Sunday, December 4, 2011

Yanks Hiding In The Weeds On International FAs?

Not to beat a dead horse, but it's been a slow offseason so far, both in general and for the Yankees, who went in with the stated goal of upgrading the starting rotation.  With the Winter Meetings starting tomorrow and not a lot of talk connecting the Yankees with any of the big Major League pitching targets, perhaps Cash and his staff have been playing possum on the other 2 big fish in the free agent sea, Yu Darvish and Yoenis Cespedes.

Consider all of this: The Yanks have scouted both of them extensively; Darvish is a young, potential top-of-the-rotation talent who comes with the added benefit of not having his posting fee count towards the luxury tax and not requiring the Yankees to forfeit a draft pick; Cespedes is a young, power-hitting OFer who also won't cost the Yankees anything in terms of picks; both guys play positions that the Yankees could have a need for after this season.

And with news coming out yesterday that both Darvish and Cespedes could make themselves available some time in the next 1-2 weeks, it seems like the Yankees could be in prime position to strike on both of these guys if they truly have been spending time behind the scenes working on potential plans to sign both.  Just something to think about heading into next week's meetings.