for the 1987 season. The last significant deal of the Hot Stove Season came on March 13 when 1984 second round pick pitcher Al Leiter got sent to the Rangers for relief pitcher Jeff Russell. Woodward was happy that with the newly signed relievers and the continued growth of last year’s rookie pitchers the pitching staff in 1987 should be better than the previous season’s.
Don Mattingly won the American League MVP for the second year in a row. Rickey Henderson came in 3rd, Dave Winfield 6th, and Bo a distant 20th. Dave Righetti came in 4th in Cy Young voting. And yes, Yogi Berra won his second straight American League Manager of the Year award. Yogi returned as opening day manager for the Yankees despite the Boss's peevishness.
With an excellent season ended by such a devastating loss, George Steinbrenner’s first inclination was to fire someone. His ire immediately hovered over manager and Yankee icon Yogi Berra. Clearly Yogi hadn’t gotten the team prepared to face the Mets. George didn’t care how many rings Yogi had from his playing days, the drive to win simply didn’t ooze out of every pore of his body like it did for someone like himself or George’s dark soul mate the hard fighting and drinking Billy Martin. When during one of his anti-Yogi rants GM Clyde King unwisely decided to point out the PR hit the team would take in the media should they fire Yogi, who was likely to win a second straight AL Manager of the Year award thanks to the team pulling out the division title on the last day in a do or die game against the likely Cy Young award winner, George immediately knew who was getting a promotion firing … Clyde King. On October 22nd the team announced that Clyde King was becoming a “Special Advisor” to the Boss and Woody Woodward was being promoted to General Manager. At George’s prodding, Woodward began making calls in search of a blockbuster trade to alter the chemistry of the clubhouse to that of hardnosed winners. The Brewers didn’t want to part with Paul Molitor. The Tigers wanted too much for Kirk Gibson. John Schuerholz of the Royals laughed at inquiries about Brett Saberhagen. Tommy Lasorda couldn’t live without Mike Scioscia behind the plate at Chavez Ravine. And despite an off year the Cardinals refused to talk about any of their starting pitchers. But everyone asked about the availability of Bo Jackson and Doug Drabek, the Yankees best playoff performers. When Woodward asked the Boss if he could move either one if the right deal came along, George chewed his new GM out for ten straight profanity laced minutes.
There were some excellent players available as Free Agents that fall: Jack Morris and Lance Parrish of the Tigers, Tim Raines and Andres Dawson of the Expos, Rich Gedman of the Red Sox, Brian Downing of the Angels, Ray Knight of the Mets. But Steinbrenner informed Woodward that this particular year the stars were not aligned for those kinds of signings. The word from Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s office was that the free agent freeze started in 1985 was still on. And as much as George kvetched to himself about it, he was not going to be the first owner to stab his brother owners in their collective collusional backs.
So GM Woodward shifted over to a small ball theory of Hot Stove Season operations. On December 19th he arranged for the unhappy in New York catcher Butch Wynegar to go to the much more relaxed southern California atmosphere in exchange for hard throwing A ball reliever Bryan Harvey. He resigned some of his own free agents: Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, and Tommy John. On January 5th he traded rookie pitcher Scott Nielsen to the White Sox in exchange for minor league infielder Randy Velarde and minor league pitcher Pete Filson. Backup second baseman and former Yank Juan Bonilla was signed as a free agent in early January after he was release from the Orioles. Pitcher Dave Schmidt, released by the White Sox, was the biggest off season Free Agent acquisition signing a 3 year contract for $1.8 million on January 20. The Dave Schmidt signing cleared the way for the team to release long time reliever Bob Shirley from the roster. Right before catchers and pitcher were to report to Florida, the Yankees welcomed back free agent and catcher Rick Cerone to the organization in a 3 year $1 million dollar deal. The lone loss of the off season came when Don Mattingly won his arbitration case against the Yankees and secured himself a $1,950,000 salary for the 1987 season. The last significant deal of the Hot Stove Season came on March 13 when 1984 second round pick pitcher Al Leiter got sent to the Rangers for relief pitcher Jeff Russell. Woodward was happy that with the newly signed relievers and the continued growth of last year’s rookie pitchers the pitching staff in 1987 should be better than the previous season’s.
Don Mattingly won the American League MVP for the second year in a row. Rickey Henderson came in 3rd, Dave Winfield 6th, and Bo a distant 20th. Dave Righetti came in 4th in Cy Young voting. And yes, Yogi Berra won his second straight American League Manager of the Year award. Yogi returned as opening day manager for the Yankees despite the Boss's peevishness.