(Double-ear flaps. So stupid. GAH!!! Courtesy of the AP)
In addition to muddying the waters of the Russell Martin contract situation, Jon Heyman also listed the Yankees as one of several teams interested in free agent outfielder Shane Victorino. Victorino, 32, is coming off a down year that saw him traded from his longtime team in Philadelphia out to Cali to finish the season with the payroll-bloated Dodgers. I’m just going to get right to the point and say that I want absolutely no part of Shane Victorino on the 2013 Yankees. And here’s the kicker, I have absolutely no reason why. I’m not sure what it is about him, because it’s not like he’s a shitty baseball player, but I’ve just never been much of a Shane Victorino guy. It’s completely irrational and I’m the first one to admit it, because Victorino could actually be a good fit for the Yankees.
After an acceleration to the re-signing process earlier this week, and multiple reports that a new deal was imminent yesterday, the Yankees officially re-signed Andy Pettitte this afternoon, completing part 2 of their offseason checklist.
According to multiplereporters, the deal is of the 1-year variety and will be for $12 million next season, with another $2.5 mil available in awards bonuses. It's a hefty raise from the non-guaranteed $2.5 million Andy signed for when he came back this past season, but after the way he pitched a big hike in salary was to be expected.
With this move, the Yankees now have a rotation set for 2013- CC, Kuroda, Andy, Hughes, Nova- with a couple other arms outside that top 5 as insurance and the always-lingering possibility of them signing a cheap veteran arm here or there. Andy coming back does give Cash the flexibility to include Hughes or Nova in a trade package if he pursues that route to fill the right field void, but even if nothing else happens with the rotation this offseason, the Yankees can go into Opening Day confident that their rotation is set.
**UPDATE- 3:29PM- Eli Whiteside has been DFA'd to clear a 40-man roster spot for Andy. So that's why they signed Whitesite to a split-contract. Smart move. **
See what I did there? That's wordplay. It's not all fun and games and re-signing 40-something pitchers and finding a right fielder this offseason. The Yankees do have some other things on their plate that they'll have to address, one of them coming up very soon. The non-tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players is this Friday at midnight, and the Yankees have a group of 6 eligible players left waiting to learn their fate (David Herndon and Eli Whiteside both signed small deals already).
None of these guys have really gotten much ink in the hot stove press so far this offseason, at least not on this blog, and there's a pretty simple reason for that. Nobody expects that the collection of Phil Hughes, David Robertson, Brett Gardner, Joba Chamberlain, or Boone Logan are going to be non-tendered. They'll all get new contracts for 2013 through arbitration and return as part of the 25-man roster next season, although there has been some talk of trading Logan coming off a heavy workload around the blogopshere and that's an idea I would entertain.
The one guy who's up in the air is Jayson Nix, do-all utility infielder and part-time emergency outfielder who notched a hair over 200 PA in pinstripes this season as an injury fill-in. Nix proved valuable as a defensive upgrade at shortstop over Eduardo Nunez, and he's not a complete waste of space with the bat, but a .304 wOBA and 88 wRC+ with a low BB rate doesn't exactly scream to have an offer made to it. That being said, the Yankees are light on useful infield pieces right now and are going to need extra help to cover for the advancing age and injury comebacks on the left side.
Nix is projected to make less than $1 million, chump change for the Yankees, but that would still be more money than they're paying Nunez right now. And with the team doing everything in its power to pinch pennies in preparation for the 2014 payroll cap, they could decide that a little bit extra saved is more beneficial than having Nix around. There's no guarantee the Yankees can find a suitable replacement, either internally that's as solid defensively as Nix or externally that's cheaper, so it will be worth paying attention to what happens with him come Friday at midnight.
(Looks like a GB out reaction to me. Courtesy of Getty Images)
In hopes that this will become a running series for the rest of the offseason, I want to take a look at some of the big statistical surprises from the season that was. There was a large handful of significant statistical shifts this season, some good and some bad, and I want to try to figure out what caused them, what they mean, and what to expect moving forward. For the first installment, I want to investigate Robinson Cano's awful year against left-handed pitching. It's almost crazy to think of a hitter of Cano's caliber as a platoon bat, but that's just what he was this year.
