Yankees re-sign Hiroki Kuroda

Well the Yankees are bringing back Hiroki Kuroda for another year. The report is that its for $15 million, which is just perfect for Kuroda, he also has several incentives that can add up to $1 million. Now we turn to see if Pettitte will return as he said he would make his decision soon and I would expect he will get a similar deal to Kuroda which would solidify the top of the rotation.

What to do with Eduardo Nunez

This could end badly

 Last season Nunez came in as the backup infielder after filling that same role in 2011. However the real issue is that Nunez can't field and that's not what you want from your backup, so after a multitude of errors Nunez was sent down in May. He promptly got hurt and ended up not playing for most of the year and his defense hadn't improved in the limited action there. The Yankees like Nunez as he has speed and a decent bat, the problem of course is that his defense is horrible even though his range is good, its just that his throwing is atrocious. Cashman and co need to decide what to do with him as his defensive problems are unlikely to go away, he could suddenly figure it out between now and opening day but his minor league track record suggests otherwise. Also the Yankees decided that they did not want him playing other positions than shortstop despite playing all over the field beforehand. Generally the plan for speedy infielders who can't field is you move them to the outfield.

The big problem now of course is Derek Jeters injury as we have no idea how many games he will be able to play at short. It is possible that the 38 year old shortstop who had limited range before hand may not be able to play the position in more than a limited role. If Jeter has to significantly reduce his playing time at short then Nunez could step in and possibly have to be the primary shortstop. He could also spend some time at DH and with those combined he should be able to play everyday, Cashman wants Nunez to play everyday and this is the only way he would be able to  play in the majors and for the Yankees everyday. The Yankees could also trade Nunez but with that they run the risk of nobody being able to play shortstop when Jeter retires or if he is misses a significant amount of time next season. The off season is just beginning and what the Yankees think Nunez can do for the Yankees is going to be a big part of that. It is good to keep in mind that Shortstops who can hit are in demand and a number of teams are looking for shortstop help this off season.

Pondering Phil

Phil Pondering Pitching

As a prospect Phil Hughes was supposed to be the next Yankee ace, but that never came about. But this last season Phil put together his most complete season as a starter by being solid all season, not including early April. He wasn’t an ace, but he was definitely a very good mid rotation pitcher in the toughest division in baseball and a less than friendly home stadium. However Phil Hughes home run rate bordered on comical as he gave up 35 home runs in 32 starts of the regular season and gave up two more in two starts in the postseason for a total of 37 home runs in 200 innings and that’s with giving up 92 earned runs all year.  Obviously his home run rate of 1.6 HR/9 and 2.2 HR/9 in Yankee Stadium makes it seem that he cannot survive long term as a Yankee starter as hitters parks and fly ball pitchers typically don’t mix.  Despite the homeruns it cannot be forgotten that Phil Hughes is just 26 and as he enters his last year of arbitration a decision about Phil’s Puture in Pinstripes needs to be made. There are three possibilities for Phil; the Yankees can sign Hughes to a multi-year deal, they can trade him or they can simply let him hit free agency after the 2013 season. All three are valid options and you can justify each of them as beneficial to the Yankees.

Multi-year deal

As I said Phil Hughes’s Home run rate is not sustainable long term in Yankee stadium unless something changes, but a three year deal in the $22-28 range would likely benefit both sides. The deal would provide security in the middle of the Yankees rotation without hurting the Yankees financial flexibility of the $189 million budget. As much as the Yankees would like to go cheap with a starter, they will probably need Hughes for the next several seasons or at least a pitcher like Hughes who can eat innings. Even if Nova bounces back and Pineda comes back healthy then the Yankees would still need to fill two rotation spots and it would be much easier if they had a guy like Hughes who can be effective and eat innings. The Yankees would be banking on Hughes maintaining his success from 2012, but even if he doesn’t and he is forced to shift to the bullpen Hughes does have a history of being a very good late inning reliever. There is also little evidence to suggest that his performance is not sustainable as his struggles in 2011 have been attributed to his heavy workload in 2010 and injuries. In 2012 Hughes didn’t falter down the stretch like he did in 2010 and the possibility of keeping a solid innings eater for the next three years seems to be worth the risk.

