BREAKING NEWS: Yankees Sign Travis Hafner

(Yeah, I used the all caps "breaking news" tag for this signing.  It's a Major League player with legitimate offensive value, so I'm a little excited about that after watching the recent string of Quad-A signings.  Deal with it.)

After reports came out yesterday that the Yankees were in serious talks with Travis Hafner, they finalized those talks today by signing him to a 1-year, incentive-heavy deal to be their main designated hitter for 2013.  The deal is reportedly a guaranteed Major League deal, meaning a 40-man roster spot will have to be cleared to make room for Hafner.  But that's an acceptable sacrifice to make to add a potential impact bat like Hafner's, injury concerns and all.

I wrote about Hafner and my desire to see the Yankees sign him weeks ago, so obviously I'm happy to see them add him and his thump to the lineup.  Hafner is a huge injury risk, and as close to a sure thing as there is to end up on the DL at some point, but his offensive production potential as a righty masher hitting in Yankee Stadium is well worth that risk.  The Yankees are very familiar with Hafner and I have to think they did their homework on his medical reports before deciding to go through with this deal.  With what's left out there on the FA market, this is as good a cheap 1-year deal as they could have found, and one that could have potentially big returns if Hafner bucks the trend and stays healthy.

** UPDATE 2/1/13 1:46PM- Deal is official according to Jon Heyman.  Hafner's base salary will be $2 million per Ken Davidoff, and his deal also includes "reachable incentives" per Dan Barbarisi.  DH- Check. **

The Importance Of Joba & Aardsma This Season

(Just a couple of wild and crazy guys.  Courtesy of Reuters)

I've made reference multiple times recently to the Yankees having another strong bullpen in 2013, and I strongly believe that's going to be the case.  They've got the greatest closer of all time back for another shot at a last go-round, arguably the best setup man and one of the best pressure relief pitchers in baseball ahead of him, 2 strong lefty specialists to play the late-inning matchup game, what will be a more than serviceable long man in whoever loses the 5th starter competition between Ivan Nova and David Phelps, and 2 veteran power arms to work the middle relief innings in Joba Chamberlain in David Aardsma.  But it is worth pointing out that the overall depth created by the loss of Rafael Soriano is slightly less than it was in 2012, when depth became a really important issue for obvious reasons.

Keeping that "anything can happen" experience from last season in mind, Joba and Aardsma could have more important roles to fill this season than people first realize.

This Is Starting To Get Ridiculous

I know I'm not the only one who's already tired of all this A-Rod future talk, and I really hope I'm not the only one who's starting to get confused by all of it.  I know it's not surprising for a story like this involving Rodriguez to get as much of a media frenzy going as it has, but it's insane how quickly the focus of the story keeps changing.  First it was shock and anger that A-Rod could be stupid enough to do this again and get caught, if he actually did do it that is.  Then it was all talk about voiding the contract, which is probably never going to happen, working a buyout, and/or forcing him to retire.  Now we've moved on to just stating that not only is A-Rod never going to play for the Yankees again, but that he's never going to play baseball again according to this article from today's Daily News.

"According to numerous baseball sources, the hip surgery Rodriguez is now recovering from will likely derail his playing career, leaving him in such a diminished role that he may consider a settlement or an outright retirement. He still has five years and $114 million left on his contract."

Numerous baseball sources, huh?  Do any of these sources have medical degrees or did any of them participate in the surgery?  Because every medical source that's been involved makes it sound like A-Rod is absolutely going to be able come back and play.  And as Matt Imbrogno pointed out yesterday on one of our TYA email chains, a diminished A-Rod is still a pretty productive one compared to league averages for third baseman.

As for the "voiding the contract" talk, can that just be put to bed now?  It's not going to happen.  At all.  The CBA governs all things PED related and has provisions written into it to protect players from having this exact proposed scenario (contract being voided based on PED use) play out.  If the Yankees were smart enough to write language into Alex's contract that gave them a clear cut way out of the deal, we would have heard about it by now.  They don't have a case to be made for voiding the deal, and A-Rod has no reason to voluntarily retire to help the Yankees and 114 million reasons to try to come back.