Cano finished the 2012 season with a career .290/.338/.453 line against LHP (.344 wOBA), and that's after the down year he had this season. Entering 2012, Cano was coming off a season in which he hit .314/.354/.525 against lefties, a result we've become accustomed to seeing from Robbie and the type of L-on-L production that makes him one of the best all-around hitters in the game. In 2012 something changed, and Robbie struggled mightily against lefties to the tune of .239/.309/.337 (.290 wOBA) in 269 plate appearances. He still drew a fair amount of walks, for him at least, against southpaws. But the drop in batting average and power was significant, and something that could potentially raise a red flag given Robbie's pending free agency.
Looks like the front office is finally picking up steam after their slow start to the offseason. Hiroki Kuroda re-signed last week, and that got the ball rolling, and now there's a rash of reporter activity today talking about pending deals and player interest. Here's the latest:
- Buster Olney got things started this morning with a report that not only was a deal between Andy Pettitte and the Yanks close, but that it will end up at or near the $11 million mark.
- Olney also said Russell Martin, despite recent reports that he was willing to wait for the Yankees to make an offer, has visited "multiple cities" to gauge interest in other teams, according to his agent.
- Ken Rosenthal reported that the Yankees were also "optimistic" about getting a deal done with Mariano Rivera this week, likely at a dollar amount higher than Pettitte's $11 mil.
- Joel Sherman shot down rumors that the Yanks and Ichiro had agreed to a 1-year/$5 mil deal, saying there are "no serious talks ongoing."
Obviously getting Pettitte and Mo locked in this week would be a huge leap forward in their offseason progress, and more than likely speed up the talks with Martin. Stay tuned...
The next, and possibly final, piece of the 2013 rotation puzzle may be starting to get put into place. At least that's how a positive-thinking person would take Mark Feinsand's report Sunday about Andy Pettitte starting his offseason workout program as a test to see how his body responds and see if he thinks it will hold up for another season. After the earlier report that Pettitte would make his decision sometime this week, this latest news makes it look more like we're going to see the lefty back in pinstripes for one more season. There's no guarantee, but there are 2 big things to take away from this:
Well it looks likeIchiro isn't alone in holding out for the tall, handsome Yankees to ask him to dance before settling on another suitor. George King of The Post had the deets on Russell Martin also being sweet on the Yankees and reportedly being willing to wait his turn for a contract offer while they sort through things with Mo and Andy before pursuing other options.
I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. I know I've already promised that the 2012 Season Review series was over like 45 times by now, but it dawned on me this morning on my ride to the airport that while I managed to hand out all my end-of-season awards to the Major League team (and do it quite well, I might add), I neglected to dish out those same awards for the Minor Leagues. I guess subconsciously I didn't want to do the MiL awards because it was such a rough season for the Yankee system, but it wasn't all doom and gloom. A lot of less heralded guys put good years together, and the young A-ball core was dynamite across the board. So without further ado, and for realsies this is the final 2012 season review post, here are the AB4AR 2012 Minor League award winners.
(When is somebody going to get a shot of one of Pineda's flat ground sessions? Courtesy of the AP)
Michael Pineda still has a long uphill battle to fight to get back on the field, back to full or as close to full game shape as he can be after his labrum injury, and back into the good graces of the Yankee fan base, but the updates on his comeback progress continue to be positive. Brian Heyman of LoHud had the latest details on Friday, including information on Pineda's latest follow-up visit with team doctors, confirmation that he's been on his flat ground throwing program for about 2 months now, and a quote from Brian Cashman on Pineda's arm action in the throwing session looking good and that "he’s in great physical shape in terms of body weight."
All of those are positives for Pineda, who got himself in trouble early in ST last season for reportedly coming into camp in less-than-ideal physical condition. But has this latest round of updates changed the planned return timetable for him?
It's no secret thatI'm not on the "Yankees should bring back Ichiro" bandwagon. I think he's a fraction of the player he used to be in his prime; I think the .322/.340/.454 tripleslash he put up in a third of a season's worth of plate appearances with the Yankees is not nearly as true an indicator of his current talent level as the results he put up in the previous season and two-thirds worth; and I think if they made slightly more of an effort than they have so far, the Yankees could find a much better all-around option for a starting right fielder next season. I also think the Yankees are pretty set in their way for how they're going about this offseason and I think Ichiro's performance in a Yankee uniform this season did enough to put him on their radar for 2013. And the more time that passes this offseason, the more I think Ichiro becomes a fit for what the Yankees are looking for.
