Who would like a Yankee catcher?

Romine, Murphy and Cervelli

 The Yankees have a plethora of young catchers with five catchers on the 40-man roster and only one backup spot considering that Brian McCann just signed a five year deal. Obviously Gary Sanchez still needs time to develop and he will probably spend the entire season in Double-A Trenton, but Austin Romine and John Ryan Murphy are both behind Francisco Cervelli at this point and the Yankees probably do not want to have both of them there. The possibility comes up then couldn't the Yankees trade one of these catchers to try and shore up the left side of their infield and who exactly is out there?
One team that has been known to be looking for a catcher is the White Sox whose Tyler Flowers had a very poor year and while he says he is going to bounce back he has not done anything in his career so far to make there be anything he will bounce back to as he has never hit better than .213 in the majors. The White Sox would like a backup and probbaly want someone who can push Flowers and really any of Cervelli, Romine and Murphy are capable of being that player for Chicago. The problem is that there really is no player that they do not match up very well as the the only player I see that the Yankees would likely be intrested in as an upgrade or at least a young player with potential is probbaly Marcus Semien who can play all three left infield positions. However I have no idea if the White Sox would be interested in moving Semien and I would bet that they probably want him to take over for a veteran and don't really want to move him, but I could be wrong.
Another pairing that has been suggested is the Arizona Diamondbacks who are looking for a backup to Miguel Montero and even that they would be willing to give up a shortstop to get one. The two names that being thrown out there are Chris Owings and Didi Gregorius as the D-Backs have a good amount of depth in terms of Shortstop prospects however it is believed that they want a very good return or else they would have dealt one of the two already. That means its unlikely that they will want to trade Owings/Gregorius for just Romine or Murphy and so I do not know if the Yankees would be willing to do that at this stage. One of these guys would be perfect though as they could move around the infield this year and then be an option to play any infield spot the Yankees would need filled next season which is likely to be every spot on the left side of the infield.
The other name that is out there is the Milwaukee Brewers who would like to move Rickie Weeks and at some point this year they will probably also try and move Aramis Ramirez and the brewers would like a catcher as they only have two on their 40 man roster and while Jonathon Lucroy has been a solid starter for the Brewers they really have no depth behind him as Martin Maldonado had a very poor year after a good 2012. But Ramirez and Weeks are both players who are making a good amount of money this season and despite a very good 2012 Ramirez was just about replacement level last season and only played 92 game and he is being payed $16 million this season with a mutual option for $14 million that requires a $4 million buyout, while Weeks is owed $11 million this season and has been below replacement level the last two years but he was a 3 WAR player the two years before and Weeks is only 28, that so there is some chance of a bounce back. The Brewers want to move him as they have Scooter Gennett waiting to take over 2nd but on top of this years salary Weeks also has an option for next season although it seems unlikely that he will get the 600 PA that he would to pick up the $11.5 million option.
After these teams any trade ideas are just pure speculation but I would expect the Yankees to keep shopping these catches in hopes of acquiring an infielder and preferably one that can contribute this season as Murphy, Romine and Cervelli are all capable of doing.

Yankees sign Brett Gardner to an extension

Robert Sabo/New York Daily News

Brett Gardner signed a four year extension with the Yankees worth $52 million and now has a clear picture for their outfield over the next several seasons as Carlos Beltran is under contract until 2016, Jacoby Ellsbury until 2020 and now Brett Gardner until 2019 although Gardner and Ellsbury both have team options that could give them another year of control. This deal is a bit of a surprise as Gardner had been connected to a few trade rumors this off season and most people expected that the Yankees would let him walk after this season, but instead they signed a very agreeable deal for both parties. The part that is odd is that the Yankees had just signed Jacoby Ellsbury to a big deal and the two players now seem a bit redundant, don't get me wrong having two elite defenders in the outfield is never a bad thing and neither is two great speed threats or two great on-base guys, but Gardner can play a good center field and now that they signed Gardner to this deal why did they sign Ellsbury to that big deal? The only thing that makes sense to me is that the Yankees must think that Ellsbury's power from 2011 was the real deal and they plan on having him hit 20-25 Homerus a season for the next few years, that's just a theory though.
Andy Martino of the New York daily news mentions in his article about the deal one of the better parts of the deal which is that Gardner is still a trade asset if the Yankees decide to move him in a year or two, his $12.5 million a season is reasonable and would definitely be movable.
Gardner is a good story for Yankee fans as he was a walk on at Charelston College and a third round pick but never considered a top prospect who came on the scene in 2010 as the starting left fielder and now he would appear to be the starting left fielder for the next several seasons and all at a time when the Yankees struggle to grow players Gardner is still there as a home grown talent. On his deal Gardner said "I made it known to them that I wanted to stay here and be a part of this. I learned from guys that come from other places that there's no better place to play, so I look forward to staying here and helping the team win."

