Some New York Yankees news and notes

Some New York Yankees news and notes


Spring training is quickly approaching in less then a month now. February 14th is the official report date for pitchers and catcher with all position players reporting about a week later. The early work and reporting is boring but at least we will be talking about real baseball action.

The Yankees came to terms with all five of their arbitration eligible players. Brett Gardner, Shawn Kelley, Ivan Nova, Francisco Cervelli and David Robertson. They now can add those guys to the payroll status and see where they are in regards to 189 million. If you trust the NY Post who has had a running total they are at about 169 so there is still some room to go. They of course could sign Tanaka, which is what they want.

There are reports coming out of Japan on Saturday that the Yankees along with the Dodgers, Cubs, White Sox and Diamondbacks all made formal offers for Tanaka on Thursday. Mlbtraderumors.com has some of the report on their site. They state that the Diamondbacks made an offer to be around six years and 120 million. The Yankees and Dodgers are said to be around that same amount and it isn’t known what the two Chicago teams bid. This whole process has been a big mystery even before he got posted. You can take just about any of this with a grain of salt but one way or another we will know by Friday which is the deadline. He has to be signed by then so I expect to hear something pretty substantial on Thursday.

Derek Jeter had a pretty lengthy sit down interview with Harold Reynolds of MLB network the other day. Here are some highlights of what he had to say.

He spoke about Arod and called it sad, he said that he has a long history with him and is saddened. He also called it messy and stated he doesn’t really have any advice because he can’t relate. He did say that he had messaged Arod. He stated that he feels really good and has been working hard since November. He stated that last year he did rush himself but it was his entire fault and that is probably why he got hurt and had such a miserable year. He said he set the goal to be back by opening day and that may have been unrealistic but he set it and there is nothing you can do.

Derek stated that it would probably be strange playing for the first time with not at least one of the other core four members. He stated he would see when that time comes but he has never had to do it before. He had a funny comment about recruiting Tanaka. Jeter said I don’t speak Japanese and the very little that I do know is from Hideki Matsui and it is bad words. He said about Cano taking the 240 million and bolting for Seattle that he wasn’t surprised and he probably would of done the same thing. If you get a chance to see it on mlb.com it is worth it. I thought he was really honest and revealing. He looked to be very relaxed and he isn’t usually like this interviews so it was good to see.

The Yankees and the rest of baseball released their schedules with most of the scheduled times. If you go to Yankees.com it is all there. The Yankees open in Houston with three night games in a row and then their fourth game of the season in Toronto is also at night before having a string of day games. They have the Sat and Sunday game during the day, which is pretty normal, and then their first few home games are mostly day games. The Yankees will close out the season in Boston. They will also play the NL central this season in interleague play. There are games with the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals as well as the four in a row with the NY Mets.

New York Yankees Hot Stove notes

New York Yankees Hot Stove notes


The New York Yankees officially announced a two-year deal with Brendan Ryan. There is a third year option. He is a defensive whiz who played a lot of SS for them at the end of last year. He is insurance for Derek Jeter. They are giving him two million a year and the third year option is for one million.

The Yankees apparently extended an offer to Hiroki Kuroda. It is for one year and 15-16 million. He takes his time and the Yankees know that but they are really trying to entice him. He has been very good for the Yankees the last two years. He has burned out at the end of the year but the Yankees have enough pitching that they could protect him more now. This would be a big signing for the Yankees considering they only have CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova as sure bets. They want Tanaka from Japan but don’t know when and if he will be posted. If they have CC, Nova and Kuroda they can fill out the other two spots with Phelps, Pineda, Warren, Nuno and feel comfortable.

The Yankees traded what ended up as their starting catcher last year. Chris Stewart is headed to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named later. He was a guy that most likely would have been non-tendered so instead they traded him getting something for him. It will most likely be a single A player.

The Yankees non-tendered David Adams who was a huge disappointment last year when he got his chance. Matt Daley and Jayson Nix were the other two players who were non-tendered. There were no surprises with this.

How about Robinson Cano, the Yankees and him remain about 80 million apart. He wants somewhere in the neighborhood of nine years and 250-260 million. The Yankees have offered him seven years and 160-170 million. I expect the Yankees and him to eventually come to an agreement but I don’t think the Yankees are going to budge much. They may go to 8 years and 200 million. He could find a team but right now there doesn’t appear to be any other team.