Trade

The Yankees have several holes that need to be filled this offseason and trading Hughes for an outfielder would fill their right field need. Numerous teams would be interested in Hughes as teams need pitching and a team like the twins has outfielders to spare, with a desperate need for consistent starting pitching. Unfortunately with only one year of team control left the Yankees would not get a significant piece without including more pieces to get a young cheap player, otherwise they would be targeting players like Josh Willingham or Corey Hart who are in their thirties and have a limited amount of team control left. Quite frankly I think that if the Yankees traded a starter it would more likely be David Phelps as he had some success last year and still has at least six more seasons of team control left and trading him would not leave a gaping hole in the Yankee rotation.

Let him walk

This is Hughes’s last season of arbitration after which he will be a free agent and could definitely benefit from moving to a more pitcher friendly park. If he can carry over his success from 2012 to 2013 most teams would be interested in Phil when he hits free agency. The Dodgers and Angels both could be interested and Hughes is a Southern California native so he may want to go and pitch close to home. One big team that should also be accounted for is San Francisco who could potentially be saying goodbye to Barry Zito and Tim Lincecum after 2013 and Phil would thrive in AT&T Park. The Yankees also may not want to commit more money to Hughes as they try and get in their $189 million budget and they could feel confident in their young pitching being able to plug the holes without Hughes. However in this scenario the Yankees would get nothing for Hughes as they would not give him a qualifying offer and so when he left they would receive no draft compensation as they would have under the previous model.

As I said there is validity to following any of these models, but in my mind the best option would be for the Yankees to sign Hughes to a short term extension as it will provide security for Hughes and the Yankees and take one less worry out of the near future.

Mariano Rivera wants to return for 2013

He's back

Via George King: Mariano Rivera has informed the Yankees that he wants to pitch again next season. “Rivera contacted us and wants to play,” said Brian Cashman, who admitted to not being surprised by the decision.

Rivera, 43, blew out his knee in early-May and said he wanted to pitch again the next day, but a few weeks ago he told Cashman that he was having second thoughts. The two sides will discuss a contract in the coming week according to King, and this sounds like something that could happen relatively soon. Then again, the Yankees and Rivera have a history of contentious negotiations. Another one-year deal in the $10-15M range is likely in the cards.

This is welcome news and now we only have to worry about how he will pitch after his injury and most of a year off.

Yankees free agents

The Yankees have a total of 14 players hitting free agency, with the key free agents being Russel Martin,  Nick Swisher, Hiroki Kuroda and depending on the status of Mariano Rivera, Rafael Soriano. The last three of these guys will receive a qualifying offer, but the only one with any chance of accepting the $13.3 million dollar qualifying offer would be Hiroki Kuroda, as Soriano and and Swisher will receive large muti year deals. The Yankees seem likely to move away from Swisher, despite him being the best Right Field option for the Yankees and as I said before the Yankees will only look to retain Soriano if Mariano Rivera retires and even then he may be looking for a deal bigger than the Yankees are willing to provide, considering they have several internal closer options.
Russel Martin is an extremly critical retention for the Yankees and he will likely get a multi year deal from them, because he and and AJ Pierzynski are the only everyday catchers on the market. The Yankees have also expressed intrest in brining back Ichiro Suzuki and Raul Ibanez on short term deals, but I don't know how much playing time Ibanez would get due to the rotating DH for the veteran Yankees. Some people really want Ichiro to return, but he should be the Yankees B or C options due to his age.
Andy Pettitte joins Mariano Rivera as someone who is going to either sign with the Yankees or retire and it remains to be seen what either will do at this point.
There is also a chance that the Yankees will retain Eric Chavez and Jayson Nix, but after that none of the Yankees free agents are likely to be retained on anything more than minor league deals and i personally doubt that Nix or Chavez will return. If the Yankees do not retain any of their free agents then there will be a number of holes to fill, that will require a venture into free agency as they will not be able to fill them internally.

Top 5 things the Yankees need to do this offseason

A big part of the Yankees offseason

The baseball season is just about over and unfortunately it is not ending with a New York Yankees World Series win. In fact the Yankees blew their best chance to win the series since 2009 by having their bats disappear in the postseason and now they need to retool for next season. Here are the top 5 things the Yankees need to do for next season .

1. Resign Hiroki Kuroda
This is by far the most critical part of the offseason and if the Yankees want to bounce back from their poor performance they will need to resign Hiroki Kuroda. He transitioned to the AL by having the best season of his career and that's in Yankee stadium. Kuroda was the number two pitcher the Yankees have been looking for, for a long time and if they need to give him a two year deal they absolutely should in order to bring back Hiroki.