The best thing the Yankees can hope for, if they really want to rid themselves of Alex, is to negotiate a buyout, try to get it down as much as possible from 100% of the contract value to lessen the payroll hit, collect the 85% insurance, and move on.  Anything other than that basically a pipe dream.

Somebody Get Ian O'Conner A Paddle...

(Sweet shirt, bro.  Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing)

... Because he's fixin' to dish out a written spanking to Alex Rodriguez.  We've been having some fun with the early MSM outcry in response to the latest A-Rod PED story on the AB4AR Facebook Page today, and for my money Ian O'Conner's piece from yesterday takes the cake.  It's a horrifically brilliant combination of moral grandstanding, lazy logic, self-disagreement and contradiction, and regurgitated attempts to state what is already known.  In short, it's a typical "write it as quickly as possible and get it posted so we can get pageviews" ESPN NY Yankee post.

Lowlights after the jump...

Projecting Andy Pettitte

(What can Andy-Wan do in 2013?)

Andy Pettitte's decision to come back for the 2013 season wasn't nearly as dramatic or surprising as his return last season.  He already sounded like he was leaning towards coming back when he said he was going to take some time to think it over, and the Yankees re-signed him to another 1-year deal with little trouble in late November.  Now that it's officially been determined that he won't be participating in the World Baseball Classic, we can start to look forward to what Andy's going to do on the mound for the Yanks in 2013 and for how long he's going to do it.  Pettitte is an important part of the Yankee rotation as the middle link between the rock solid 1-2 starters and the iffy back end, but his age and related injury concerns make him a bit more of a question mark than your average #3 starter.

Along with it being prospect season and still the late part of hot stove season, it's also projection season.  There isn't a whole lot out there on Andy yet, but it's still worth taking a peek to see what kind of production Andy is projected to put up this coming season.

John Sickels Ranks Yankee Farm System 14th In MLB

(Wildcard, bitches!!  Courtesy of Josh Norris)

We're just over a week removed from the AB4AR Top 30, and just over a month removed from John Sickels releasing his Top 20 Yankee prospects with the bulk of prospect ranking season still to come.  Sickels followed up on his individual rankings yesterday with his organizational farm system rankings, and he had the Yankee system coming in 14th out of 30, up from 16th last season.

Not surprisingly, Sickels identified the core of A-ball hitters as the Yankees' biggest strength and their lack of upper-tier pitching prospects as their biggest weakness.  He also continued to paint Rafael DePaula as the key part to determining where the Yankee system could be heading next year, sticking DePaula with the "wildcard" tag he first gave him last month.

A 14th place ranking is right in line with where most people expected the Yankees to fall (10-15), and as was the case with Baseball America's 11th place ranking I believe this is a positive sign for the Yankee system to move up in the overall organizational rankings a year after losing their previous top 2 prospects.  A strong 2013 season for this group could result in a top 5-10 ranking in 2014.

New Report Connects A-Rod To Additional PED Use

(Get ready for more of this.  Courtesy of the AP)

When the 2012 season ended, I said I wasn't going to spend the entire offseason on this blog talking about Alex Rodriguez and what a bum he was, and promised only to write about him in situations where it was warranted. I think this is one of those situations. In a report released today by the Miami News Times, A-Rod's name was included in a group of professional athletes who have been receiving various performance enhancing drugs from Anthony Bosch, currently under investigation by both MLB and the DEA. Written records from the clinic Bosch runs indicate Rodriguez has been receiving PEDs, including HGH, from Bosch from 2009 through last season. What has already been a tumultuous last few seasons for A-Rod, starting with his original PED outing and admission in 2009, is only going to get worse with the release of this new report.

Pineda To Throw Off Half-Mound Today

(Courtesy of Bobby Martinez/NY Post)

Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter have dominated the injury/recovery headlines for the better part of this offseason, but Michael Pineda's name popped back into the picture yesterday when Dan Barbarisi tweeted out this report that, according to Cash, Pineda is scheduled to throw off a half-mound today for the first time since having shoulder surgery last year.

