State of the Yankees
Yesterday was the last day to tender contracts to players. Britton and Christian were not tendered to open up a couple spots for the impending signings of CC and AJ. Britton ran the AAA to majors shuttle a million times the last 2 years. He is 25 and a servicable reliever so a low budget team will pick him up. Christian is 28 and was an independent leaguer that made his way to the bigs last year. With Gardner and others at AAA there was no room for him anymore. Hopefully he will get a chance with another team. He could be a good 4th outfielder one day.
The rotation appears to be CC, Wang, AJ and Joba right now. Pettitte may be signed to be the number 5 guy. I still think Joba works better in the pen.
The bullpen looks to be Rivera, Marte, Ramirez, Bruney and Veras. I think for the first time in a while the Yankees have a lot of options for their bullpen. Guys like Coke, Giese, Aceves, Robertson, Abaladejo and guys at AAA could really help out in 2009.
The lineup as of today appears to be Swisher at first, Cano at second, Jeter at SS, A-rod at third, Damon/Matsui in left, Gardner/Melky in center and Nady in right. Posada and Molina are the catchers. Assuming the Yankees go with a 11 man pitching staff that leaves 4 guys on the bench. This is one place the Yankees need some work before February.
Peter Abraham over at yankees.lhblogs.com mentions that if the Yankees sign Pettitte to a 10 million deal and acquire Cameron their payroll will be about 197 million. Unless they want to go over 200 million again Tex and others are not on their way to the Bronx.
So far it has been a good offseason. The rotation looks a lot better, their is more roster flexibility and the team has a lower payroll in 2009. After this year I believe Damon and Matsui are free agents so that is 26 million coming off the books. The team also has a deep farm system so it will be interesting to see how successful the Yanks are infusing young talent into the team like they did in the 90’s.