2. Right Field
The Yankees have any number of possibilities for Right Field next season and while Nick Swisher is by far the best solution, it seems unlikely that the Yankees will bring him back next season due to his price tag. For all the complaints about Swishers struggles in the postseason the Yankees really need his switch hitting bat and it will be a lot cheaper to give Swisher 3-4 years than try and sign Curtis Granderson after he hits free agency. If the Yankees let Swisher and Granderson walk then they may need to fill two Outfield spots after next season  and we do not even know if they will be able to fill one spot internally. To me the most likely scenario is that the Yankees bring back Ichiro Suzuki or they trade for an Outfielder as there are not many free agent options for the Yankees who want to stay in their budget for 2014. Bringing Ichiro wouldn't be the worst scenario, but he would be 39 and while he may be able to flash a little more power he will be 39. The Yankees would also need to count on Ichiro's resurgence into next year and hope the hot month he had with the Yankees wasn't a fluke.

3. Catcher
This one is very straight forward. The Yankees are going to need to bring back Russel Martin because the free agent and trade market for catchers is pretty barren. Napoli isn't really a catcher, AJ Piezynski is a jerk/old and Olivio is terrible. Martin is the best option and if they don't bring him back then they will need to platoon Cervelli and Stewart and they don't want to do that. Its pretty much Martin or bust for the Yankees.

4. Resign Andy Pettitte
Some may balk that this is 4th, but really this may be a little high for Pettitte. I did initially ponder putting this with Kuroda, but really its much less important for Pettitte to return as it is for Kuroda. Pettitte surprised everybody with his comeback and made a big impact, we just don't know what he will be able to contribute next season. That being said the Yankees want him back, Pettitte just needs to decide if he wants to come back.

5. Bench
The bench doesn't seem like a huge thing but it is going to be very important next season as well in the foreseeable future because of the age of the Yankees roster. The Yankees do not know how many how many games Jeter or ARod will be able to play in the field next season so a good bench is critical. Recently Brian Cashman said that they want Eduardo Nunez to play everyday at short stop and he could potentially play short 60-70 games next season and possibly even more next season depending on Jeters recovery from his surgery. If they don't want Nunez to do that then they will need to acquire somebody who can play short stop frequently as Jeter is defiantly going to need to have a lot of rest, especially at the beginning of the season. Despite his abysmal postseason ARod is going to be okay and is going to be the primary 3rd baseman, but he and Jeter will probably be the primary DH's so somebody will need to be able to step in as the 3rd baseman frequently. If Eric Chavez returns I expect that he will fill that role, but that is in no way a certainty and he has frequently said that his previous injuries have made playing very painful for him. If Chavez does not return then there is a good chance that the bench spot would be filled internally by Corban Jospeh or David Adams both of whom are probably major league ready. The backup catcher will probably be Chris Stewart again  but after that their bench will depend on what their answer in Right Field will be.

I was initially going to include signing both Hughes and Cano to extensions and while I do believe that these are important they do not affect 2013. In Cano's case I feel that he will wait until he hits free agency as he will want a big deal and there is a very real chance that the Los Angeles Dodgers will outbid the Yankees for Cano. In Hughes's case the Yankees should sign him to an extension but it is not critical to the 2013 team. That being said I will have a post up about Phil Hughes and extension possibilities.

The End of the 2012 Yankees

Jeter after suffering his ankle injury

Well the Yankees wasted their best opportunity to win the World series since 2009 and lost in four games to the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. Normally a team would probably be happy with advancing to the second round of the playoffs, but these are the New York Yankees and its World Series or bust every year. The thing that made this so hard was, as we talked about in the podcast, the Yankees were clearly better than the Tigers but the offense mailed it in for the first series against the Orioles and completely didn't show up for the Tigers series. I mean they managed six runs in four games and when you eliminate the 9th inning of game one they scored two runs in games 2-4. Of course what makes this all worse is that Derek Jeter fractured his ankle is game one and we don't know how he will come back next season as a 38 year old Shortstop.
Playoffs make people crazy and so the ARod, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson hate trains were overflowing all playoffs long. Its not that they did not deserve to be criticized for their poor performance, its just that people start thinking that a player is worthless all together if he struggles in the postseason. Curtis Granderson hit 43 Home Runs, the idea that they should turn down his option is ridiculous. Some people try and say that the Yankees should never have acquired Nick Swisher because of his struggles in the post season and criticizing the ARod contract is valid but also having the benefit of hindsight.
The Yankees season ended in a way none of us would have liked but the only thing that we can do now is wait until next season as the Yankees retool for a World series run in 2013.