McCann Introductory Presser Wrap-Up

Brian McCann's introductory press conference was held earlier today.  It was the typical Yankee affair, with all the head front office honchos out there, a million cameras, and the unveiling of the number a new player will wear when he's coming to a team with precious few good ones available.  If you weren't able to watch live, here's what you missed:

- McCann will wear #34 as a Yankee.  He said it was because his former teammate and good friend Eric O'Flaherty wears that number for the Braves.  Shouldn't be too hard to exceed what Freddy Garcia did in that number.

- Cash hooked his wife up with a bouquet of flowers and a pair of #34 onesies for his kids.  Gotta keep the wives happy.

- Joe said of McCann, "We think we've got the next great Yankee catcher right here."  He would know.  He played with the last one.

- McCann said he called Mark Teixeira before making the decision to sign to "pick his brain" about what it was like to play in New York.  Because nobody has their finger on the pulse of what it's like in NYC than painfully white, robotic humanoid Mark Teixeira.

- When the topic of clubhouse leadership came up, McCann said "this is Derek Jeter's team" and added that he's looking forward to meeting the rest of the team and "falling in line."

So there you go.  Pretty standard stuff, although McCann most likely will become more of a clubhouse leader than he let on.  Welcome aboard, Brian.  Looking forward to doing this for Ellsbury next week.

P.S. Check out this picture that Feinsand got of the front office heads sitting down.  Levine, such a fucking tool.

Goodbye Operation 189

(I'd like to imagine Hal is doing this in his office, maybe even in Joker facepaint)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

It's been a fun last couple of weeks, huh?  The Yankees have plucked the second and third best free agents off the market, the top 2 players available at premium up-the-middle positions, and they've done in relatively sneaky fashion.  While everybody else was assuming their primary focus was on Robinson Cano and Carlos Beltran, they pushed harder than many of us realized to get Brian McCann and then called an audible for Jacoby Ellsbury.  McCann will finally be formally introduced this afternoon at a 2 PM press conference, and once he passes his physical Ellsbury won't be far behind.

After the slow, stagnant, predictable, and painful offseason of last year, this year's has already been full of fireworks and we aren't even to the Winter Meetings yet.  With wheels still turning on the Cano front and the signing of Ellsbury reportedly not stopping the Yanks from pursuing Shin-Soo Choo, I guess the most important question right now is who's next?

A Quick Word On The Latest NPB Posting Developments

(Or gets struck back against ... )

I don't want to make a huge deal out of this, because the Yankees are still winning the offseason right now by a wide margin and still have to be considered a favorite to sign Masahiro Tanaka whenever he's posted.  But the new changes being made to the NPB posting system are possibly the most blatant anti-Yankee screwjob I've ever seen in my time as an educated baseball fan and as a diehard Yankee fan I simply can't let it go by without saying something.

Report: Kelly Johnson Signing A Done Deal

There was little reason to expect otherwise after the news first came out, but the deal between the Yankees and Kelly Johnson was agreed to yesterday and Johnson will be donning the pinstripes next year.  Jon Heyman had the confirmation, reporting that it is a 1-year deal for $3 million and is still pending a physical.

I touched on Johnson a little bit yesterday and I'll get into more detail on him soon.  The bottom line is he can play all over the field, hold his own defensively in all those spots, and he offers some legit pop and plus offensive value from the left side of the plate.  I'm sure there's some thought of using this signing to put more pressure on Robbie going on in the front office, but Johnson is the type of versatile player the Yankees need on the roster next year regardless of whether Robbie comes back or not.  Another good signing for sure.