Black Friday is one of the stupidest concepts ever, and I cringe every year watching videos and stories of all the people who wake up at the ass crack of dawn to go to the mall or worse, camped out the night before outside of Best Buy or something just to get a good deal on an off-brand TV. I have much bigger and better plans today, embarking on my yearly Thanksgiving vacation trip into the city with my 2 best friends. Unfortunately, due to the NHL lockout we won't get to go to our usual Ranger game, but we audibled nicely and scooped up some tickets to the Nets-Clips game at the Barclays Center tonight. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin is a nice substitute for Ranger hockey. We're also upping the ante this year by bringing our dads with us, so it will be fun to see how long they can hang drinking with us all day. No matter what happens, it's going to be infinitely more fun than going Black Friday shopping, and if you're out there doing that I feel very sorry for you. Now onto the links!
- On Monday, EJ Fagan of TYA graphically illustrated how the Yankees' competitive payroll advantage has dwindled over the past 10+ years. As previously discussed, this issue becomes magnified this offseason with ownership's new penny-pinching ways.
For this week's jam I'm keeping with the theme of our trip today and giving a shout out to Brooklyn with some old school Jay-Z. I haven't been able to get his people to call my people back about meeting up at the game tonight, but I'm sure he got my calls.
Enjoy your weekends and all the leftover turkey, everybody.
Today I'm thankful that I have a ton of great food to eat, a ton of great beer to drink, and my family and best friend to share it all with. I certainly hope that's the case for everybody else out there as well because Thanksgiving is hands down the best holiday and it's not even close. It's the Mariano Rivera of holidays.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. May your celebration today be safe, fun, and filled with good memories.
($15 million would bring a smile to your face too. Courtesy of the AP)
He's another old guy, but he's a productive one and one who actually made sense to bring back, so Hiroki Kuroda re-upping for another year yesterday was a positive first step for the Yankees yesterday after an early offseason of mostly inactivity. There's still a lot to be done, and still plenty of opportunities for people like me to complain about them only targeting guys 35 and over, but Kuroda was the most important player to bring back and now that's been done. Hopefully this a sign that Cash is going to start moving and shaking a little more heading into the Winter Meetings, and he's still got plenty of time before then to work out new deals with Mo and Andy and free up his time at the meetings for perusing the trade market. By my count, here's how the updated to-do list should look:
Well, sort of. It wasn't even close to a game situation, and I'm sure he wasn't painting the inside corner with the cutter there, but at least it's something. He had to be pushing off in some capacity to shoot this ad, so that's a good sign for the health and progress of Mo's knee as he gets ready to come back next season.
It's easy to forget that Mo is still not officially a Yankee. As we live and breathe right now, he's still technically a free agent, although the situation is an obvious "Yankees or nobody" one for the G.O.A.T. We were told a few weeks ago that the re-signing process would be a quick one after he formally declared that he wanted to come back, but so far no progress has been made outside of the Yankees stating that their offer would include a paycut. You have to think with Hiroki Kuroda re-signing late yesterday that getting Mo to do the same is the next on Cash's to-do list.
P.S.- Definitely just put that cologne on my Christmas list. Always good to smell like a champion, right?
There aren't any details on the money yet, but the Yankees and Hiroki Kuroda have reportedly agreed to a new 1-year deal. Normally I'd wait to get a few more details before posting, but when the tweet confirming the deal is coming from Buster Olney, that's good enough for me.
Kuroda was always the top priority this offseason, and it's good that this has now been resolved. There's still a lot of work to do, but at least there's one space we can fill in on the open roster card for next season. More details to come...
** UPDATE- 6:43PM- The deal is worth $15 million for next season, with a little less than $1 mil worth of incentives. Sounds like a good deal for both sides. Yanks and Kuroda both get the 1-year deal they wanted, and Hirok gets the raise he deserved and earned with his 2012 performance. **
That's what the Yankees are worth. Forbes magazine's annual list of the most valuable sports franchises from June of this year had the Yankees tied for 3rd with the Dallas Cowboys at an estimated $1.85 billion. The YES Network is worth even more than that, an estimated $3 billion according to recent reports, and that number stands to go up in the years to come with News Corp. in line to purchase a 49% stake in the network. While that deal shouldn't and in all likelihood won't affect the way things are run on the baseball side of the organization, part of me can't help but try to connect this move clearly designed to make more money with the baseball side's efforts to cut costs this and next offseason.