This marks another step in the right direction for Pineda, who has been working out and throwing on flat ground since September.  The last time we heard about Pineda's progress,Cash was praising how good his arm and his physical conditioning looked, and since we haven't heard anything since then it's a safe assumption to make that everything has been progressing on schedule.

There was no timetable given for how long Pineda will work off the half-mound before returning to throwing off a full mound, and he's still months away from returning to any kind of game action, but this is good news for the Yankee rotation's potential emergency depth.  They will continue to downplay the prospect of Pineda returning this year, but if he stays on schedule and doesn't suffer any setbacks he should still be on track for an early-to-mid summer return.

Yanks Sign Juan Rivera To A MiL Deal

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

As first reported by the ESPN NY comedy duo of Marchand and Matthews, the Yankees have signed Juan Rivera to a Minor League contract with an invitation to Spring Training.  No details yet on what the dollars will be if he makes the team, but Rivera will join Matt Diaz, Russ Canzler, and the litany of other internal and external candidates competing for a spot on the 2013 Yankee bench.

Rivera, now 34, started his career with the Yankees and has spent almost all of his time on the West Coast since leaving in 2003.  He's a right-handed hitting corner outfielder who can moonlight as a first baseman and has a strong platoon split against left-handed pitching.  He has a .274/.323/.443 career slash line (.331 wOBA) and a .286/.333/.489 career slash against lefties, but he hit just .244/.286/.375 in 339 PA with the Dodgers in 2012, and his offensive production has waned in the last few years as he's moved into his 30s and struggled with injuries.

Defensively he's not much, and could only be used in the outfield corners, and there isn't much else he brings to the table.  But for the purposes he would serve with the Yankees this is as good a cheap signing as any.  Rivera has a long Major League track record, a recent Major League track record, and a positive split against southpaws, which is more than you can say about some of the other guys they've brought in.  Even as a player clearly in decline, Rivera falls right smack dab in the middle of the early roster battle I laid out this afternoon.

Ranking Final Roster Spot Contenders (First Try)

(Would Eduardo Scissorhands make my roster cut?  Courtesy of Getty Images)

I commented last week on Cash's statements regarding the current Yankee roster construction, and the declaration that the team would be willing to go to Tampa with "what they've got" right now.  By my count, there are still 4 roster spots unaccounted for, almost all of them on the bench, and the group of candidates to fill those spots is uninspiring to say the least.  But it's looking more and more likely that this group, and maybe an additional cheap MiL signee or 2, are going to be the players battling it out for the final 4 spots, and that being the case we might as well start separating the real contenders from the pretenders.  Spring Training is still a few weeks away, so I'm going on nothing more than past performance and perceived team needs, but here are my early rankings for who I think should get the final 4 roster spots.

Yankees' Plan This Offseason Could Be Setting Them Up For Future Failure

(Courtesy of the AP)

One of the posts I read over the weekend that really stuck with me was Greg Corcoran's open letter to Brian Cashman over at Bronx Baseball Daily letting Cash know what he thinks of the Yankees' offseason plan.  The general theme of Greg's post was that while he can get on board with what the team has done this offseason to transition to the sub-$189 mil payroll in 2014, he didn't see their no-spending approach as a real plan for success after the payroll ceiling had been reached.  Specifically, he cited the Yankees' failure to sign or trade for useful players on multi-year deals and their perceived assumption that multiple prospects are going to come up and contribute as flaws in their logic, and that got me thinking.

As it is, the Yankees have seen their monetary advantage shrink over the past few seasons as teams started signing their own players to new deals before they hit free agency.  Now, with that spending already capped and more teams working to extend their big names, any plan to reload after reaching 189 could prove useless if there are no big free agent targets left.

To Pitch Or Not To Pitch?

(Definitely don't want a repeat of this.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

First Andy Pettitte was going to participate in the World Baseball Classic this year.  Then the rosters were announced and he wasn't because the Yankees had concerns about him injuring himself.  Now it sounds like the window of opportunity might be open for him again per the latest report from Wally Matthews, who can actually be of value as a writer when he sticks to his reporting guns.  According to the report, Joe Torre confirmed that the Yankees would still prefer to have Pettitte skip the WBC but that both sides have until February 20th to make an official decision.

