Nakajima and Eric Chavez

Well the Yankees have announced that they failed to make a deal with Hiroyuki Nakajima and so he will go back to Japan for a year before being free to sign with a team next season as a free agent. The Yankees never expected to win the bidding on Nakajima and while they had a need on the bench they could not agree on the money. The Problem was likely that Nakajima wanted more money than he was making in Japan, but the Yankees wanted to pay him like he was a utility infielder. Some had suggested a sign and trade but obviously that did not work out. Nakajima could be released by his club to pursue a deal with another team but more likely he will just wait till next year. I was looking forward to Nakajima just because he would be something different, but it did not work out. With Nakajima going back to Japan the Yankees will likely look to resign Eric Chavez who they hope will be able to do what he did last year for them again this year, now that he is not retiring. The Yankees could also bring in a few guys to compete for the job in spring training much like they did last year. Chavez probably would have already signed a deal if the Yankees had not won the rights to Nakajima and I expect that the Yankees will sign him quickly. If Chavez does come back then this team will look almost exactly like it did at the start of last year with the only missing pieces being Joba and Bartolo.

Rule 5,Greg Golson, Hiroyuki Nakajima and Yu Darvish.

The rule five draft was today and it was unclear if the Yankees would make a pick, but they did by taking Brad Myers from the Washington Nationals. On top of that the Royals traded their pick of Cesar Cabrel to the Yankees for cash. Myers is an interesting choice as the Yankees are gonna try him as the long man and he really hates walks, he only waked 15 guys in 138 innings last year and still had a 7.5 k/9 rate. Cabrel is another pick scouts like and the Yankees will try to keep him around as another lefty out of the pen, but I doubt he will stick around for the full year either way. Cabrel has good stuff but it will be tough for him to stick with the club past spring training and even if he does he would probably have to go back as soon as soon as Joba finished rehabbing. Myers definitely has the best shot of sticking around and he could prove to be a reliable long man who wont be blocked from potential upside in that role like Noesi was. Baseball America says that Myers is a command/bullpen type with 87-91 fastball & three fringy secondary pitches, while Cabrel is a RP type with low-90s fastball, changeup better than breaking ball.
In order to make room for the two Rule 5 draft picks the Yankees released Greg Golson who was also out of minor league options and was likely out anyway. Golson was taken 21st overall by the phillies in 2004 but he hasn't been able to put it all together despite having some great tools and his only measure of success came last year in 23 PA for the Yankees in which he hit .261 with 2 RBI's. Golson did have one very memorable Yankees moment where he gunned down Carl Crawford trying to advance to third to end the game in the 10th. You can see the video below, it was an absolute laser shot and I don't think anybody expected it, especially not Crawford or A-Rod.

The Yankees only real noise as of late is that they won the posting for Hiroyuki Nakajima which seems to have surprised them as most people expected the posting fee to be around $5 million and the Yankees won with a bid of about half that. Nakajima doesn't make a ton of sense for the Yankees as he is essentially Eduardo Nunez and they will likely try and trade Nakajima's rights as they don't think of him as anything but a utility infielder and he may want to start. It will get figured out but there is a god chance that he goes back to Japan.
Yu Darvish also officially announced that he will be posted today and the Yankees do plan on making a bid and unlike Hiroyuki Nakajima I think they hope to win and would actually plan on signing him. The posting fee would not count toward the Luxury tax and he could be very valuable to the Yankees but they do seem unsure about him. I'd like to see Darvish sign with the Yankees but I get the increasing feeling he will sign with Toronto, Texas or Washington. People are scarred of Japanese pitchers right now and that may hold them back, but many experts expect that Darvish will cost $100 million including the posting fee. We wont know anything for about a week and it will probably end up being somebody that nobody thought of just like with Pujols.

Possible Yankee