I'll just make this quick to try to avoid it veering off into another talk about roster rigidity and an older-than-dirt team actively seeking to make itself older.
According to Ken Davidoff, the Yankees have progressed from the "preliminary discussions" portion of their offseason courting process to the "significant interest" stage with respect to re-signing Raul Ibanez. Ibanez hit .240/.308/.453 last season, and punctuated his first season in pinstripes with some of the most dramatic home runs in a long time. His first-ballot election into the "True Yankee" club notwithstanding, Ibanez would be best as the DH-only bench piece he was supposed to be this season. If the Yankees are interested in him being any more than that, then actively pursuing him this early in the offseason is probably a mistake.
(Time for the Ninja GM to start moving in the shadows)
It's still relatively early, the spots are all going to be filled eventually, and I totally get that this is going to be business as usual for the Yankees for the next 2 years as they make their push to get below the self-imposed payroll threshold. But it's worth nothing that this sluggish start to the offseason comes during a year when there are more holes on the roster to fill than we've seen in the past few offseasons. Here we are, on the week of Thanksgiving, and the Yankees are in a position where, if the season started tomorrow they would be in a pretty tough spot. Take a look.
With Torii Hunter and Melky Cabrera already off the board and never really looking like they were serious candidates to end up in pinstripes, it was only a matter of time before Scott Hairston's name came up. He's been on the offseason wish list for the past couple years, but was never a high priority while the Yankees still had 3 good starting outfielders. Now that they're down to just 2, it was inevitable that he'd be connected to the Yankees and that connection came to light over the weeked thanks to Dan Martin of The NY Post.
My TYA teammate Mike Eder posted his thoughts on the Yankee-Hairston connection earlier this morning and while he made some good arguments for why Hairston is a good fit, Mike concluded that the Yankees could do better and that's a sentiment I echo. 2 years ago, I would have been all over bringing Hairston aboard, but now? Not so much.
Yeah, the power is nice, and he's a defensive upgrade over Andruw Jones, but that's really all there is to like. He doesn't walk, therefore he doesn't get on base; his power is almost exclusively pull power, which doesn't translate as well to YS3 as all-field power does; and he doesn't hit right-handed pitching at all, which means the Yankees will be set up for another outfield platoon setup. Add that to the revolving door at DH and the quasi-platoon situations at third base and shortstop, and the 2013 team would resemble a Little League World Series team where players are constantly being moved into and out of the lineup.
As an emergency insurance option, sure. But as a planned platoon "solution" for right field next season with Ichiro, I would be very much against the Yankees signing Scott Hairston.
The Arizona Fall League wrapped up its 2012 season this past week, and overall it was a pretty good showing for the Yankee representatives. Some guys dominated and continued to improve their prospect stock, some guys got to work on their transitions to new roles and positions to hopefully improve their prospect stock, and some guys just got the work in that they needed to get in after losing most of their 2012 seasons to injury. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who are jumping for joy at some of the results and whipping themselves into a "ZOMG GUYZ, THE YANKZ SHOULD TOTES LET SLADE HEATHCOTT TAKE OVER IN RIGHT FIELD THIS YEAR!!!!!!" frenzy, but that's just not going to happen. At the risk of coming off as a Negative Nancy here, allow me to put each player's AZFL performance in the proper context, just so there aren't any crazy expectations based on a few weeks' worth of games.
(Dude would have the Stadium crowd eating out of his hand. Courtesy of the AP)
Admittedly this is me thinking out loud on a painfully slow news Sunday in Yankeeland. Let's just get that out of the way upfront. But the more I've put the pieces together in my head, the more it kinda, sorta makes a little bit of sense to me. The Yankees have an open spot in their outfield, they could use a boost to the declining middle of their batting order, and a lot of the guys that make sense are either already signed or would never entertain the idea of a 1-year deal that is all the Yanks are likely to offer. But they still do have the most money to spend, and could offer more on a 1-year deal than any other club out there. So what if, and believe me, this is hy-po-thetical. But what if the Yankees were to make a monster 1-year offer to Josh Hamilton? How much would it take for Hamilton to seriously consider the offer and consider signing?
