Yankees avoid arbitration with everyone

Ivan Nova, David Robertson, Brett Gardner, Francisco Cervelli and Shawn Kelely were all eligible for arbitration and the Yankees agreed to deals with everyone but Nova.

Francisco Cervelli signed on the 16th for $700,000 which was less than his projected $1 million but he did have almost no playing time the last two years and was suspended for 50 games this season.  I honestly thought he was going to be non tendered but the Yankees are keeping him at only somewhat above league minimum so its a deal for them. This was his first time through arbitration and so he has two years of team control remaining. Shawn Kelley signed for $1.7625M with a $25 thousand bonus if he appears in 55 games. Kelleys 4.39 ERA is helped by a 3.69 FIP and a ridiculous 11.98 K/9 (31.3 K%) in 53.1 innings across 57 games. Unless the Yankees sign someone I expect that he will be the Yankees setup man this year.  This is also his first time going through arbitration. Brett Gardner received $5.6 million in his last arbitration year which is a decent amount more than his projected $4 million but the MLBPA had said that they thought he would get more than $4million and they were right. David Robertson who projects to be this years closer earned $5.215M which was under his projected $5.5 million, he has one more year of team control and unless something goes horribly wrong his salary will increase quite a bit more than his roughly $2 million raise for this year. Saves pay in arbitration and he could easily rack up a  lot of saves this season. '
Ivan Nova remains unsigned but all that really means is that they could not come up with an agreement today and they will file an amount with the arbitration court and likely agree to a compromise, the Yankees have not gone to an arbitration hearing since 2008 with Chien Ming Wang. 

The Yankees signed Ivan Nova for $3.3 million and so they avoided arbitration with all five of their players signing them for a grand total of $16.58 million. Nova was projected at $2.8 million and so he received half a million more than projected, this is Nova's first time through arbitration and that's always the best for players because its when they starts making bigger money, Nova made $575K last year.

Yankees acquire Shawn Kelley

The Yankees acquired right hander Shawn Kelley from the Mariners in exchange for outfielder Abraham Almonte, according to Ryan Divish of the Tacoma News Tribune (on Twitter) and now confirmed by all parties. Almonte hit pretty well last year in Double A Trenton, but he was likely going to be blocked from significant playing time in both Trenton and Scranton. Meanwhile the Mariners needed Center Field depth and Almonte is definitely capable of playing all over the outfield.
The Mariners had designated Kelley for assignment to make room for Kelly Shoppach and he still has a minor league option so if he doesn't make the club out of spring training then he, along with Cody Eppley, will probably be the most likely up and down guy between the Yankees and the Railriders. Kelley, 28, appeared in 47 games for the Mariners in 2012, posting a 3.25 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, and a 28.8% ground ball rate in 44 1/3 innings. Obviously the fly balls could be an issue and his homer rate (1.34 HR/9 and 9.7% HR/FB) isn't ideal, but I doubt he will be working any high level innings.
To make room for Kelley the Yankees put Alex Rodriguez on the 60 day Disabled list. I suppose they sort of have another 2 40 man spots open as they will need to put Manny Banuelos and Cesar Cabral on the 60 day at some point.