It is arbitration time
The Yankees offered nobody arbitration. No one, zippo, not a one of them. This is a little bit of a surprise. I guess the Yankees are really trying to control payroll. Did I just type that? I would have thought the Yankees would have offered arbitration to Abreu, Pettitte and Moose. All 3 are type A guys and would have added to the Yankees draft picks in 2009 if they signed with another team.
Word is the market is slow so I guess the Yankees did not want to risk Abreu and Pettitte coming back at 17 million a year. If Moose comes out of retirement and signs with another team the Yanks get nothing, which also surprises me.
I expected I-rod and Pavano and others to not be offered arbitration but a lot of what I read on other blogs had the team offering arbitration to Abreu, Pettitte and Moose.
At any rate I guess the Yankees are ok with Nady, Damon, Melky/Gardner and Matsui in the outfield with Swisher as another possibility.
Two things are evident to me. One, the Yankees are really looking to either spend a lot on younger free agents (Tex and CC and others) or keep payroll in check. Also, the team is really focused on getting better on the mound. Abreu is a good right fielder but is not very good defensively, will be 34 next year and would have cost at least 16 million (most likely more).
It should be interesting this month. Do the Yanks score big with free agents or stay conservative?