The latest in the Hiroki Kuroda sweepstakes is making the rounds on the blogosphere today, a report that Kuroda now prefers to play back in California to be closer to his children. If that's true, then it takes the Yankees out of the driver's seat in the race to sign Kuroda, but like some of the previous reports on Hiroki this offseason the story cites friends close to him, hence my hesitancy to link to it.
Mike Axisa of RAB posted his quick take on these developments earlier today, and I agree with Mike on both of the key points. One, the citing of anonymous friends brings into question the validity of the claim and it sounds more like Kuroda and his agent playing all angles to drive up his price for the teams interested. If that's what they're doing, good for them. Coming off the season he had, I'd be doing the exact same thing and that still puts the Yankees in the best position to land him.
Second, and more importantly, was Mike's statement that whatever the truth is, it's to the Yankees' benefit to have the Kuroda deal put to bed quickly one way or the other. My list of free agent pitching targets didn't include many starters, for the simple reason that it's almost certain the Yankees aren't going to get involved in the bidding for guys like Zack Greinke and Anibal Sanchez, and they've already lost one potential 1-year backup option this week in Scott Baker. If, that's IF, they lose out on Kuroda, they're going to have to scramble to find another starter willing to take a 1-year deal to build enough depth. He's the key to their offseason rotation rebuilding, and the quicker they get that resolved the quicker they can move on to finishing the process and audibling if they need to.
The news wasn't surprising, given the fact that the estimated recovery time from his surgery was going to put him right up against the start of the regular season at the latest, but that doesn't make Joe Girardi's comments about Derek Jeter possibly missing the start of the 2013 season any better. Dan Martin of The Post had the story yesterday, with Joe saying:
“He’s still basically non-weight-bearing, I believe, so, I really believe it might be a little push,”
when asked about Jeter's status. Jeter is still just a few weeks removed from surgery to repair his broken ankle, and while it's still very early in the recovery process, if there are already doubts about Jeter's availability for Spring Training and the season opener then it might be time for the Yankees to start putting together their contingency plan. As I discussed weeks back, Jeter being out would impact more than just the shortstop position and create added stress on what is already a somewhat inflexible roster.
Ahh the holiday season. It's back, people. Stores are inexplicably playing Christmas music far too early, the football seasons (college and pros) are starting to become important, the weather is cooling down, and I get to make the first of my 2 yearly trips back to good old D-Block, Danbury, CT. Going home for the holidays has become increasingly stressful in the last year or so, not because I hate Christmas or don't want to see my family or anything, but because when I'm home I live in fear of how much shit is going to get screwed up at work while I'm gone. Now I'm the first to admit that I do a job that a smart high school kid could do, but I'm the only one at my company who does it. And the end of the year happens to be the busiest time of year in our industry, so missing 3 days is basically like going on a religious sabbatical for me. I really try to not give a shit, but it's always there, in the back of my mind. Because I'm getting older and more mature and have to care now. Being an adult sucks. Now onto the links!
- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog took an interesting stance and argued for why Mike Napoli and Kevin Youkilis would be good fits for the Yanks. Definitely worth a read if you're on the fence about either of those 2.
- El Duque of It Is High... made his pitch for going after Melky Cabrera for the open right field spot. I don't agree that a 1-year deal will get it done, but Melky brings a lot of things to the table that the Yankees lineup needs.
For this Friday's jam, we got "Toxicity" System Of A Down. Great album, great song, better than "Chop Suey!" even though that's what pushed them into the mainstream rock scene. I had a chance to see them when they headlined the last real Ozzfest, the tour where they made so much money that they could take 5 years off, and I didn't go. Major regret.
Enjoy your weekends, everybody. I'll be blogging back from the EST next week.
I lied again. One last 2012 review post, and I swear that's it for me. I did my first 10 Fearless Predictions post before the beginning of last season, and ended up doing about as horribly as I did in my 2012 divisional predictions. I ended up with 2.5 out of 10 right, which put me at a better hit rate than Russell Martin had this season but still isn't getting me any significant multi-year contract offers. I was looking to take a step in the right direction in 2012, learn from my mistakes, be a little more patient, take some predictions to the opposite field every now and then just to keep myself honest. I felt good about my 10 fearless for 2012, I really did. I thought I'd be looking at at least .400 this year. How'd that turn out?
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