The Yankees DH solutions

Are one of these men the Yankees DH?

I wrote earlier about Johnny Damon as a possibility at DH for the Yankees now that Montero has been traded and Jon Heyman stated that the two have been talking. Heyman also threw out the name of Posada, but said that the chances were probably was very remote. The Yankees have also said that they are about as high with their payroll as they will go so all of those hoping can forget about them signing Prince Fielder. In my view the Yankees have a few options that they will consider for the DH spot and the biggest factor will be in cost as I doubt that the Yankees will give any more than $5 million to a DH and it could be significantly lower than that.
The Yankees first choice is undoubtedly Carlos Pena who they claimed off waivers last August, but the Cubs pulled him back. Pena strikes out a lot and doesn't  hit for average, but he hits for a lot of power and gets on base at a very good rate. Pena is a good choice as he is a good fielder, but that's part of the problem in that he will want a multi year deal for a good salary and its a good bet that he will get a better offer. If the market for him falls apart then there is a chance but he is the top 1st baseman after Fielder.
After Pena the Yankees will look at Johnny Damon who the Yankees obviously know well. The problem with Johnny is that he is both declining and a complete idiot. Don't get me wrong I like Johnny Damon, but he is a total idiot. This is a guy who has been convinced the last three years that he was going to sign a large deal and has seemed shocked and offended when he did not sign a large contract. I do not think this will effect his play at all but he may not realize that he would need to drop his price to be signed by the Yankees and will instead insist on a salary that they will not pay him. I expect that Damon will sign with the Orioles who will pay him more than he is worth, just as they did with Vlad Guerrero. The chance of the Yankees bringing in Damon are better than them signing Carlos Pena, but I still do not view it as very likely.
Next there is the option of Vlad Guerrero who is likely on the same level as Johnny Damon as a declining player who will ask for money than he is worth. Guerrero held out for $8 million from the Orioles and generated a grand total of .1 WAR, but while Guerrero is certainly declining,  his talent is nothing to ignore.Guerrero could be a decent option, but he will ask for more money than he deserves and while somebody may give it to him it wont be the Yankees.
An option that is undervalued is bringing back Hideki Matsui. Matsui declined last season after a decent year for the Angels in 2010. His decline is real, but what makes him different than Pena, Guerrero or Damon is that Matsui could likely be had for a small deal perhaps as he already was only being paid $4.5 million by the A's and so would probably take something in the $2-$3 million range perhaps even lower. If Matsui stinks then they can DFA him and bring up someone like Jorge Vazquez and they have lost nothing. If he does well then he has one last year as a Yankee before retiring. This leads to another idea which is simply to make Jorge Vazquez, who has raked in ever level, the primary DH. Last year Vazquez hit .262 with 32 Home Runs, but he also struck out 166 times which is why people tend to believe that he is mostly a quadruple-A player. He could be a good fallback option but he is probably not a good guy to start the year as the DH. Going along with the cheap options the Yankees could also bring in several veterans to compete for the DH spot just like they did for the bench spot last year. This could included Jorge Vazquez and Hideki Matsui as well as some names like Marcus Thames, Russell Branyan, Carlos Guillen or even Manny Ramirez. They could also look at trading some of their rotation depth for a DH, with a suggestion of A.J Burnett for Carlos Lee being one that I have seen written about.
The Yankees could also go without a primary DH and instead use a rotation of players at DH, but most teams like to have somebody who will be the primary DH and I expect that the Yankees will have one to start the year.