Vernon Wells DFA'd (UPDATED)

Sounds like Wells was removed from roster. RT @VernonWells10: Thank you @Yankees for opportunity to be a part of such a storied franchise.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughSL) January 10, 2014

My initial reaction?



Just need somebody to confirm it to really kick off the celebration...

** UPDATE 12:37 PM- Barbarisi is tweeting it as fact and that's good enough for me.  Cue the celebration!

Don't Think So, Vern

Vernon Wells was on MLB Network Radio on Thursday, talking about his future with the Yankees.  He said "hopefully I'll get one more year" with the team and that both he and his family "had so much fun" being a part of the Yankee organization in 2013.  Wells is still under contract with the team for the next season, albeit with none of his salary counting towards the payroll thanks to some nifty accounting when the Yanks traded for him last year.

I hate to break it to you, Vern, but I don't think you're getting that year and I don't think the team shares your enthusiasm about coming back.  You're the 6th outfielder on the Major League depth chart right now and contrary to your statement there is not "possibly one spot" up for grabs, at least not one that you have a realistic shot at.  You hit .233/.282/.349 this past season, .221/.294/.295 in the second half.  You didn't hit for any power after May, you can't play the outfield, and if it wasn't for Eduardo Nunez's existence you would have been the worst player on the team this year.

The Yankees still need to add Brian Roberts and Matt Thornton to the 40-man roster, and at some point they're going to add at least 1 more starting pitcher.  You're as good as gone, Vern, and to be honest that's for the best.  If you're getting any time in the Yankee outfield in 2014, something went terribly, horribly wrong.

How The Hell Is The 2014 Outfield Going To Work?

(1, or the number of wins these two have been worth this season.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

There was no shortage of heartbreaking, soul crushing, or facepalming plays in yesterday's 2-1 loss to the Giants.  Pick just about anything the Yankees did from the bottom of the 7th on and you're bound to come up with something that killed their chances to win what should have been an easy-to-win game on Mo Day.  The worst of the worst came when the Yanks were at the plate, which hardly comes as a surprise after 156 team games that have resulted in a .245/.309/.380 team batting line (.304 wOBA, 87 wRC+).

Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki striking out with 2 men on and 1 out in the bottom of the 7th, while not the worst, was certainly on the medal stand of piss poor offensive moments yesterday.  To not even make contact in those at-bats and put the ball in play was the latest slap in the face example of how poorly the front office's plans for cutting payroll and remaining competitive were conceived.  Wells and Ichiro haven't just been bad at the plate this year, they've been terrible.  They're both coming back next year, as part of an outfield that could be even worse than the 2013 edition.

No Home Cooking For Vern

Since troublesome H/R splits are a topic of conversation this week, let's take a look at one that could actually have an impact on the 2014 season.  I don't know how I missed it, but I didn't realize until Sunday's TBS broadcast that Vernon Wells was hitting so horribly at home this season.  Entering tonight's game, Wells has a .190/.238/.291 batting line at Yankee Stadium, good for a .233 wOBA and a 37 wRC+.  By comparison, his OPS is .748 on the road (.328 wOBA, 106 wRC+) in a little north of 30 more plate appearances.  What the hell is that?

Wells underperforming offensively is hardly front page news anymore.  The guy has been worth negative offensive value in his 0.0-WAR season to date, and thinking about how he STILL hasn't hit a home run since May 15th makes my brain hurt.  But to post numbers like that at The Stadium?  Sure it doesn't cater to right-handed power nearly as much as it does left-handed power, that we know.  It's still a very hitter-friendly stadium no matter what side of the plate you're on.  If there's somewhere where Wells' noodle bat should produce a little more power it's YS3.

Notice that I used the word "could" have an impact on the 2014 season and not "would."  The Yankees have Wells under contract next season, as part of the growing collection of old guys who will combine to patch up the outfield corners around Brett Gardner.  Through some fancy accounting work at the time of the trade, however, the Yankees will not be on the hook for any of Wells' salary next season, making it much easier to cut bait on him if his production continues to wallow below the line of respectability.  There's nothing Wells has done since mid-May that warrants a guaranteed roster spot next year.  If a low-.500s OPS is all he can muster in 81 home games again, he shouldn't even make it to mid-May next year.

The Return Of The Old Guy Outfield Platoon

(Courtesy of the AP)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

The Yankees won for the first time in almost a week last night.  And they did it with one of their most recently productive bats on the bench to start the game.  With a left-handed starter on the mound, Joe elected to sit Ichiro Suzuki, probably for rest more than anything, and start Vernon Wells in right field.  With Zoilo Almonte looking good in his Major League debut and solidifying his role as the starting left fielder, right field turned back into the L/R platoon the Yankees always envisioned it, for one night at least.  With the way things worked out last night, Joe might want to consider going to that well more often.

Oh, Vern...

(Courtesy of Texas Leaguers)

Look at that.  Just look.  That's absolutely terrible.  It's brutally damning.  Vernon Wells is done.  D-U-N.  He only hit 1 ball to the warning track last month in 77 plate appearances and didn't even come close to doing it again.  He hit .133/.143/.177 last month, with just 1 walk and 17 strikeouts.  I think I could go up to the plate 77 times, just stand there with the bat on my shoulder, and probably generate a higher OPS than that in a month.  Totally kidding but not really.

Looking at the pitch result breakdowns, it's not easy to see why Wells has fallen off the productivity cliff.  If you throw him an offspeed pitch, he's going to swing and miss it.  You throw him any kind of fastball, he isn't going to get around on it fast enough to generate any kind of solid contact, forget about power.  It's not surprising that he got bested by that pitching machine a little while back.  He just doesn't have anything left.

