There’s not really anything in this report by Joel Sherman that most of us didn’t already assume, but it’s still always good to get real reporting to confirm those assumptions:
The perception has been that the Yankees have less than $2 million to sign a lefty-swinging designated hitter with free agents Eric Chavez, Johnny Damon, Raul Ibanez and Hideki Matsui forming the field. Nevertheless, what the Yankees want to do most is sign Chavez and one of the DH types.
Owner Hal Steinbrenner already has expanded his budget once this offseason to allow the signing of Hiroki Kuroda. He has yet to say the Yankees can do so again in order to sign even one additional player, much less two. This is why the Yankees are quietly — but diligently — still working to trade A.J. Burnett.
They know no team will take all of Burnett’s remaining two years at $33 million. But if they could save, say, $4 million this year and next year, it would provide some wiggle room to finish off their roster heading into spring training.
A few observations. First of all, this payroll thing is really reaching shark jumping territory. While I don’t expect that anyone cares to stretch the payroll bounds by an extra $3 million or in order to sign Johnny Damon instead of Raul Ibanez, does anyone really think that ownership wants to force the team to go to battle with Ramiro Pena or the corpse of Bill Hall on the bench and Jorge Vazquez as the DH just to save ~$2 million, or less than 1% of the amount they’ve already invested in the payroll? Please.
Secondly, I don’t really get the fascination with Eric Chavez. Don’t get me wrong, it’d be nice to have him back in camp, but at the end of the day he’s a light-hitting bench player with an injury history longer than Pacman Jones’ rap sheet. Even if you think the Yankees really need to have a caddy for A-Rod this season, Chavez isn’t a perfect fit for the role, given that he’s probably even more likely than A-Rod to spend a long time on the disabled list. So while it would be nice to get him signed to a minor league contract, that really ought to be a low priority, and if it doesn’t happen it’s not the end of the world. Adding another DH is certainly a much bigger need, given the amount of playing time you figure to allocate to that person.
Finally, getting another team to take $8 million of A.J. Burnett’s remaining salary probably doesn’t sound like much of a victory to Brian Cashman, but it’s probably the best thing they can hope for at this point, and if it means gaining the financial flexibility to sign both Chavez and Damon, I’d call it a pretty big net win for the Bombers.
As long as Chavez's DL visit doesn't coincide with A-Rods, I don't mind.
To your last statement – if the only thing we get out of paying another team to play AJ is Damon – I'll keep AJ. (as ALWAYS, I don't have the numbers, but I imagine AJ will have as much positive impact as Damon. Actually – I see him having more, although that isn't saying THAT much.)
Well if Burnett isn’t one of your five best starters, it’s going to be kind of hard for him to be more valuable than someone getting ~300 plate appearances unless that player isn’t very good at all.
fair nuff – I still see him starting. Unless he blows up, or Hughes gets it back together. Or Freddy — why did they sign Freddy? that would have given them the 5 mil they're whining about..
I vaguely remember really angering someone when I suggested a couple of months ago that they didn’t need to be in such a hurry to sign Garcia.
Yup you certainly nailed that one. But as for the want for Chavez to return, its not that most people really like him so much as they are uncomfortable with the alternative, which is lots of Eduardo Nunez. Nunez obv has some nice upside, but his defense still causes some (myself included) to hold their breath when he throws the ball. Chavez can still provide above average defense at a position that the incumbent starter will most likely see a good portion of his at bats in the DH role.
consistency,
hobgoblins,
something like that. Good point. But I really didn't see them snagging two other pitchers.
you win. my bad.