Over the weekend, the Boston Red Sox swept the New York Yankees for the second time during the 2021 season. In Sunday's 9-2 loss, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole surrendered six runs (five earned) on eight hits in just five innings of work against the Red Sox.
During Monday's installment of "Nothing Personal with David Samson," David Samson weighed in on the Yankees' questionable decision to trade one of their bullpen arms, Adam Ottavino, in an effort to gain payroll flexibility.
"The Yankees use a word that I've never heard the Yankees use before: 'payroll flexibility.' Payroll flexibility is what we would say to the media when we were asked why we traded all our players," Samson, the former Marlins president, said. "This is what I was thinking when Adam Ottavino absolutely shoved it and had a great series against the Yankees. This was something that wouldn't happen 25 years ago. If you're the Yankees, trading someone to the Red Sox was unheard of. When you're the Yankees, you can't use payroll flexibility as an excuse. If you think Adam Ottavino is going to be a good bullpen piece, you want him on your team."
During the offseason, the Yankees wanted to re-sign veteran outfielder Brett Gardner and ended up unloading the salary of Ottavino in order to do it. The franchise elected to trade Ottavino to the division rival Red Sox for cash considerations and Ottavino ended up pitching well in two games against his former team over the weekend.
Samson simply believes that a large-market team like the Yankees should always want a valuable bullpen piece like Ottavino on their roster and shouldn't be worried about payroll flexibility.