Vernon Wells Was Never Slumping

(Vern, baby, Vern!  Just made that up.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

Vernon Wells got off to a scorching hot start this season, all things considered probably the most surprising hot start out of anybody on the team.  After 10 games he was hitting .333/.421/.697, then he treaded water for the couple of weeks.  From April 28th to May 7th Wells saw his line drop down to .270/.328/.468, and the prevailing thought was that he was already starting to tire and come back to earth after that hot start that partially defied his contact rates.  Since May 7th, Wells has 12 hits (3 HR), 5 runs scored, and 9 RBI in 8 games, raising his line back up to its current .300/.353/.521 state.

The dreaded "S" word was thrown around early in the month when Wells wasn't producing, but a quick check of the periphs shows that Wells isn't slumping, wasn't slumping, and hasn't really shown any signs of slumping roughly one quarter of the way through the season.

Outfield Platoon Coming Soon

(Ichiro's everyday days could be coming to an end.  Courtesy of Reuters)

With Curtis Granderson getting closer to returning - a report earlier today by Chad Jennings had him now taking indoor BP - the Yankees are approaching the point where they'll have a lot of decisions to make with respect to their outfield construction.  Where will Curtis play in the outfield?  Where will Brett Gardner play in the outfield?  Who's getting bumped to the bench?  Who's getting sent down to Triple-A/DFA'd/outright released?  In that same post, Jennings mentioned (correctly) that it's still a bit premature to bring up some of these ideas now, particularly the one about how right field will be settled since it's an unspoken given that C-Grand and Gardner will be in center and left.  But based on what we've seen so far, the most logical choice, whether they like it or not, might be a Vernon Wells/Ichiro Suzuki platoon.

Vernon Wells, Master Troll

I didn't think there was any way for Vernon Wells to actually turn me into a fan of his, but yesterday, just for a brief moment, he did.  After taking a healthy dose of boos from the still butthurt Toronto crowd for the entirety of the 3-game weekend series and dismissively wanking at them with his 7-15, 2 HR, 4 R, 3 RBI performance at the plate, Wells went the extra mile by making this great leaping catch to rob Toronto of an XBH and turn a double play and then "politely" doffing his cap to the crowd.

Telling an entire fanbase that has a legitimate reason to hate you for the way your career ended in that city, even if they should have gotten over it by now, to go fuck itself like that?  That's good trollin'.  Like I said, I didn't think there was a chance in hell Vernon Wells could make me a fan of anything he did in pinstripes this season, but Vernon, you magnificent bastard, you did it.

(Gif used courtesy of Pinstriped Bible)

The Vernon Wells Trade Spits In The Face Of Everybody And Everything

(Courtesy of John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated)

Barring some magical injury that gets discovered during his physical, Vernon Wells is going to become a Yankee today.  His locker is cleaned out in LA, the money has been agreed upon, and all that's left is identifying the MiL player the Yankees will send to Anaheim to complete the trade.  As I stated on IIATMS/TYA earlier this morning, this isn't exactly the darkest timeline for the Yankees, but it's pretty damn close.

I wrote about the idea of trading for Wells back in December, when it was rumored that the Yanks and Angels had discussed a deal during the Winter Meetings.  The conclusion I came to was that trading for Wells would be an absolute "hell no" scenario and believe it or not, that stance hasn't changed in the last three months.  Wells still doesn't hit for average or much power, still doesn't walk, still doesn't have an encouraging platoon split, and is still a 34-year-old outfielder with rapidly declining skills.  The only way I would have been comfortable with a trade was if Anaheim agreed to eat almost all of the $42 million remaining on Wells' contract.  Last night's reports of the Angels agreeing to take on $29 mil of the remaining 42 are nowhere near the number I had in mind and only make this trade more confusing.

Vernon Wells Is Worth HOW MUCH???

Sources say the Yankees' share of the Vernon Wells contract will be about $13 million over the last two years of his deal.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) March 24, 2013

I'll have more on this tomorrow, but the more that comes out about the Vernon Wells situation the more flabbergasted and pissed off I get.  You're telling me that not only did the Yankees willingly add 2014 salary in the form of Vernon Wells, they added salary at a $6.5 million per year clip???  For Vernon Wells???  That's the same deal they gave Ichiro and he's been way better than Vernon Wells the last four seasons.  Now the Yankees will head into NEXT season owing eight guaranteed figures to two declining, late-30s platoon outfielders.  Not exactly smart business for a club trying to operate on a budget.

It doesn't even matter what type of prospect or non-prospect they give up in this trade, when you agree to pay that much more for two years of Vernon Wells you're the loser of the deal.

Is There Any Way I Can Talk Myself Into Vernon Wells?

(I wouldn't be smiling if I had that bad a year in 2012.  Courtesy of the AP)

One of the bigger pieces of weekend news that I touched on yesterday was Ken Rosenthal's report that the Yankees and Angels discussed a possible trade for outfielder Vernon Wells at the Winter Meetings.  The move makes sense for Anaheim, who now has a logjam in their outfield with the recent signing of Josh Hamilton, and in the loosest terms it makes sense for the Yankees, who are still heavy on left-handed hitters, many of them with significant platoon splits, and could use another right-handed power bat to take DH at-bats or spell Ichiro Suzuki in right field.

The problem is that Wells completely sucks now.  Ever since he signed his big contract in Toronto his career has been completely flushed down the toilet, evidence by a .285 wOBA/79 wRC+ season in 131 games in 2011 and a .296/88 campaign in 77 games this past season.  He doesn't walk much, his power has dipped big time in the last 3 years, and defensive metrics paint him as an inconsistent defensive outfielder at best.  Oh, and he's still owed $42 million over the next 2 seasons.  There's seemingly nothing about Wells that looks useful for the 2013 Yankees, but damnit I'm going to try to find something.