The Yankees view Troy Tulowitzki as their starting s

NEW YORK (AP) — hortstop until Didi Gregorius returns from Tommy John surgery this summer.Still Mark Grace Jersey , general manager Brian Cashman won’t rule out trying to sign Manny Machado, one of the top free agents on the market.And, in his first question-and-answer session of the year, Cashman revealed he has dragged talks to trade Sonny Gray until the Yankees know CC Sabathia will be ready to pitch following surgery to implant a stent in an artery from his heart.Tulowitzki, a five-time All-Star absent from the major leagues since July 2017, finalized his one-year contract for the major league minimum $555,000 on Friday after passing a physical.“It doesn’t mean we’re going to get vintage Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockie years when he was there,” Cashman said, “but it’s exciting to dream on what he might be capable of when his health is there on a consistent basis because he was quite the player for quite a long time.”Tulowitzki missed last season because of bone spurs in his right and left heels. Gregorius had right elbow surgery on Oct. 17 and Cashman expects him back in June, July or August. New York will evaluate then what role Tulowitzki could play after Gregorius reclaims the position.Yankees scout JT Stotts attended a workout by Tulowitzki at Long Beach State, and scout Jay Darnell and director of pro scouting Dan Giese attended a second workout. They forwarded video to others in the front office.“Scouts that I highly respect were very pleased with what they saw and very excited by the workouts that he put himself through in front of them on multiple occasions,” Cashman said. “He really looked athletic. It looked like he had got that bounce back in his step.”Tulowitzki, who wore No. 2 previously in honor of retired Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, is expected to discuss his decision publicly early next week. He is owed $20 million for next year by the Blue Jays, $14 million for 2020 and a $4 million buyout of a 2021 team option. Toronto pays all but the big league minimum in the Yankees deal, which is offset against his 2019 salary.He joins an infield that has Gleyber Torres at second http://www.chicagocubsteamshop.com/authentic-david-ross-jersey , Miguel Andujar at third and Luke Voit at first — unless Greg Bird beats Voit out during spring training, Cashman said.Machado could replace Andujar at third if he signs with New York. Machado visited Yankee Stadium last month and had dinner with team officials.“I thought it was a real positive experience from our perspective,” Cashman said.New York’s other news was an update on the health of Sabathia, the 38-year-old left-hander who had a stent inserted on Dec. 11.“I think we are optimistic that the pending medical evaluations that he’ll have here in January are going to be fruitful and beneficial and positive, which would green light a full return to play as early as when he reports for spring training as you prepares for the season,” Cashman said. “If those follow-up appointments go well, I think we’ll know we’ll be in a much better position to give you an honest answer on opening-day expectations.”Sabathia is part of a projected rotation that includes Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton and J.A. Happ. Cashman said at the outset of the offseason he planned to trade Sonny Gray, who struggled and was booed by Yankees fans.“The CC thing, certainly when it developed it slowed down my conversations with intent because we have to see how this played out first,” Cashman said. “And so once he has these follow-up appointments, I’ll be in a much better position to either fully engage moving forward the Sonny Gray conversations that we’ve had or continue to slow walk it while we make sure that CC is taken care of healthwise first and foremost.”Notes: RHP A.J. Cole was designated for assignment to open a roster spot. … Cashman said RHP Luis Cessa is out of options but RHP Domingo German has one option remaining. Aging curves of some of the "older" position players"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Angels PregameAngels PostgameGamethreadsHalos Heaven PodcastsShohei OhtaniMinor LeaguesInterviewsAging Angels and the Curve of DoomNew,71commentsAging curves of some of the “older” position playersPSTShareTweetShareShareAging Angels and the Curve of DoomMark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY SportsWe’ve already looked at some other predictors for the upcoming 2019 season, so this time we are going to look at a different one. Aging curves. Before we dig too deep into this, the Angels are certainly getting younger. On the position players side Kyle Schwarber Jersey , guys like David Fletcher, Michael Hermosillo, Shohei Ohtani, and Taylor Ward are certainly helping to lower the curve - as our pitcher like Shohei Ohtani, Jaime Barria, and Keynan Middleton. In 2019, some more youngsters will likely be ready for their debut, including Matt Thaiss (24), Luis Rengifo (22), Jose Suarez (21), and Griffin Canning (23). We might even see a 20 year old Jo Adell make an appearance before the season is over.However, there are some position players who are on the wrong side of the aging curve and we’ll take a look at them here. Exactly WHAT is the wrong side of the aging curve is up for a little bit of debate, but here is an aging curve from a few years ago. If you follow the green line, you can see the drop off has been a bit more pronounced since the end of the steroid era - certainly not a coincidence.Another recent article points out that you don’t automatically become terrible at age 30.The chart from that last article shows that older players don’t always suck - BUT it also shows a higher percentage of WAR by position players in the 26-30 range (roughly around “peak”) AND also shows that age 30-33 players are taking in a similar share of WAR as those 19-25 year old youngsters in recent years.Let’s start this off with Andrelton Simmons who is NOT on the bad end of the curve and is also the youngest player in this article. If anything, it’s more of an example of a chart in which the player has not yet hit their peak, or started any sort of noticeable decline.Simmons has a nice looking chart indeed. The Angels picked him up just as he was entering his prime on the offensive side and there’s no reason to believe he can’t keep up a similar level of performance or even improve over the next year or two.I didn’t expect to see this in Justin Upton’s chart. He’s starting to enter the supposedly decline years and DID drop off slightly from 2017 to 2018 but he’s had dips just about evey other year. The question is - will his line continue to drop as he goes into his age 31 season or will he have another one of his chart spikes? Upton turns 32 in August Kerry Wood Jersey , so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see him drop off a bit this season.More bad news from Kole Calhoun. Re-tooling his swing may not be his only problem. Aside from a slight uptick in his age 28 season, he’s been dropping off since age 26. This “early aging” curve may be due much more to the increased in shifts, but if you saw my previous article on Calhoun, hitting against a shift isn’t necessarily his main problem. Either way, the trend the past few years has not been a good one and doesn’t bode well for a big season from Calhoun.One year of decline doesn’t really make a compelling case, but Bour will be 31 in May and had a rather large drop off over his last season. If his drop became a trend, we could see him fall below 100 wRC+ in 2019. Can he bounce back in 2019 at age 31? An interesting note is that Bour (small sample size) has hit really well in Oakland and Texas. Angels Stadium is one of 5 stadiums where he has never logged an at bat. Zach Cozart was perhaps never going to have another season like he did in 2017. AN injury shot down changes last year and now we’ll see what he can do in his age 33 season. If he comes back healthy, we may see him rebound back up around that 100 wRC+ mark but I wouldn’t expect it to go too high and somewhere int he 90s may be pretty realistic.Jonathan Lucroy had a fantastic season in 2016 when he played for the Brewers and Rangers but has been on a downward slope since. It’s not unrealistic that Lucroy, who turns 33 in June, will continue this slide.Not sure where to begin on this one and we’ve beat this dead horse a lot over the past few years. Pujols will be in his age 39 season with 3 years left on his contract and don’t even both looking at age 39 comps unless you want to be depressed.Pujols did have a slight rebound in 2018, but when you are rebounding from a 78 wRC+ in 2017, it’s not too hard to do that and still have your job. The question probably isn’t if Pujols can get back to 100 this year, but can he stay about 90 or even 80??Age is just a number, right? Well, not always - at least when you play professional sports.