Personally, I think it would be cool to see Pettitte pitch in the WBC.  It's obvious he wants to, he's probably already in good pitching shape from his offseason workouts knowing that he was planning to play this season from the beginning, and I think we can all be sure this season is going to be his real, actual final one, so why not get that experience in while he still has the chance?

At the same time, I can see where the Yankees are coming from and when I put my homer fan glasses back on to look at the situation, I start to side with them.  Pettitte hasn't been a pillar of good health in his later years, and even though last year's injury was on a fluke play, those same fluke risks and regular injury risks are always there.  Pettitte is an important part of the Yankee rotation, and if he's going to get hurt and miss games in 2013, I'd rather it be because of something that happened in a Yankee uniform after the season started.  Even a minor injury in the WBC could be something that lingers and negatively affects his performance over the course of the entire Major League season, and that wouldn't be a good thing.

So we'll see where this goes.  My money is on the Yankees holding firm and us seeing Andy pitching in ST games in March rather than WBC games.

Gary Sanchez Named #3 Catching Prospect By MLB.com

(Courtesy of Matt Burton/MiLB.com)

On Wednesday afternoon, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com released his "Prospect Watch" top 10 catching prospects rankings.  Top Yankee prospect Gary Sanchez was 3rd in those rankings, behind Travis d'Arnaud of the Mets and Mike Zunino of the Mariners.  Seeing as those 2 guys are easily the 2 best catching prospects in baseball, that's a pretty big accomplishment for the 20-year-old Sanchez.

Mayo's explanation of his putting Sanchez 3rd included high praise for Sanchez's defensive skills, saying he had the potential to be "an exciting two-way player for the Yankees."  This is higher praise than usual for Sanchez's defense, and that's coming from someone who was pretty complimentary of the improvements Sanchez made in last week's AB4AR Top 30.  Sanchez does have the plus arm, but right now doesn't project to be anything better than average at best behind the plate.  Still, with Sanchez's advanced offensive skills and high ceiling, it makes sense that Mayo would rank him 3rd if he believes Sanchez could be that good defensively.

Sanchez is still years away from the show, but his positional rankings project him in a positive light for the future. Last year MLB.com had Sanchez 4th overall, just ahead of Wilin Rosario of Colorado, who posted a .356 wOBA and hit 28 HR in 117 games for the Rockies in 2012.  Rosario also rated as a very poor defensive catcher according to FanGraphs.  Sanchez has a similar offensive makeup to Rosario, and still has time to improve his defensive skills.  If he can be even slightly better than Rosario defensively and improve his pitch recognition and plate discipline skills, Sanchez could be a very valuable Major League catcher.

People Know What "Chance" Means, Right?

I mean, I thought everybody knew the definition of the word, but I guess not after the immediate reaction and subsequent over-dramatization and over-coverage of this harmless quote that Cash dropped yesterday when asked about the possibility of A-Rod missing the entire 2013 season:

“I think because (of) the serious nature of the surgery and the condition that he’s trying to recover from, you know, there is that chance.”

Chance  noun  /'chan(t)s - the possibility of a particular outcome in an uncertain situation.

Everybody ready for a quick lesson?

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 1/25/13

It was snowing this morning.  Not a lot, just enough to coat the cars and get a little bit on the roads; an inch to an inch and a half at the most.  That's pretty common in Wisconsin, nothing people around here haven't seen before, which is why it was so bizarre to see a car spun out on my way into work and then to hear stories from other people about accidents they saw on the highway.  It's an inch and a half of snow, maybe 2 at the most.  How the fuck do you crash your car in that??  We're not talking "The Day After Tomorrow" here, folks.

I've been driving in the snow since I first learned how to drive, and I've had to do it in good snow vehicles and bad snow vehicles.  There's really not much to it.  You go a little slower than you normally would, you watch the road to spot problem areas, you keep your windshield wipers going, and you don't slam on the brakes.  Anybody who can't do that and ends up crashing his or her car in less than 3 inches of snow should have their licenses taken away.  Now onto the links!

