The Yankees resign Andruw Jones

The Yankees and Jones came to terms today on another 1 year deal, with essentially the same deal as last year with a slight increase in the incentives in his deal. Last year Jones agreed to a $2 million deal with $1.2 million in incentives, his new deal is the same with $1.4 in incentives. It probably holds true that Jones wanted to return to the Yankees because I seriously doubt that he did not get a bigger offer from another team and the possibility of more playing time. Jones will assume his role from last year and be the big right handed bench bat and backup outfielder. We had heard that the Sox and Rox were pursing Jones, but in the end the Yankees brought back Jones. It seems that Cashman must have checked my earlier post on how the Yankees needed to resign Jones. The Yankees 40 man is full so they will probably DFA Kevin Whelan or Trade Justin Maxwell/Chris Dickerson to clear a roster spot. Another spot will likely have to be opened when the Yankees either sign Nakajima or resign Eric Chavez and I think the Yankees will end up trading Dickerson.

Why we need Andruw Jones back

Anduw Jones

 In 2010 the Yankees had Marcus Thames as their primary lefty smasher, but his biggest fault was that he could not field the ball and he ended up playing DH more than OF. The Yankees parted with Thames and brought in former superstar Andruw Jones who we hoped could do close to what Thames did. Jones ended up exceeding Thames both with his hitting and ability to field the ball. In fact Jones actually did too well and now could try and sign with a team that would give him more than 190 AB, the fewest since he came up with the braves in August of 1996. The Yankees and Jones had expressed mutual interest in a deal, but talks have reportedly not progressed recently and Boston may look to Jones. The problem is that Jones fits with Boston even better than with the Yankees, as they look like they will have either Reddick or Kalish in Right Field and both of them are lefties, with Bostons primary lefty smasher being Darnell McDonald who Jones far outclasses.
So you see the need to keep Jones isnt so much that the Yankees can not possibily replace him its that we cannot let a commodity like Jones slip away. What I expect the problem is, is that Jones knows he will not get the number of at bats he wants so he wants more money that the $2 million he got last year. To be perfectly honest I would rather see the Yankees give Jones $3 million or two years $5 million than let him go to Boston. We have already provided the Sox with Alfredo Aceves and  former prospect Mark Melancon is their closer as of right now; I just don't want to see us fill out Bostons roster anymore than we already have.

The Case for doing nothing

The Yankees have been linked to numerous free agents and trade candidates this winter but all they have done so far is resign Freddy Garcia. There are still some free agents out there and the Yankees could still trade for a starter, but the Yankees could very well end up doing what they unintentionally did last year which was stand pat. The Yankees already have five starters in CC, Hughes, Nova, Burnett and Garcia  and they also have plenty of depth at AAA with Warren, Phelps, Noesi and Mitchell all ready and Banuelos and Betances right behind them. CC is CC and will continue to be the ace of the staff while Hughes will look to bounce back from a poor 2011 and pitch like he did in 2010. Burnett for all his faults did eat inning last season and if he can bounce back to a sub 5 era then it would be very appreciated. Garcia will look to make his smoke and mirrors style of pitching work for another year and Nova will try and keep doing what he had been doing last season. The Yankees won 97 games with that rotation and Bartolo Colon so its not that strange of an idea. Also if one of the starters falters then Noesi is ready to move into the rotation, as the Yankees have been saying that he will be the next guy up to the Bronx and they aren't going to waste him as the long man this year.
The Yankees can still make a move for a starter but they have some young starters with high upsides and I think that's why they aren't that interested in  spending a lot of money or trading for a starter. They also could be hoping to pursue some of the 2012 free agents like Greinke, Hamals or Sanchez. The Yankees do want to get their payroll down and building their own starters is the best way to do that.

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

Pujols and Wilson are taking their talents to Anaheim!

Doesn't flow as well as it would have if they were taking their talents to south beach, but still its pretty impressive. The angels spent $300+ Million by signing Pujols to a ten year $252 million deal and signing Wilson to a 5 year $75 million deal. The Wilson signing doesn't change that much for the Yankees but Pujols signing with the Angels sure does as now we have to face him multiple times a year instead of just one series every few years. I was really surprised to hear about the Pujols signing and I think we are probably going to hear a story soon about how Pujols felt disrespected by the Cardinals and he probably did because they never seriously upped their offer from the original 9 years $210 million they offered him to start the season. The Angels showed King Albert the money and now he has a new kingdom in California. Wilson signing didn't surprise me, but I did think that their claim they could sign Pujols and Wilson was a bluff which it obviously wasn't. Wilson did surprise me in that I think he took a lot less money to go to the Angels because I thought he would at least get 5 year $82 million like Lackey and Burnett did, but it is possible that after Miami signed Buehrle the bigger offers dried up. Now the Angels get to trade Trumbo and trade/non tender Morlaes which will bring in some prospects.With these signing the Angels are going to be the clear favorites for the AL west and probably the World series but we all saw how that worked out last year.

The Case of Matt Garza

Perhaps he will be wearing Yankee Pinstripes

MLB Trade rumors is reporting that the Cubs are willing to deal Matt Garza, which is something that has drawn the interest of many Yankees fans as well as many other fans which is why MLB Daily dish compiled a list of possible trade packages. Garza played for the Rays from 08-10 after coming over from the Twins in the Delmon Young Trade and he threw the first Rays no hitter in team history against the Tigers in July 2010. Garza also won the 2008 ALCS MVP, but with all that Garza had a 3.83 ERA with the Rays and didn't really break out until he went over to the Cubs. If you want a clear example of how competitive the AL East is look at Garza, the number of Home Runs he gave up in Chicago is half that of what he gave up in 2010 despite the Trop being much more pitcher friendly. Looking further Garza's stats you see that his WHIP was about the same as it had been in his career and many analysts predict that his ERA will regress going into next season. The other problem with a Garza trade is that if he sort of available as Epstein and Hoyer have implied then he will probably take a lot to get him from the Cubs and price would not be worth it. Another factor is that free agent Hiroki Kuroda, whom I profiled back in June , has now stated that he is willing to pitch on the East Coast and with the exception of his HR rate his stats are all better than Garza's so overpaying for Garza becomes an unnecessary move. The factor for Garza much like Danks is that its all about overpaying, if all they wanted for Garza was the package that MLB Daily dish suggested of C Gary Sanchez, RHP David Phelps, 2B Angelo Gumbs then I would do it but I doubt they will trade him for a package without some better pieces like Noesi or a Killer B.