Brian Cashman preferred Aroldis Chapman to MVP candidate Chris Sale, the difference between the Yankees and Red Sox.

Yanks lost two of three to the Red Sox last weekend in Yankee Stadium and now start a three game series in Fenway Park Boston, 4.5 games behind the first place Red Sox. Boston's best starting pitcher in 2017 is Chris Sale and Chris Sale is clearly the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Yet Yankee general manage Brian Cashman preferred to pay relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman $17 million in 2017 while the Red Sox are paying Chris Sale only $12 million. Sale leads the American Conference in wins, ERA, innings (168), SO (241), ERA+, FIP, WHIP, BB9, SO9, SO/W. Chapman has thrown 35 innings. Between the 2016 and 2017 seasons the Yankees signed Chapman as a free agent and the Red Sox traded for Sale.

Cuban Missile Crisis: Cashman giving Chapman $86 million. Monday, August 14, 2017

Aroldis Chapman:
Nicknames: Cuban Missile or The Missile
Born: February 28, 1988 (Age: 29 and 167 days) in Holguin, Cuba ...

December 15, 2016: Signed as a Free Agent with the New York Yankees...

Yeah, $17 million per year for each of five years for a guy who has thrown as many as 70 innings only once, in 2012.

Oh, in last night's game Boston started a guy who is likely to win the AL Cy Young award in 2017: Chris Sale.

Brian Cashman got Sonny Gray instead of Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Jose Quintana. Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Max Scherzer won the NL Cy Young award in 2016 and is likely to repeat in 2017. That's three Cy Young awards for starting pitchers Cashman could have gotten but didn't. Didn't even try.
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Cashman didn't try to trade for Chris Sale when the White Sox were shopping Sale, who went to the Yankees arch rival, the Boston Red Sox.

Chris Sale August 9, 2011 by Keith Allison, via Wikimedia Commons

Chris Sale
Position: Pitcher
Bats: Left • Throws: Left
6-6, 180lb
Team: Boston Red Sox (majors)
Born: March 30, 1989 (Age: 28 and 141 days) in Lakeland, FL

December 6, 2016: Traded by the Chicago White Sox to the Boston Red Sox for Luis Alexander Basabe (minors), Victor Diaz (minors), Michael Kopech (minors) and Yoan Moncada.

2017	28	Boston Red Sox	$12,000,000	6.061
2018	29	Boston Red Sox	*$12,500,000		$12.5M Team Option, $1M Buyout
2019	30	Boston Red Sox	*$13,500,000		$13.5M Team Option, $1M Buyout
		Earliest Free Agent: 2018

Sale is a lefty starting pitcher and younger than reliever Chapman. And now there's this:

Chris Sale for MVP

by Dave Cameron - August 14, 2017 fangraphs.com

... if the voting were held today, there would be a pretty clear choice for the American League’s Most Valuable Player, and it would be Chris Sale...

Sale’s 37% strikeout rate is the third-best any starter has ever posted in a season with at least 160 innings pitched, behind only 1999 Pedro Martinez and 2001 Randy Johnson...

... right now, Chris Sale is winning, and winning rather handily. Forget the notion that pitchers have their own award. Sale is a player, and the award is for the Most Valuable Player. To this point, in the American League, that’s been Chris Sale.
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OK, pitchers obviously are not players as has been pointed out here multiple times. They play part time and are judged on only one of the five traditional skills:
- hit
- hit with power
- run
- field
- throw.

But you get the idea. Chris Sale is having a monster pitching season. How Brian Cashman is not taken to task for ignoring yet another top starting pitcher is a mystery.