- On Tuesday, Abe Froman-Sausage King of NoMaas looked back at the track record of low-dollar/advanced-age Yankee signings as they seem primed to add a few more of those guys soon.

- Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes scored an interview with Dante Bichette, Jr., likely starting third baseman for Low-A Charleston this year.

- Chris Mitchell of Pinstripe Pundits hasn't given up on Ivan Nova, and provided some statistical support to explain why nobody should be giving up on Nova.

- On Wednesday, Mike Axisa of RAB identified possible trade deadline targets to address the Yankees' needs since they don't appear to be interested in addressing them prior to Spring Training.

- Mike Eder of TYA started searching for trade options to upgrade at catcher, since picking up George Kottaras and his non-guaranteed deal apparently wasn't a good option.

- Steve Skinner of Bleeding Yankee Blue ranked the AL East shortstops heading into 2013.  I'd be hesitant to put Jeter at the top until I see how he looks coming off surgery, but at his best he's still probably the pick of the litter.

- Jimmytoucan of Yankees Fans Unite commented on the early roster projections for the Trenton Thunder.

- On Thursday, Chad Jennings of LoHud examined the best and worst case scenarios for Robinson Cano and the Yankees in relation to his upcoming free agency.

- Brien Jackson of IIATMS continued to bang the logic drum in response to the reactions around the blogosphere to the latest luxury tax news.

- El duque of It Is High... reacted to the ridiculous "Youkilis not returning Joba's calls" non-story as only he can.

- Steven Goldman of Pinstriped Bible mused on the transition towards building a bigger, better bullpen at the expense of the bench and how the Yankees will be affected by that this season.

- On Friday, Fernando Alejandro of Respect Jeter's Gangster looked ahead to the number of guys who are free agents in 2014 as a way to put the underwhelming 2013 offseason in context.

- Bryan Hoch of Bombers Beat had some good quotes from Brian Cashman on the current state of the Yankees and the upcoming season.

This week's Friday Jam is "Jambi" by Tool.  Tool is probably the most popular band to not put out new music regularly.  There are huge gaps between albums and it always seems like they grow in popularity from one to the next.  There have been rumors of a new album out for a while now, but rumors of a new Tool album are like rumors connecting the Yankees to big names during the offseason.  Until it actually happens, you can't put too much faith in them.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Plans For D-Rob After His Arbitration Years

 (He should probably get his own private bathroom too... )

After the quick burst of 1-year agreements with their arbitration-eligible players last week, the Yankees now have all but 1 of their key core roster members under contract for 2013.  The lone remaining unsigned guy is David Robertson, and both he and the Yankees submitted their arbitration numbers for a possible hearing next month.  D-Rob is in his second year of arbitration eligibility and one way or another he stands to get a big raise from the $1.6 mil he made in 2012.  Robertson submitted $3.55 million as his desired figure while the Yankees submitted $2.85 mil, which is right in line with MLBTR's prediction of $2.8 mil.  They can still work out a new deal before taking it to arbitration, but what about after his arbitration years are up?  What then?  The Yankees will have some serious decisions to make on the future of their bullpen after this season, and D-Rob figures to play prominently in those decisions.

** UPDATE 11:37 AM- Jon Heyman reporting that the Yanks and D-Rob have agreed to a 1-year/$3.1 million deal for 2013.  That locks him in for this season, but everything after the jump is still relevant. **

Dan Johnson, Come On Down...

You're the next contestant on "2013 New York Yankees Quad-A Bench Competition!!"



Sweeny Murti had the story via Twitter, and the Yankees now have another candidate for a spot on this year's bench.  Johnson is a 33-year-old lefty swinger who can play first base but for the Yankees' purposes would be best-suited as a lefty platoon DH.  He's bounced back and forth between the Majors and Triple-A since 2005, and has a career .237/.338/.412 Major League slash line (.329 wOBA) in over 1,500 PA, but has seen his overall production decline from '05 to present day.

