No longer so lucky to be a Yankee

Jake Sanford was probably not going to be another Aaron Judge. Judge is the Yankees' power guy, and his swings are worth $10M this season. With his free agency looming, Judge is probably looking at a multi-year contract (probably not with the Yankees) of roughly $300M.

Jake Sanford is an outfielder, too, but the Yankees didn't have him on track as a Judge replacement. Still, he was their third-round draft pick in 2019, and might have made it to the bigs, where the minimum salary is somewhere around $600K, and the average is $4.4M (a number, inflated, of course by those with the eye-popping free agency contracts). That $600K is also just about the amount of Sanford's signing bonus. Not bad for a guy who, if he couldn't play ball, would probably be working at whatever the 21st century equivalent of pumping gas. Not that there's anything wrong with the 21st century equivalent of pumping gas. It's just that it doesn't pay anywhere near $600K a year, or get you the girl, the comped meals, the butt-kissing and the glory. And it ain't going to get you on the Topps bubblegum card, either. 

Well, old Jakey is no longer with the Yankees organization. He's with an independent (unaffiliated with the majors) league team from Ottawa, Ontario. The Titans.

Remember the Titans? Me neither.

But he's with them now, and I hope he saved some of his bonus money, because he'll be making a lot less than that. The salary cap for the Frontier League a couple of years ago was less than $100K. The average player was paid about $1,600 a month. And all the bus rides they'd ever want.

Anyway, what bounced Sanford out of the Yankees' pipeline and into oblivion was not his lackluster play. 

Nope. He:

...was cut by the team last week over allegations that he repeatedly "hounded" teammates for equipment such as bats and gloves to sell online, and occasionally going as far as grabbing it from their lockers, according to NJ.com's Brendan Kuty. (Source: Yahoo)

And it wasn't enough that he was ripping off his teammates, which would be shabby enough. He was reportedly screwing fans, too.

While allegedly selling the equipment he procured legally or illegally, fans have accused him of taking money in advance and never delivering the equipment.

I have no idea what the market for minor league game-used merch is, but anything Sanford stole was nowhere near as valuable as, say, an Aaron Judge homerun bat would be - if Sanford had made it to the bigs and gotten his mitts on one. (Hey, Aaron, look over there!) 

Still, I'm sure some folks collect minor league gear in the hopes that a prospect will make it to the major leagues. And make it really BIG once he gets there. At which point his cap/shirt/ball/glove/jock will be worth something. 

Why do it? Why jeopardize your career and your reputation, and piss off your teammates, for a little walking around money?

Who knows if Sanford has a gambling problem, or just a bit of larceny that made it out of his heart and into real life. But the major leagues will likely put the kibosh on his becoming a big leaguer. 

Of course, chances are that if Jake Sanford had super-star potential the Yankees would have hung on to him. Gotten help for his gambling condition and/or larcenous heart. 

But I'm guessing this guy is going nowhere. Other than wherever the Ottawa Titans bus takes him. Places like Little Falls, NJ, to play the New Jersey Jackals. To Florence, KY, to play the Y'Alls. Or Joliet, IL, to play the Slammers. (Hard not to love the names of minor league teams...)

Lou Gehrig thought he was the "luckiest man in the world" to have played for the Yankees. And he said that when he was dying of ALS.

Joe DiMaggio's biography was titled Lucky to Be a Yankee.

Jake Sanford's probably just lucky that he's not in the slammer, y'all.

What a jackal!