Best and worst of the offseason

This has to be one of the most interesting off seasons for the Yankees, the Yankees spent almost half a billion dollars but lost their best player and still have glaring holes on the team. Its hard to narrow this down to the best and worst moves by the Yankee's this off season because as with most new contracts it really depends on how they will play out than on how it looks right now. Look at the Jesus Montero for Michael Pineada trade, that has changed whose won several times and Pineada has not actually pitched for the Yankees yet.

Best Move: Masahiro Tanaka
I said in our offseason podcast that I thought that signing Tanaka was the most important part of the off season and that if it came down to Cano or Tanaka that it was more important for them to sign Tanaka and apparently the Yankees agreed with me because they let Cano walk and signed Tanaka. Tanaka provides the Yankees with what they needed a young pitcher with high upside and while he has a risk of flopping it seems very unlikely as the Yankees have been scouting him for 7 years.We will have to wait and see how Tanaka adjusts to the MLB but it was truly a move that the Yankees needed to make if they want to contend in the very competitive AL East let alone vie for another World Series title.


Worst Move: Carlos Beltran
This is one that everyone seems to love but I really am not enthused about it. They gave Beltran at 36 three years this off season when they could have signed Nick Swisher for his age 32-35 seasons last off season. I know that Swisher did not hit well in the postseason but you have to get to the off season first and we have no idea if Beltran is going to be able to last all season while Swisher has always been a model of consistency.In the end though its crying over spilled milk from a year ago, but there was a better move than Beltran that the Yankees could have done and that was signing Shin-Soo Choo who like Swisher is a high walk guy who can hit 20+ HR a year, he isn't a switch hitter like Beltran or Swisher and his platoon split isn't very good but guys who walk a lot don't stop doing it as they age and that power and patience is exactly what the Yankees look for in a player. instead the Yankees gave three years to Beltran based largely on the fact that he has been great in the postseason, which is significant but I don't know if he will last to the postseason and with an aging roster I do not want the Yankees to have to be trying to get him in the lineup two years from now when his knees are shot but he, Teixeira and McCann all need time at the DH spot. Beltran is a bat only player at this point as his defense has declined due to being old and his walk rate has steadily declined with a career worst 6.3%  walk rate last season. Also as great as Beltran has been as a switch hitter last season he hit only .251 against LHP and recorded only 7 walks in 171 PA and so he is unlikely to help a lineup that looks like it will be weak against lefties. Beltran may bust out and have an amazing season but it honestly seems like this deal is likely to be an overpay and leave fans disappointed.

Derek Jeter will retire after this season!

On his Facebook page Derek Jeter announced that he will be retiring after this season. Obviously we will be getting more information but this is his statement as of right now. So we have another epic feels season after wishing Mariano goodbye last year. This will be the last season of the core four, lets make it a good one.

Chris's Best and Worst Offseason Acquisitions

This offseason has been very interesting for the New York Yankees, they made a lot of acquisitions like Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kelly Johnson, and Brian Roberts.  This cost the Yankees a lot of dough, but it will definitely make the Yankees a better team and is a better strategy than last year's version of The Replacements.  Many Yankees fans, including myself, are looking into the upcoming season with hope.  Of course everyone has their own opinion on what the Yankees did well, and what made you go "wait, what?", here is my opinion 

Best: McCann

 

What I felt was to be the best acquisition by the Yankees in the offseason was one of their first, Brian McCann.   He is 29 years old, and will be 30 on February 20th, has a career batting average of .277 and On Base Percentage of .350, and has hit over 20 home runs in his last 6 seasons.  Pretty similar number to one Russel Martin.  McCann will be filling the biggest hole in the Yankees lineup of Catcher, which was previously filled by Chris Stewart.  This is a huge improvement over Stewart who batted .211, had an OBP of .336, and hit a whopping 4 home runs last year (a career high for him).  

The New York Yankees signed Brian McCann to a five-year $85 million contract that includes a vesting option for a sixth season that could push the total to $100 million.  In my mind a good deal for the talent that the Yankees acquired.  In the past few years McCann has had some injury issues, but has been able to bounce back quickly, I do not feel it will be an issue in the future.  Another good thing McCann brings to the Yankees is experience, which will be especially useful because the Yankees have young talent behind the plate in Austin Romine who will be able to learn from Brian McCann.