Johnson brings good power to the table, and has very strong BB and K rates, but his defensive limitations and recent down trending production makes him a less-than-desirable option as a platoon/bench player.  At best, he captures some magic and gets some big hits as part of the early-season bench corps.  At worst, he's organizational depth who can continue to do what he's always done and mash at Triple-A.  Nothing to get excited about, but then again it's not like the Yankees are trying to be exciting right now.

Checking In With Wally Matthews

If this offseason were "Inception," we'd all be in limbo right now.  Just an endless string of nothingness.  The biggest news in Yankeeland yesterday was that Scott Hairston signed with the Chicago Cubs for 2 years.  Second biggest story- the Yanks are apparently not interested in free agent catcher George Kottaras even though he makes a a lot of sense for them.  That's how boring it is right now.  The biggest Yankee-related story didn't even involve the Yankees, and both of the biggest stories revolved around them doing nothing.  Hachi machi, that's bad.

But fear not, Yankee fans.  Because Wally Matthews is kicking off his countdown to Spring Training, and he's doing it as only Wally Matthews can.  By trolling the crap out of Alex Rodriguez.  I wish I was kidding.

Offseason Space-Filler Post: Top 5 Closer Entrance Songs

The final stage of this offseason is progressing at a painfully slow rate, and real, valuable news and talking points are at a minimum, so why not go back to the off-topic fun well with another song list?  It beats breaking down Thomas Neal's Double-A contact splits, right?  As everybody is now aware from my previous "Top 5 Songs" post for at-bat music, part of my mind lives in a perpetual state of 15-year-old-ness, and I've put just as much thought into my personal top 5 closer entrance songs as I did for the at-bat songs.

In my hypothetical fantasy world, the world in which I'm not only a professional baseball player but a pitcher and a good pitcher, I'd be an awesome closer.  I'd rock mid-90s heat with some movement and a killer slider, I'd be more than willing to throw inside and buzz hitters' towers, and I definitely wouldn't be anything close to the polished professional that Mo is.  Think like a more subdued Brian Wilson, with a less bushy beard and not trying so hard to be "weird," combined with the brutal media honesty of Chris Perez, and that'd be me.  With that in mind, here are my personal top 5 songs I'd consider for my entrance music.

Thinkin' 'Bout Youkilis' Swing

 (Yeesh, guy.  Courtesy of Matthew O'Haren/Icon SMI)

There's been a lot of chatter around the Yankosphere in the last week or so regarding the work that the Kevins, Youkilis and Long, are putting in trying to tinker with Youkilis' batting stance and swing, chatter that I've managed to steer clear of up until now.  It's not that I don't think the chatter is worthwhile; I'm just more of a "see it and analyze it" kind of guy when it comes to swing mechanics, and with just mental pictures of the changes right now I didn't feel qualified to offer my 2 cents on how optimistic I am that the changes will return positive dividends.

2012 Statistical Trends: Derek Jeter's Bounce Back

 (Oh so smoove.  Courtesy of the AP)

It was a continuation of his strong second half in 2011, but that didn't make Derek Jeter's offensive performance in 2012 any less impressive.  To be 2 years older than he was when he first started to look like he was slipping, the oldest everyday shortstop in MLB by far, and lead the American League in wOBA at his position (.347) while playing 159 games was just the latest entry in the long book of career accomplishments for Jeter.  His race to 3,000 hits in the rearview, Jeter rapidly ascended the all-time list last year and enters 2013 knocking on the door of the top 10, with it looking very likely that he'll finish the year just outside the top 5 if he stays healthy.  Health will play the biggest role in determining whether Jeter keeps the positive momentum from his 2012 season going, but before we look ahead to that, let's look back at 2012 and what changed to breathe life back into Jeter's bat.

Yanks Sign Another MiL OF; I'm Getting Bored Writing About Them

Boy the Yanks are really picking the bones of the Cleveland 40-man clean, huh?  Every casualty that gets cut to make room for a new signing pretty much has a Yankee MiL contract waiting for him when he finishes cleaning out his locker.  Maybe somebody should tell the front office that these moves don't make up for not offering Swish a contract.

