Situation Heating Up With Ibanez

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.