That being said, I hope that Austin Romine does not pick up Brian McCann's personality.  In case you do not remember, McCann was the catcher who BLEW UP on Jose Fernandez after Fernandez hit his first career home run and McCann apparently had a problem with Fernandez for admiring his first home run in the MLB for two seconds.  Another incident last year was after Carlos Gomez hit a home run, Brian McCann blocked him from getting to home plate, causing the benches to clear.  That is not something you want your catcher to do, I remember watching the game at the time and saying he would make a good Red Sox catcher with that personality, A-rod/Varitek fight 2004, but I digress.

Even with this, I still believe that Brian McCann was the best off season acquisition that the Yankees made because he is a good hitter, with decent defense, and was by far the best catcher on the market, and catcher was definitely something the Yankees needed.

Worst: Ellsbury

What I feel was the worst off season acquisition by the New York Yankees this off season was signing Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year $153 million contract.  Ellsbury is 30 years old, has a career batting average of .297, an On Base Percentage of .350 and hit 9 home runs last year.  A big part of Ellsbury's game is stealing bases which he stole 52 of last year.  He is also a very good defensive outfielder, so why is he the worst signing by the Yankees if he is such a good player?  Three big reasons, one we don't need him.

The Yankees needed only one outfielder going into this off season, they signed two, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Carlos Beltran.  Beltran is 36 years old, has a career batting average of .283, an OBP of .359, and hit 24 home runs last year.  So why isn't he the worst signing?  For one, we signed him first to a position we needed, and two because we got him a whole lot cheaper, three years $45 million.  The Yankees only needed one outfielder going into the offseason because they already have Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki, and Brett Gardner, and that was before they signed Beltran.

The second reason is that Ellsbury is not worth $153 million, he would be if he was coming off his 2011 season where he hit .321, had an OBP of .376, and hit 32 home runs; that is the only season he hit more than 9 home runs by the way, and stole 39 bases.  But Ellsbury is coming off of a season where he his .298, had an OBP of .355, hit 9 home runs, and stole 52 bases, again not bad numbers, but not $153 million dollar numbers either.

Finally, the third reason Ellsbury was the worst signing by the Yankees was that there were so many other things they could have used that $153 million on.  For example, signing a third baseman, someone better than Kelly Johnson or Brendan Ryan perhaps or we could have used it to keep Robinson Cano, or a relief pitcher. The point is the money could have been used for things the Yankees actually need and Ellsbury is not something the Yankees needed.

I believe in Zoilo

The man with the name Zoilo Almonte, the switch hitting outfielder made his debut last year as did so many Yankee rookies and he played very well before a high ankle sprain landed him on the DL and some wisdom teeth kept him there for most of the year. In the end Zoilo played 34 games games for the Yankees and his first 17 games were great, he batted .309/.339/.436 in 59  Plate appearances and it really looked like he could be a contributor to the team but he started to slide in July and then he landed on the DL. When he came back he just wasn't the same when he came back in September managing just 2 hits and both of those came in the last game of the year. However I believe in Zoilo, I believe that he can contribute to the Yankees and I believe he can contribute better than Ichiro Suzuki, can he be a starter for the team? I really don't know but you know how we can find out, by giving him a limited bench role to see how he handle's the majors over a full season because struggling at a new level is something that players do, Brett Gardner's stats when he first came up in 2008 were bad .228/.283/.299 bad, but he turned it around and became a good major leaguer. This is how a team develops young talent that can help the major league club and its what the Yankees don't do, they always side with the veteran over a young player and that's mostly good for a team that is always winning but now the Yankees have gone years without developing a single contributor to their team and Zoilo just might be one of the guys who can help stop that trend. Zoilo is by no means a godsend of a prospect and more than likely he is a 4th outfielder long term but there is a chance that he can become a decent starter and keeping him in AAA behind Ichiro is not the way to have him show what he can do.
Mike Axisa wrote about Zoilo Almonte before last season and said that he might be the Yankees best shot at a home grown outfielder and I think he still might be right. Almonte is a guy who walked at a very good rate in the minors, can be a decent base stealer and play solid defense in the corners. There are a few warts on Zoilo as he did not hit left handed pitching well last season but I expect that to adjust as he is a natural right handed hitter. It is possible that the Yankee brass agrees with me as Brian Cashman said last season that the club has “future everyday right fielder scouting grades”on Almonte and keeping Almonte as a 4th outfielder would be very similar to how the Yankees broke Brett Gardner into the major leagues in 2009 and it is really what they should do for Zoilo in 2014. Spring training is only a short time away so hopefully for Zoilo's sake he can have a good spring training and make the club, I just fear that they will keep Ichiro on the roster over him.