Millwoood, Pitching, Outfield depth and more!

After a winter and spring full of courting the Yankees finally signed Kevin Millwood to a minor league contract. Millwood had been holding out for a major league contract but it became very obvious that nobody other than the Yankees was interested in his services. Millwood's deal is incentive laced and he could earn up to $5 million with base pay and incentives. He will have a base pay of  $1.5 million get half a million for every 5 starts and $1 million for 30 starts.  Unfortunately for Millwood he has been throwing 85 mph potato's and he hasn't thrown any real innings all spring; he also had a 4-16 record last year with a 5.10 ERA in 190.2 innings. Millwood deal is no risk for the Yankees and while some think he's going to battle for a rotation spot he will start the year in AAA, with an opt out date of May 1st. Millwood is a depth signing and he is only a year removed from a good year in 2009 when he went 13-10 with an ERA of 3.97 in 198.2 Innings for Texas. Millwood's stats are strange to see, in his last 4 seasons he had an ERA over 5 except in 2009. Brian Cashman made a smart move, he knows that Millwood is an experienced starting pitcher and this signing is a no risk with possible reward signing. I think that it's very unlikely that Millwood will ever be a true part of the rotation this year, but if Nova, Garcia or Colon falter early then he could be a useful depth pitcher to have until a better alternative can be found and that is what he was signed for.

The other notable transaction that occurred today was the trade of Sergio Mitre "The Experience" to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Chris Dickerson. Chris Dickerson is a depth outfielder who will likely take Granderson's spot if he is not ready for opening day, but he will likely spend most of the year in Scranton. Dickerson is a depth player, but he is a good return for a player was likely going to be released if he wasn't traded. The Brewers got a needed long man and spot starter who had his best ERA (3.33) last season and he will be in a much lighter hitting division that the AL East and could repeat his performance from last year if the Brewers are lucky. Chris Dickerson is now the most experienced depth outfielder for the Yankees to call up, he's a lefty batter and he hits better than our other lefty depth outfielder Colin Curtis.  that it's likely that one of the Yankee's depth outfielders will be traded/released or demoted to AA in the future as the Yankees will want to try and move their outfield prospects up the farm system and get people like Brandon Laird playing time in the Scranton outfield and that will be hard to do with 5 outfielders of AAA starting quality. Jordan Parraz, whom I wrote about in a previous article, is the likeliest candidate to be released and I would expect that he would be released before or when Colin Curtis has recovered from his shoulder injury. Best of luck to you Sergio, I was probably the only Yankee fan who actually liked you.

Good luck as a Brewer (Antonelli/News)

With the trade of Sergio Mitre the 4th, 5th and long relief spots are decided to be Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and Ivan "Super" Nova. The only person whose role is more than likely set is Ivan Nova who will likely be the Yankees fourth Starter after having a great spring and a decent September, lets hope he can carry that over into the season. The last two spots will go to Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, coming into the spring it seemed likely that Garcia would get the 5th starter job and Colon would be released, however Colon decided to pitch very well this spring and seemingly earn himself a rotation spot over Garcia. However Colon hasn't pitched a single inning anywhere since 2009 and nobody seems to believe that he will be able to last the whole year, he is a former CY young award winner who used to pitch 200 innings every year. Colon has been throwing 93 consistently this spring, but he used to throw 96-97 and has not lasted a full season since he won the CY  in 05. Colon could be used in two ways, he could be given a rotation spot and used until he burns himself out or he could be given a long relief role and he might last the whole year, but Colon has made 1 relief appearance in his career and we don't know how he will fare. Colon is pictured below:

Bartolo Colon

Freddy Garcia is another former top of the rotation pitcher who has never been the same since suffering a shoulder injury, but he went 12-6 last year with a 4.64 ERA in 157 innings and does historically have horrible spring trainings. Garcia will be with the team come opening day and the only real question is if he will start out the year as the 5th starter or the long relief man. There is really nothing Colon or Garcia can do to make their way into the rotation as the Yankees will decide their roles based on how they feel about their other assets in the minors. If the Yankees want to make Colon and Garcia last the whole year then the best scenario would be having Garcia as the 5th starter and put Colon in the long relief role where he can stretch out his innings over the year and hopefully make it through the season free of serious injury. But if they simply want to get as much use out of Colon then Garcia will likely start the season as the long man before he moves into the rotation when Colon eventually falters or if anyone else is ineffective or injured. This may be interesting for the Yankees as they can replace the long man in the bullpen much easier than a new starting pitcher, the Yankees can use any number of their AAA pitchers to replace a long man including Hector Noesi, D.J Mitchell or any number of other players.

You can listen to some much better blogger than me talk about  the Yankees pitching and outfield depth on the RAB radio show:

Mark Prior is also still around and he provides the Yankees with some very good bullpen depth if he can prove himself in AAA. The only note with Prior is that if he really starts doing well in AAA then the Yankees will likely deal him before he has the opportunity to opt out. I'd really like to see Prior get called up but ideally he will never pitch an inning in pinstripes as that would mean that the Yankees bullpen stayed healthy and didn't need him. Prior has looked good this spring and if he can keep it up he will be pitching in the majors this year, but hopefully not with the Yankees.

Another depth not is that the Yankees may be going with Gustavo Molina (no relation to the Molina brothers) as their opening day backup catcher until Francisco Cervelli returns from injury. Doesn't look like Montero will be on the opening day roster but I still fully expect that we will see him at some point this year. Molina is not notable for anything and takes light hitting to the extreme, which makes me think that the Yankees could be knocking on Chad Moeller's because despite his full knolledge that light hitting catchers are great defensively Molina has decided to have never thrown out a base runner in the majors before.