Yankee News

There really isn't much going on in the hotstove league as teams still have the right to negotiate with their own free agents. Thursday will start the real hotstove as free agents then have the right to negotiate and sign with any team they wish. I am going to start looking at the Yankees and Mets and then baseball in general at that time. Here are a couple of items with the Yankees though regarding arbitration. The Yankees officially declined the option on Sergio Mitre for 2010, he is still under the Yankees control and is arbitration eligible. The Yankees want to have as many arms as possible stocked up and because he will be cheap I am sure they will keep him. I am guessing they do the same with Chad Guadin to go along with Ian Kennedy and Alfredo Aceves if he isn't in the bullpen as the extra guys in case of injury or need in the starting rotation. The Yankees do have 4 other arbitration decisions to make and they are Melky Cabrera- he will get offered something. Brian Bruney I am sure will be offered because he does have a good arm and if Hughes and Chamberlain are going to be in the rotation well then they need more bullpen guys. Chad Guadin I spoke about above and the trickiest one is going to be Chien-Ming Wang. I am guessing they will not offer him arbitration as he will then at least get 5 million but I do think they will work something out to see if he can get healthy and back to form. If he is able to come back and be close to what he was then that is the biggest pickup the Yankees can make. They can then put Hughes or Joba in the pen and have the other one as the 5th starter and have plenty of reserve options for injury or ineffectiveness.