Football season is over and Spring Training doesn’t officially open for a couple of weeks, so that must mean it’s Johnny Damon season! That is, that time of year we’ve come to expect each offseason where we all wait to see which team will step up to meet Damon’s asking price at the last minute Johnny Damon has always wanted to play for. In my last couple of posts on the Yankees’ DH opening I’ve opined that I think the Yankees will eventually sign Damon, and now Jim Bowden passes along that the Bombers are one of four teams still interested in Damon’s services.
There are four teams that are still playing on Johnny Damon to different degree’s: Baltimore, Seattle, Oakland & NYY…surprisingly not TB
So, in essence, the interested teams are the Yankees and three teams that don’t figure to be very good looking to maybe add some cheap offense and name recognition. With most free agents as old as Damon I’d assume that meant the Yankees were a near shoo-in to get them, but money talks with Johnny, as loud as it talks to anyone, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he wound up playing anywhere from Baltimore to Japan next season, so long as the check clears.
I really hope Damon signs with Baltimore this year, and then finishes his career off in Toronto in 2013.
I would much rather see the Yankees bring back Eric Chavez. I said before, the point of this rotating DH seems to be to get the veterans and most notably ARod through the season healthy. If ARod is to get a significant chunk of time in the DH role to preserve his health, I would rather Chavez manning 3rd over Nunez. Chavez proved that he still can play above average defense, and prior to his injury was hitting the ball well. He would also be a lefty bat who could play the platoon role with Jones.
Remember you need two bats, unless you want to go with Vazquez as one of your bench players, which would still leave you needing one. Right now you have eight position players and three bench guys (Jones, Nunez, backup catcher). That leaves a DH and another bench player to fill out the non-pitchers part of the roster. With the age on the roster, you probably want to go with four bench guys. You definitely want Chavez because of his defensive excellence, so that leaves a selection of bats for the DH role (Damon, Vazquez, Ibanez, etc.). Damon would be a good fit, but Ibanez isn't a bad idea either.
I really don't want Ibanez. I may be wrong on him, but I just think he is totally done. Damon at least proved he has something left in the tank last year. Why not Russell Branyon for a pure platoon lefty DH?
It also depends on what the Yankees plan on doing with the fifth starter battle. If Hughes wins it *fingers crossed* does Burnett and Garcia go into the pen? I don't know if the Yankees really want to do that, and which is why I think they might use Hughes last option to send him down to AAA to still work as a starter, or simply put him in the pen because he is more of a known quantity.
Gosh, that was a bitchy last sentence but it did make me laugh rather.