The latest Quad-A warm body is Thomas Neal, a 25-year outfielder with a 7-year MiL career in 2 systems and 9 games of 2012 Major League service under his belt.  He had some pretty good years in the lower levels of the San Fran system, and even posted a .343 wOBA for their Triple-A affiliate in 2011.  But he got dropped back down to Double-A in Cleveland's system last year, so take that however you want to judge the guy's ceiling.  For what it's worth, he's got decent MiL numbers, good power, some speed, tolerable K and BB rates, and can play multiple positions.  Blah, blah, blah.

Diaz.  Canzler.  Neal.  Somehow I don't think these guys are going to be battling for a spot on Pinstriped Bible's Top 100 Yankees list.

Would The Yankees Really Go To Tampa With What They've Got Right Now?

 ("Canzler, Nix, Diaz, Nunez, pop the champagne.  Amiright, guys???" Courtesy of Getty Images)

I didn't write about it last week when the comments were made because it didn't tie in to the Prospect Week theme, but Cash made some head-scratching statements to our buddy Wally Matthews about the Yankees' current roster makeup and the stance they're taking as the offseason winds down and moves into the preseason.

“I know it’s getting late, but we’re still looking."

“We’re open for business, but we’re not going to do something just to do something. If we have to, we’ll go to Tampa with what we’ve got."

It's just 2 short sentences, but there's a lot to take from those statements.  "Getting late," "still looking, " open for business," and "If we have to... " all lend some possible insight as to exactly what the situation is at the top levels of the Yankee decision-making hierarchy and how Cash feels about it.  By now, I'm assuming he's as fed up with the penny pinching as most of the fanbase is and is just trying to get through the offseason by creating as few a number of waves as possible.  But as the guy whose job it is to construct the best team possible, can Cash really be serious about going to Tampa with what he's got?

Could The WBC Help Teix's 2013 Start?

(Sad Teix is sad.  Courtesy of David Pokress/Newsday)

The Yankee participation in the 2013 World Baseball Classic was made official last week with the unveiling of the rosters.  Francisco Cervelli, Robinson Cano, and Mark Teixeira will represent their respective countries while Andy Pettitte, who had been rumored to be participating, was left off the Team USA roster for obvious injury concern reasons.

While I have no qualms with the 40-year-old Pettitte participating in a regular Spring Training program, I wonder what effect, if any, playing in the WBC will have on Teix.  His slow April starts have become an annual source of frustration in Yankeeland, and to date nothing he's done in ST has helped solve the riddle:

April '09- .200/.367/.371 (.331 wOBA) in 90 PA
April '10- .136/.300/.259 (.271 wOBA) in 100 PA
April '11- .256/.392/.549 (.406 wOBA) in 102 PA
April '12- .244/.290/.395 (.298 wOBA) in 93 PA

2011 is the obvious outlier here, as Teix got off to a hot start and then fall back from there, but the other 3 years were defined by an uncharacteristic lack of power and low batting average.  Will a trip to the WBC this year help?  It's hard to say.  In theory, hitting against a higher level of competition in the Classic seems more beneficial to a veteran like Teix than playing intrasquad games or scrimmaging against college teams, but who really knows?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  It certainly couldn't hurt to try something new, right?

Yanks Better Be In On Kottaras

 (He can't be worse than Cervelli.  Courtesy of the AP)

The Yankees' involvement in trade talks with Washington had barely got off the ground last week when the Nationals swung a 3-team deal with Seattle and Oakland to trade Michael Morse to the Mariners.  He addressed their desperate need for offense without being a great fit for the system, and once again the Yankees found themselves on the outside looking in as a good right-handed bat passed them by.  But there was something else that came out of that trade that could help New York.  Oakland had to clear a 40-man roster spot to make their part of the trade work, and they did that by DFAing catcher George Kottaras, who they had just re-signed to a 1-year deal to avoid arbitration.  Their current catching situation being shaky at best, Kottaras presents the Yankees with an opportunity to add some depth and some offensive skill to the position.